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apmerri's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Bullying, Sexual content, and Violence
sohma4uesugi's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
There is no immersion into this world. My eyes kept jumping forward begging it to be over with faster. I would reread sentences several times and still be confused in the next paragraph.
Interesting characters were largely ignored and the uninteresting characters were heavily focused on. The artwork, though beautiful, strangely did not match the characters each section was named for, which didn’t make sense to me.
It felt like whole chapters were missing and the ones that were there dragged on forever and a day. Anything interesting was just simply dropped the next page in infuriating regularity. The last two chapters of the book seemed like they were written for another work entirely, in that they were interesting and actually held my attention.
To go from talking in tiring detail about the complexities of stopping time to calling someone a useless fuckboi just because they could in the next sentence was jarring and not in a way to bring humor or relief from the vast complexities the text tried and failed to reach.
The concept was super cool and I wanted to love this book, but unfortunately, I did not.
Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Car accident, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Suicide attempt
kathleencoughlin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Confinement, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, and Sexual assault
queenie_ofthe_void'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
4.0
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Murder
Minor: Death of parent
li_reading's review against another edition
5.0
I will say, I do think the new edition is an improvement to the original.
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Infidelity, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Gaslighting
Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Misogyny
aniaise's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Minor: Sexual content, Suicide, Death of parent, and Gaslighting
sunsetcity's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
lizgriffinwords's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
For those like me who were living under a rock and hadn’t picked this one up, here’s the pitch: every ten years, the society that guards the lost library of Alexandria archives selects six of the most promising and powerful magicians of their generation as candidates for a year-long fellowship. Five are selected. One is eliminated.
I haven’t read a lot of dark academia, and even less “new adult” (since it was picked up and published by Tor, it is ADULT, just to be clear), so I don’t have much to compare it to. But if you liked Ninth House and/or Umbrella Academy, this is right up that alley.
I loved the setting and the overall “vibes”… but I was less of a fan of the writing style and all of the characters. I’ve had seasons of my life where I was too similar to Libby — naive, teacher’s pet sort of person — and having all the other characters mock and gang up on her was tiring as a reader.
Content warnings: cursing, su*cidal thoughts and attempts, gaslighting and bullying, sexual content (though honestly not as much as I thought there would be, given its TikTok fame)
Graphic: Gaslighting
Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Violence and Death of parent
phippsmr's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
prideandparchment's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Terminal illness, Violence, and Grief