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louisallama's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Outing, Suicide, Murder, Animal death, Homophobia, and Rape
Moderate: Classism, Cursing, Vomit, Physical abuse, Incest, Alcoholism, and Death
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
thewileyseven's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
I also agree with another review I read regarding the treatment of women in this book. All completely sidelined, used as plot devices, killed off to further men's emotional development, and worse. Rough! Again, I can understand why, with commentaries on gender violence, historic sexism, and more, but I dunno. The main characters' complicity in this was a bummer.
Part II, however, sang for me. Beautiful, aching, blossoming. And the system of binding is a splendid magic. Overall, I think this was 100% worth the read for me. But there are just pieces that grated at me a little too much to go unsaid.
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Outing, Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Violence
coffee_and_wool's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Sexual assault, Outing, Suicide, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Physical abuse
Moderate: Child death, Classism, Incest, and Pedophilia
august_ambrosia's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
collins’ whimsical (but grounded when necessary) style of writing builds suspense and prompts you to ask questions while also not losing a wonderful storytelling vibe… great descriptions and well rounded characters galore! collins writes emotion perfectly, and when the characters feel shocked or frightened, you do too. oh, and joyful.
i’ve seen some comments saying they didn’t like it because it was “depressing” and i just thought that was a little… privileged? juvenile? that’s the point. a well written book makes you think, ask questions, and reflect on your own biases and privilege.
debated with giving this 5 stars and i may still change my mind on a future read, but for now it’s a 5 :) thought it had a slow(ish) start that ended up making sense and i don’t like ambiguous endings a huge amount, but that's a me problem.
(spoilers here)
just as a last note: collins wrote the queer romance so beautifully. i had been silently rooting for emmett and lucian since their introduction and the little moments all meant so much to me. this book will forever have a treasured place in my heart purely because of them.
but yes, overall this book was a treasure and i'm so glad i picked it up :)
Graphic: Homophobia, Violence, Outing, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Animal death
Moderate: Abandonment, Addiction, and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Vomit and Violence
bunbunbooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Animal death, Rape, Homophobia, Violence, Suicide, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Outing
fe_aye's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Classism, Cursing, Death, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Confinement, Dementia, Homophobia, Outing, Rape, Sexual assault, Animal cruelty, Sexual content, and Vomit
dananana'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
4.5
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Child death, Outing, Suicide, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Homophobia, Animal death, and Rape
Moderate: Classism, Sexism, Alcoholism, and Fire/Fire injury
wildelwrcase's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
Looking at the back of the book, in a Q&A with the author, it's stated she has written 7 YA books before releasing this adult fantasy, and boy golly can you tell. Every time the characters swore was a mini jumpscare where in I had to remember this was not written for teenagers. Because even with the references to the darker material present in this world (see trigger warnings) it still feels totally juvenile with incredibly flat, black and white morality characterization. In the past I've disliked YA books for this quality, yet forgiven them for the fact that they are geared toward people younger than me, but this is marketed fully as an adult fantasy, giving it no excuse.
On the topic of characters, the ones portrayed in this book are both absurdly flat and painfully boring. Outside of our main duo, every single character is presented so cartoonishly it's impossible to take seriously. They are all either virtuous girls who suffer for the advancement of our male heroes' plot, or legitimately evil peverted monsters, with neither party being offered even the barest of nuance. (The big bad man who takes Emmett to the big city is named de Havilland. Really. I haven't seen anything so heavy handed since Cruella Deville.) Unfortunately, neither Emmett or Lucian are given much further development. This almost astounds me since they are both 1st person POV characters! As individuals they can be surmised easily: Emmett - farmer (it's his last name and occupation), hates monetary hand outs, righteous (except when the plot needs him to not be), Lucian - rich, hates his dad, hates bookbinding (but only kind of and only to stir up plot drama.) Could you guess that they're also incredibly inconsistent? And somehow still, the most egregious character injustice is killing off a main character and then never mentioning her again!
The plot is easily the best part of the book, and yet still so much of my enjoyment is based on it's potential for more. I think the plot twists are satisfying, though predictable, and the magic system is so cool. There are so many moments that expand the world and potential that binding memories could have on a vaugely pre-industrial vaugely British setting, like the one in this book. Does Collins ever actually explore these possibilities, well no, but the thought of it is intriguing.
A large part of the plot though that can't go ignored is the romance, which... kinda sucks. Like the 2nd part of the book is by far the most enjoyable to read, don't get me wrong, but their entire relationship is told to us while skipping through the parts we actually want to read about. Like this novel is 450 fucking pages and the author just tells us they had an affair??? She couldn't be bothered to write even one or two scenes of them just fucking talking, getting to know each other, falling in love? It's so insane, she somehow spends more time talking about the sexual assualt of minors rather than the supposedly loving, consensual intimacy between our main romantic pair! That is simply absurd, and quite frankly deeply frustrating. Much like the characters though, the plot, is just really fucking boring.
The two, reasons this aren't a 1 star: 1. It's very readable once you get through the mind numbing opening. Again the 2nd part is pretty fun to read, if rather lack luster. The author is able to spread out reveals just enough that even though they're ridiculously predictable, you still want to get there to see if maybe that's the turning point into where it gets good. 2. Just the idea of it. I really wish this concept was created by a more competent writer, especially one for adult fiction.
Later losers, gonna go write a fanfiction with this premise, but make it not suck.
EDIT: I can't stop thinking about this book, and the more I think the worse it gets. Bullet points cause I don't want to spoil or rant too much.
- Women are treated horribly no matter what. Either sidelined as enforcers of the homophobic realities of the time period keeping our main characters from living freely or literally killed off and never brought up again.
- Part 1 is rendered completely useless by the end of the book, except basically to stall so the reveal in part 2 is more impactful.
- Zero moral nuance or complexity.
- Completely dropped plot threads and/ or thematic ideas that would have made the 450 pages feel less bloated and actually given some depth to the world.
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Suicide, Rape, and Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Outing and Classism
kellyloubishop's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship
Moderate: Murder, Outing, Homophobia, Emotional abuse, Rape, Vomit, and Suicide
prettycloud's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Outing, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Violence, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Blood, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Animal death
Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Rape, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Sexism, Kidnapping, Classism, Sexual content, Murder, and Body shaming
There are some really awful and messed-up characters in this book who have a lot of power in their classist, sexist society. The main protags make mistakes and are really angry and traumatized through a lot of this, but aren't doing any of the really awful stuff. They experience homophobia, emotional abuse/gaslighting, and physical abuse