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rikuson1'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
-★★★★✮- (4.50/5.00)
My Grading Letter Score = 90% (A)
When I finished The Well of Ascension, the first words that came out of my mouth were "simply incredible." But at first the pacing of this book at the start, I completely understand why some people would consider this weaker than The Final Empire if we are discussing overall pacing because The Well of Ascension was constantly going from slow to fast to slower to faster. For me, I'm not really someone who heavily focuses on pacing if what is being provided to me is engaging and if it's building up to something that is paid off when it's due, which this book mostly everyone agrees it does just that. So, regarding pacing consistency, sure, you can go ahead and give The Final Empire the upper hand when it comes to that. But honestly, outside of that, I most definitely feel like The Well of Ascension is tied with The Final Empire in almost every other criteria, and/or The Well of Ascension did it better.
The two categories I feel The Well of Ascension did better were characterization and character development. Every single character that was focused on in The Well of Ascension, for the most part, felt like they were given the time they needed to be fleshed out enough to be commended at least above what the characterization execution was provided to us in The Final Empire and goes for the development they went through in this book. World-building, Lore, Action, and Prose are all categories that can be debated which one did it better. I don't really care since I enjoyed all of these things in both of these books.
Verdict
At first, I was Team Final Empire, until around Chapter 47 when my favorite fight scene in the series so far occurred did I start to lean over to Team Well of Ascension, after that the pacing slowed back down and then I started to lean back over to The Final Empire and then the last fifty pages of this book leveled me out. It brought me to the conclusion of thinking that I like both of these books equally critically, to be honest. If I was held at gunpoint and forced to choose one over the other, I might say The Well of Ascension, since the hype of just finishing it is still on me and I love great characterization which this book gave me a whole lot of. But I love both of these books equally and I'm glad I did not come out of it thinking less of it in comparison to its predecessor, a successor should be as good or better than what came before it and I feel The Well of Ascension accomplished just that. So regardless of what the majority of people state or what the rating score in comparison says about this book.
I Really Liked It.
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Xenophobia and War
Minor: Sexual assault, Classism, Physical abuse, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Murder, Bullying, Confinement, Genocide, and Xenophobia
stephaniemcuervo's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: War, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Stalking, Gore, Xenophobia, Death, Blood, Slavery, and Grief
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Pregnancy and Mental illness
mandaraffe's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Animal death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexism, Violence, War, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, and Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Cannibalism, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, and Stalking
Minor: Xenophobia, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, and Body shaming
cookiecat73'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? No
3.25
Graphic: Drug use, War, Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Grief, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Animal death, Self harm, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Xenophobia
Minor: Sexual content
elrize's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
My only criticism would be the excessive repetition of information - I guess it's good conduct to write a book that doesn't expect of its readers to have read the first one in the series, but it also meant a lot of re-hashing.
On to the third book - can't wait to see what happens!
Graphic: Death, Gore, Grief, Violence, War, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, and Slavery
Moderate: Confinement, Child abuse, and Torture