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restlessparadise's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Murder and Torture
Moderate: Rape, Violence, Gun violence, and Gore
Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Drug use, and Ableism
nikoops's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Addiction, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Ableism, Bullying, Alcoholism, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Blood, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
cait's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Minor: Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Murder, Self harm, Sexual content, Child abuse, Classism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Torture, Violence, Death, Medical trauma, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Confinement, Drug abuse, Rape, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Deadnaming, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Animal death, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Outing, Sexual assault, Drug use, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, and Vomit
anniereads221's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Sexual violence, Vomit, Mental illness, Grief, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Religious bigotry, Racism, Physical abuse, Murder, Homophobia, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Blood, Rape, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Drug abuse, Death, Alcohol, Gore, Confinement, Child abuse, Bullying, Death of parent, Addiction, Violence, and Toxic relationship
wortfluesterin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This book (series) is very bad. Bad bad. I can’t even begin to LIST the triggers, everyone who said there were a lot was absolutely correct. Wasn’t expecting to be this repulsed after the “tame” first book.
The characters still don’t really have personalities (or very confusing one), the rep is MORE THAN PROBLEMATIC and I would like to punch someone because who in their right mind thought “this is an appropriate way to portray queer people and mental illness”
I also don’t know what to do with my life now.
Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Addiction, Cursing, Homophobia, Drug use, Rape, Ableism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Torture, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Vomit, Blood, Violence, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, and Self harm
wynterymess's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Torture, Confinement, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Acephobia/Arophobia, Outing, and Self harm
Minor: Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Sexual violence, Rape, Car accident, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Sexism, Vomit, Body shaming, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Ableism, and Abandonment
li_reading's review against another edition
0.25
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Bullying, Ableism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Violence, Gun violence, Drug use, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Murder, Child abuse, Confinement, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence
Minor: Homophobia
sawyer_obrien's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This is a new adult level novel as it is set in college and has many trigger warnings. Please read through them carefully before deciding to read!
Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Character development:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Character development is one of the strongest aspects of this series. Though the plot may be wildly fantastical, the development of characters is incredibly realistic based off of their personalities and the experiences they go through
Plot:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
The plot of this series is out of this world and incredibly complex. Personally, I don't mind that it is unrealistic in places because I think you have to go in expecting a bit of that. The three main plotlines are well woven so that, by the end, nothing feels out of place.
Diversity: ⭐⭐⭐
This was incredibly difficult for me to score. The representation of queer identities is strong compared to the average book, but the racial/ethnic diversity is lacking. However, the fandom makes up for that. Where there are characters that have very few physical descriptions, they have built up the cast to compromise of different types of people that weren't necessarily present in the text. If taking the book completely out of context, I would probably rate the diversity two stars for the gay and demisexual representation. If you count that the fandom labels characters as bisexual, black, asian, indigenous, etc. that score goes goes significantly up. Take my score with a grain of salt and just know that the author is a flawed human being and the actual text does not contain the amount of representation it ought to.
Willingness to reread:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This is my favorite book. I will reread it over and over and each time I will focus on a new quote that I love or interaction that made me stop and think about the way I look at certain aspects of my life
Writing style:⭐⭐⭐⭐
This book is originally a Russian novel and has been self published in English. There are mistakes. I was willing to overlook them in this case because everything else made up for it in my opinion. The narrator, a third person limited view of the main character, Neil Josten, has a very specific style. There are a lot of paragraphs of text describing past events or connections that Neil makes. I enjoy this type of writing style, but if you prefer more interaction based and dialogue heavy text, you may not enjoy this as much as I did.
Romance: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This book does begin the romance of the series. It is not a typical romance in that there are very clear boundaries that they each adhere to. Personally, I really appreciate this portrayal. It is very rare that you see romances written between characters who have experienced trauma to this extent and I actually think Sakavic did a good job with it. I have never read anything with consent this well done.
Sports accuracy:⭐⭐⭐⭐
As someone who played lacrosse for many years, certain parts of the sports descriptions stood out to me in a negative way. You can tell that the author has never played a sport similar to this. Granted, it is a fictional sport, so a certain amount you will just have to accept as the nature of the sport. I was able to overlook the few places that the lack of sports knowledge shone through and if you aren't a sports person, I don't think it will distract from the novel at all.
Please note the trigger warnings on this series and this book in particular. The King's Men mostly has descriptions of torture and if you can't read that, I strongly suggest skipping this book!
If you'd like to discuss this book, please DM me at sawyer.reading on Instagram, I'd absolutely love to chat!
Graphic: Torture
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Ableism and Child abuse
ronoexiste's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Death of parent, Death, Violence, Torture, Sexual assault, Rape, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Kidnapping, and Gun violence
miamcmillan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Torture, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Violence
Minor: Ableism, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia