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violerwolf's review
adventurous
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I really wanted to like this book, so I gave it a shot despite the mixed reviews I'd seen. Unfortunately, this book is deeply mediocre. The book bills itself, through both the cover art and the summary, on the relationship between the thief main character and Galva, the griseled knight character. Their interactions end up being very limited and with little depth. The author repeats the same (very basic) worldbuilding facts over and over again, despite them having little relevance to the story, as if they expect the audience to not understand. The "realism" of the book is as gritty as an episode of Spongebob, humor and all. I must assume that the grittiness reviewers mention comes in the form of middle-school level jokes about literal shit and sex. I don't think any of these things are necessarily bad, but the reviews I've seen of this book have pitched it as something very concerned with the realities of a fantasy world, and the only reality the book is actually concerned with is the main character's horniness. What a shame, because I think a lot of the world building and the characters (specifically Galva) could've had fantastic depth and told an incredibly dynamic story. Alas, it wasn't meant to be. If you're looking for generic fantasy with a rogue that has the libido, charm, and humor of a pubescent teen, this may be for you.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Body shaming, Colonisation, Sexual content, Torture, War, Xenophobia, Violence, Cursing, Alcohol, Death, and Excrement
Minor: Animal cruelty, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, Misogyny, Animal death, Blood, and Sexism
Typical fantasy racism present throughout novel. One brief scene toward end of novel involving potential sexual assault, wherebookishplantmom's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This book was fine. I just didn't care about any of it. The main character in particular was unappealing and boring to me. I was more interested in the assassin and the witch than anything else. The writing is good, there is an interesting emphasis on the linguistic components of this universe and the magic system is pretty good. By the end of the book I was skimming. I never got into the story enough to be invested. This really was a miss for me. I can see why some folks would enjoy it though.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism
unlikelyplaces's review
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
I have a lot of thoughts on this book…
Let’s start with the things I liked:
Let’s start with the things I liked:
- The world building was really solid, it felt really well fleshed out and interesting
- I actually really enjoyed the plot overall, it was fast paced and kept me interested the whole way through and if it wasn’t for the negatives (which I’ll get to) I’d definitely want to be carrying on with this series
- The action scenes were really well written, exciting but clear
Now for the negatives…
- The characters… I am a very character driven reader and actually the snarky thief archetype are my favourite characters to read about however I found this main character just unbearably annoying and the rest of the characters were not really developed very well at all so there was just no one I felt attached to
- There were just a few things to do with the writing that really bothered me. Like it wasn’t too bad overall but the author does this thing where he feels the need to end every chapter with like a LINE like the equivalent of “everything changed when the fire nation attacked” *dun dun dunnnn* and also chucks the same type of lines in throughout the chapter as well just to really try to shock you. I don’t know why this bothered me so much, it was just so repetitive…
- I really hated the way this book portrays the female characters. It started with the mc constantly commenting on women’s appearances and what he would like to “do” with them and then it was like the mc was a man and all of the other characters were women that were underdeveloped and that the mc spends a lot of time ogling. And THEN the romance started and it was just cringey and at one point he describes a woman’s voice as “husky and fertile”… her voice… was fertile??… I’m not even sure what that’s trying to mean??
There is also a scene that deals with a sexual assault but I felt like the topic was not treated sensitively because the victim was a man which is not ok… - And then just a minor thing, it was marketed as like a dark fantasy/horror but like I didn’t find it that dark? Like it was a bit but not as much as I was expecting? Maybe I just have a high tolerance though.
So yeah… I was really expecting to love this book a lot because from the description it’s everything I love on a book but it just irritated me a lot throughout so… 1.5 for the world and the story but I will not be continuing this series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Violence
Moderate: Sexism and Sexual assault
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