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ihugparrish's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Violence, Torture, and Body horror
Moderate: Blood, Cursing, and Child death
Minor: Slavery, Colonisation, Xenophobia, Bullying, and Antisemitism
pinkupengu'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
4.75
Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Misogyny, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Xenophobia, Child death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Racism, and Self harm
Minor: Sexual content, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, and Cultural appropriation
tangleroot_eli's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Graphic: Toxic friendship
Moderate: Antisemitism, Murder, Grief, Blood, Cultural appropriation, Bullying, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Hate crime, Racism, Child abuse, Xenophobia, and Death
Minor: Suicide, Death of parent, Biphobia, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate:: Saneism, Spiders, Mind control Minor: Whorephobialiteratehedgehog'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? It's complicated
4.0
The prose can be a little overmuch at times, but the characters, the magic system, the world itself, are all powerfully imaginative and engrossing enough to allow for some excesses of lyrical language.
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Violence, and Child abuse
Minor: Homophobia and Xenophobia
erstreetman's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse and Antisemitism
graceicle'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
3.5
This book is often compared to six of crows, and honestly doesn’t have the same vibes. It’s got a lot of the same tropes, and a similar setting, but it didn’t give me the same feeling. While I like and find the characters interesting, the world building clever, the magic system interesting; the story itself was tricky to follow at times and I struggled to keep focus. I listened to the audible version and LOVED the narration, it was so fun to actually have what felt at least to me (Aussie) like legitimate attempts at French accents for the (largely) French characters-so often everything is delivered in a flat American accent regardless of the characters backgrounds, and I’m so used to that that I really noticed the effort out in here to make that not happen and I think it really helped with the immersion, and definitely made it much easier to tell when the characters are speaking rather than narration, which is sometimes hard to determine in audiobook form!
Overall it’s a good and solid book with some really great elements, but it just didn’t grab me by the throat the way I was hoping.
I enjoyed how explicitly autistic Zofia was, and the way the characters -especially Laila - looked out for her needs and preferences, as well as not enforcing neurotypical responses onto her.
Loved the chaotic love triangle vibes-that’s not usually my thing but that might actually be the thing that tips me over into reading the sequel-to see how they explore that.
Graphic: Child death, Murder, Racism, Violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Child abuse
bergha1998'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
3.75
Found Family, LGBTQIA+, Romance Subplots
“He wished he didn’t know what he had lost. Maybe then every day wouldn’t feel like this. As if he had once known how to fly, but the skies had shaken him loose and left him with nothing but the memory of wings.”
“Fear grew in places unlit by knowledge.”
Graphic: Racism, Abandonment, Alcohol, Child abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence
barda's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
It had all of the elements of a great read - a unique setting (19th Century alternative history Paris), cool magic system, intricate heists, and a likeable cast of characters. It was very much like Six of Crows, which I adore, in spirit. But in the end it just couldn't come together in a cohesive way.
The author clearly put a lot of thought into the puzzles and heist elements, as well as the world-building; however, much of it was written in a confusing way, such that I couldn't really picture in my head what was happening in a scene. The characters were broadly likeable and very diverse (Hypnos in particular was hilarious), but much of the characterisation was done by telling the audience what they were supposed to be like (such as it being banged over your head repeatedly that Severin and Laila slept together once and had residual feelings) rather than letting the backstories and personalities of their individual characters be revealed gradually through the text.
One element in particular knocked back my rating quite a bit, and that was the ending. Without spoilers, what I thought was the ending was a pretty good cliffhanger, and had huge emotional ramifications for the characters which could be explored in the next book. But then...there's more pages. And any emotional impact of the ending is completely wiped away as the characters deal with them over the space of a single chapter. This all leads up to a second cliffhanger, which in itself was fine and could have easily stood on its own, but it felt like the author had two ideas for how their book should end and just took the worst of both worlds and put them together in the same book.
I can appreciate what the author tried to do with this book, with the richly detailed setting and magic system, and I really liked the inclusion of neurodiversity among the main characters and the critiques of colonialism in the context of the setting. However, it was let down by confusing writing, the lack of "show not tell", and the ending.
Graphic: Child abuse and Blood
Moderate: Grief, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Torture
takarakei'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
4.25
- 4 POVs, 6 main characters
- Stolen treasures (imperialism)
- late 19th century Paris
- found family
- autism rep (not explicitly stated)
- bit of romance
The male audio narrator was not my fav but it didn't completely ruin it for me. There's a lot of visual puzzles that make more sense if you're reading the physical books (because there are diagrams etc)
Graphic: Death, Child abuse, and Violence
Moderate: Racism, Ableism, and Blood
Minor: Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, and Homophobia
luna_bear'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
4.25
Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, Ableism, Grief, Torture, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Death
Moderate: Antisemitism, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Kidnapping, and Animal cruelty