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helenamt's review against another edition
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- 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
4.25
kparkhurst's review
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
mogffm3's review against another edition
4.0
Listened to the audio version. I love Amanda Ronconi, I think she is a great narrator.
In theme with most of Molly Harper's books, I always am drawn to the unique personalities of her lead female characters. They are always strong-willed and persistent. The books are have mild suspense, but not too much to be stressful. Always a light read, very entertaining.
In theme with most of Molly Harper's books, I always am drawn to the unique personalities of her lead female characters. They are always strong-willed and persistent. The books are have mild suspense, but not too much to be stressful. Always a light read, very entertaining.
gerdursif's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
a_muggle's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
marieintheraw's review against another edition
3.0
Different from all other Molly Harper, but proves that she is author that I love to read from.
gleigh96's review
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
It is written well and has an interesting concept however it could have devoted a bit more time to world building.
sleepy_giraffe's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
trudyd's review against another edition
5.0
I am so dumb.. I kept putting this off because it was about a teenage girl. I should no better. After all I was reading Harry Potter before it published in America. And just like with Harry Potter I will be stocking Amazon in wait for the next book.
The characters were a wonder even those that were horrid. They were believable. The settings were interesting, the descriptions painting a vivid picture of where I would not like to live and a few places I would enjoy exploring.
In Cassandra's world the rulers are witches. The servants are humans and they are under the strict rule of their magical employers. Cassandra throughs a wrench into the machine, she is a human with magical powers. Oh the horror!!! Oh the excitement!! Oh the drama!!! Oh the evil!!! And poor Cassandra is caught right in the middle.
I have only one question. How long before book #2?????
The characters were a wonder even those that were horrid. They were believable. The settings were interesting, the descriptions painting a vivid picture of where I would not like to live and a few places I would enjoy exploring.
In Cassandra's world the rulers are witches. The servants are humans and they are under the strict rule of their magical employers. Cassandra throughs a wrench into the machine, she is a human with magical powers. Oh the horror!!! Oh the excitement!! Oh the drama!!! Oh the evil!!! And poor Cassandra is caught right in the middle.
I have only one question. How long before book #2?????
phantonymous's review
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
1.5
Do you like the casual antisemitism and racism of harry potter? Ever thought the average historical fiction protagonist had too much of a discernable personality? Have you, perhaps, ever wanted a read of classist societal divides and oppression from the perspective of someone who feels like a monarchist kiss-ass?
If you answered yes to those questions or want to read something so infuriating it's actually a bit comical then this book might be your next read.
There's so much wrong with this book that I am frequently tempted to rewrite it despite not even caring that much about it solely to prove a point at how poorly this story was thought out and inefficiently it was written but I will summarize here.
Starting with the antisemitic and racist part since that's the most like "cancelable" bit but the plot of this book revolves around an evil order of secret wizards who quietly gained power over all of the worlds governments and enslaved regular people.
This new dystopia (which is an alternate victorian england) is notably anti-racist and feminist (was the implication supposed to be those things are bad? This books themes and messaging are so incoherent I have no idea) but this doesn't stop the only Black girl (reduced, of course, to overly supportive and tolerant best friend) from being bullied and the main character wondering if it's because she's Black. The author takes every chance she gets to call her outfits ugly and to suggest that anyone showing anything akin to romantic interest in her is charity and so nice of them. Inexplicably theres a "discussion question" (this book is so goddamn pretentious for literally no reason) at the end of the book implying that the main character should have been kinder to the bully.
In case the antisemitism doesn't get you right away they make sure to throw in an unpleasant untrustworthy greedy man with pointy features and snake comparisons to use as a decoy antagonist for most of the book.
With that out of the way oh boy do I have a lot to dissect even while summarizing. I read this several months ago and though the scenes within are generally engrained in me I will not be attempting very hard to remember character names because these characters outside of the situations they're put in are ultimately so forgettable. This book doesn't have characters it has dolls that are played with in front of us. Theres more the ideas of them than any actual substance.
So the author tries to avoid, maybe intentionally or maybe to fit better into the genre, to label the plight of snipes (what people without magic are so originally called) as slavery but it very clearly is some form of forced labor. The main character and everyone else in her community are legally (not economically or simply culturally) forced into servitude from birth and given to a magical family. They're paid a salary and have conditions typical to free domestic servants in victorian england but again they are not allowed to choose where or when they work and are second class citizens seen and used inherently for domestic labor. The explanations for this and how it's actually enforced are few and flimsy. The whole thing feels rigid and unbelievable even when compared to existing travesties from real life (both slavery/forced labor and classism)
If it were like this but completely actually condemned (more than just in words but in how the narrative plays out and portrays things) this may not be a deal breaker but the author really wants you to sympathize with slave owners more than the majority of the enslaved characters.
Our main girl Sarah is ✨️ special ✨️ and has magic despite being born to a snipe family (which her mother tries to hide with a suppressant that ills her so her character is introduced to us as disabled but nope she's perfectly able bodied like nearly everyone else in this book 🙃) so her owner immediately separates her from her family claims her as a niece and sends her to magic school. She's still enslaved in every sense though as she is never given a choice in any of this. Don't worry though the woman abusing and manipulating her will totally inexplicably become a second mother to her whilst not changing any of her behavior and consistently restricting all access from her actual family.
She has a sister who is in love with her owners son and wants to find a way to seduce him to ensure her and her family a better life. She is to be seen as a horrible materialistic bitch for this and will have horrible things done to her whilst we're told how much we should hate her btw. "She only wants him for his money!!! D:" she's an enslaved teenager who's been shown her family can be taken from her on a whim idk what to goddamn tell you here.
The whole brand of the book is like oh Sarah’s a fairytale-esque little servant girl who has to become an aristocrat and whatever rags to riches story i get it but Sarah stops being a snipe in every sense as soon as she isn't. The story is from her perspective (might even be first person?) but the snipes she encounters at the school are barely mentioned and she has no solid opinions on basically anything unless it's to briefly pity some unnamed character who'll be forgotten momentarily. I wish these stories we're even remotely actually about the plight of oppressed and working class people but they often aren't at the best of times and this is one of the worst cases I've seen.
She literally befriends her owners son who treats her like shit and his redemption arc is literally just like. Tolerating her. And saying maybe snipes should deserve a few rights as a treat. Not enough to not be enslaved though that's out of the question. And we should definitely see his family's enslaved child whos trying to flirt with him as the evil one here bc he hates her and omg she's not respecting his boundaries.
Necromancy is randomly thrown in but this is largely uninteresting. Everything is uninteresting how this author manages to make being attacked by a zombie the dullest slowest read ever I'll never know like it takes talent to be this bad at putting any sort of tension in your story.
There's a plot twist villain which surprisingly wasn't horrible. But this was such a nothing book that other than criticisms like the above i have little to say about it if not to expand on the above criticisms.
This story and concept had just enough potential to be maddening I'd rewrite the entire thing just to keep my sanity intact if I had the energy to do so.
If you answered yes to those questions or want to read something so infuriating it's actually a bit comical then this book might be your next read.
There's so much wrong with this book that I am frequently tempted to rewrite it despite not even caring that much about it solely to prove a point at how poorly this story was thought out and inefficiently it was written but I will summarize here.
Starting with the antisemitic and racist part since that's the most like "cancelable" bit but the plot of this book revolves around an evil order of secret wizards who quietly gained power over all of the worlds governments and enslaved regular people.
This new dystopia (which is an alternate victorian england) is notably anti-racist and feminist (was the implication supposed to be those things are bad? This books themes and messaging are so incoherent I have no idea) but this doesn't stop the only Black girl (reduced, of course, to overly supportive and tolerant best friend) from being bullied and the main character wondering if it's because she's Black. The author takes every chance she gets to call her outfits ugly and to suggest that anyone showing anything akin to romantic interest in her is charity and so nice of them. Inexplicably theres a "discussion question" (this book is so goddamn pretentious for literally no reason) at the end of the book implying that the main character should have been kinder to the bully.
In case the antisemitism doesn't get you right away they make sure to throw in an unpleasant untrustworthy greedy man with pointy features and snake comparisons to use as a decoy antagonist for most of the book.
With that out of the way oh boy do I have a lot to dissect even while summarizing. I read this several months ago and though the scenes within are generally engrained in me I will not be attempting very hard to remember character names because these characters outside of the situations they're put in are ultimately so forgettable. This book doesn't have characters it has dolls that are played with in front of us. Theres more the ideas of them than any actual substance.
So the author tries to avoid, maybe intentionally or maybe to fit better into the genre, to label the plight of snipes (what people without magic are so originally called) as slavery but it very clearly is some form of forced labor. The main character and everyone else in her community are legally (not economically or simply culturally) forced into servitude from birth and given to a magical family. They're paid a salary and have conditions typical to free domestic servants in victorian england but again they are not allowed to choose where or when they work and are second class citizens seen and used inherently for domestic labor. The explanations for this and how it's actually enforced are few and flimsy. The whole thing feels rigid and unbelievable even when compared to existing travesties from real life (both slavery/forced labor and classism)
If it were like this but completely actually condemned (more than just in words but in how the narrative plays out and portrays things) this may not be a deal breaker but the author really wants you to sympathize with slave owners more than the majority of the enslaved characters.
Our main girl Sarah is ✨️ special ✨️ and has magic despite being born to a snipe family (which her mother tries to hide with a suppressant that ills her so her character is introduced to us as disabled but nope she's perfectly able bodied like nearly everyone else in this book 🙃) so her owner immediately separates her from her family claims her as a niece and sends her to magic school. She's still enslaved in every sense though as she is never given a choice in any of this. Don't worry though the woman abusing and manipulating her will totally inexplicably become a second mother to her whilst not changing any of her behavior and consistently restricting all access from her actual family.
She has a sister who is in love with her owners son and wants to find a way to seduce him to ensure her and her family a better life. She is to be seen as a horrible materialistic bitch for this and will have horrible things done to her whilst we're told how much we should hate her btw. "She only wants him for his money!!! D:" she's an enslaved teenager who's been shown her family can be taken from her on a whim idk what to goddamn tell you here.
The whole brand of the book is like oh Sarah’s a fairytale-esque little servant girl who has to become an aristocrat and whatever rags to riches story i get it but Sarah stops being a snipe in every sense as soon as she isn't. The story is from her perspective (might even be first person?) but the snipes she encounters at the school are barely mentioned and she has no solid opinions on basically anything unless it's to briefly pity some unnamed character who'll be forgotten momentarily. I wish these stories we're even remotely actually about the plight of oppressed and working class people but they often aren't at the best of times and this is one of the worst cases I've seen.
She literally befriends her owners son who treats her like shit and his redemption arc is literally just like. Tolerating her. And saying maybe snipes should deserve a few rights as a treat. Not enough to not be enslaved though that's out of the question. And we should definitely see his family's enslaved child whos trying to flirt with him as the evil one here bc he hates her and omg she's not respecting his boundaries.
Necromancy is randomly thrown in but this is largely uninteresting. Everything is uninteresting how this author manages to make being attacked by a zombie the dullest slowest read ever I'll never know like it takes talent to be this bad at putting any sort of tension in your story.
There's a plot twist villain which surprisingly wasn't horrible. But this was such a nothing book that other than criticisms like the above i have little to say about it if not to expand on the above criticisms.
This story and concept had just enough potential to be maddening I'd rewrite the entire thing just to keep my sanity intact if I had the energy to do so.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery and Misogyny
Minor: Antisemitism and Racism