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Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Genocide, Sexual content, War
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault
Reading this book established a couple things for me. 1: romantasy probably isn’t my genre, 2: I cannot stand books that provide exposition whenever it’s convenient, and 3: Red Tower is possibly the least discerning publisher I have had the displeasure of reading from.
The writing in this was frankly atrocious. My first introduction to a character was “I run my delicate hand through the grass. It is beautiful, but sharp. Like me.”
Dude.
The storytelling craft in this simply does not exist. There’s no established world building, only things that are mentioned and then immediately explained to the reader, even up until the final chapter. A character will mention something, and then there will be a paragraph explaining what that thing is, and then the dialogue will continue. Instalove defines every single character pairing. There is little to no scenic detail. Perhaps most beguiling of all: this entire story feels like a sequel set up. One of the core tenets of storytelling posits that one should start a story as close to the end as possible, and—frankly—the sequel set-up sounds like a much better story than the one I just read.
Maybe I’m being too harsh, because I did fly through this in just a few days, but I don’t think I could recommend this to any of my friends, much less people in the need of a good adult fantasy read. Shifting POVs can be done correctly, but in a story about everyone not being able to trust each other, dramatic irony simply falls flat. I know what everyone wants. The only lies are white lies that the character chooses not to tell to the reader, which entirely goes against the nature of a first person POV. The world is barely acknowledged besides surface level, broad-strokes description, leaving me with nearly nothing to hold onto from this world or desire to see again. Character voices either all sound the same or come and go with the whims of the author suddenly and in such a way that knocks me immediately out of whatever immersion may have been built up (Royo, I’m looking at you; why does your accent come and go so often?!).
This is just not good. Save yourself the money and force yourself from the admittedly beautiful binding. It’s unfortunately the only good thing about this book.
Moderate: Gore, Sexual assault, Murder
Minor: Genocide, Rape
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Violence, Death of parent, War
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Genocide, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Gaslighting, War
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, War, Classism
Moderate: Child death, Genocide, Torture, War
Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Infertility, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
While the writing style wasn’t my favorite, I quickly got past it. There are a lot of statements of facts, info-dumping, and a lack of poetic prose. The writing felt young & undeveloped. One thing I hated about Euyn: his BLATANT sexism, and the way it’s just tolerated. But I guess Mikail doesn’t care about him enough to change his opinion. The sexism just bothered me while I was reading.
However, I loved how the queer relationships were normalized as well.
I’m not aching for the next book (this ends on a slight cliffhanger), but I will definitely read it when it comes out.
Graphic: Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
The only thing I didn't love is that all of the characters were instantly paired off into romantic couples? Like from the jump, everyone was involved romantically with someone and it felt a little forced. It would have been nice to see some of the relationships grow more. I feel this way about the group dynamic as well - I liked it but it felt a bit like we were told they all bond rather than watch it happen properly.
Overall a fun read!
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Infertility, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Death of parent, War, Classism