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adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The world building in this book was amazing, it was so detailed and packed with sensory information that made me feel really immersed into their world. The way it was written was so beautiful too. The overall plot and concept was also so good!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent
Moderate: Animal death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual harassment
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Cry Count: 0
Spice: 🌶️🌶️ there’s a couple of detailed scenes, but nothing as intense as other books in the genre.
If you like vibes, this book definitely had those. However, I needed more out of everything for it to really land the way it was intended. Raeve was supposed to be a morally grey female main character with a soft heart trying to be callous and wit for days, but—honestly—she just came across as flat and trying too hard. The banter in here wasn’t banter, it was just telling every man (sorry, male) they had small genitals in so. Many. Unnecessary. Words.
Like did this need to be 690 pages? No, but it really was. The plot was predictable, which would have been fine with likable characters or even tropes done really well, but the only part of this I kind of even liked was the world building. The magic system was pretty cool, though inconsistent at one point in the book for the sake of making the male main character even better than everyone else. It just didn’t make up for the fact that there were so many words used to explain roughly ten plot points. The book could have been cut in half without losing anything.
My biggest complaint, however, is the prose. “The organ in [his/her/my] chest,” “masticated by the fear,” and the sheer number of times something “split” —be it the world, the sky, her chest— nothing seemed to be whole very long or well-phrased. After a while, the book was just repetitive, which made connecting with and caring about any of the characters or events more difficult. If it could have figured out if it was supposed to be romantasy, grimdark, or just straight fantasy, it might have had an easier path, but the book is confused and it takes away from bringing every element to its full potential.
Spice: 🌶️🌶️ there’s a couple of detailed scenes, but nothing as intense as other books in the genre.
If you like vibes, this book definitely had those. However, I needed more out of everything for it to really land the way it was intended. Raeve was supposed to be a morally grey female main character with a soft heart trying to be callous and wit for days, but—honestly—she just came across as flat and trying too hard. The banter in here wasn’t banter, it was just telling every man (sorry, male) they had small genitals in so. Many. Unnecessary. Words.
Like did this need to be 690 pages? No, but it really was. The plot was predictable, which would have been fine with likable characters or even tropes done really well, but the only part of this I kind of even liked was the world building. The magic system was pretty cool, though inconsistent at one point in the book for the sake of making the male main character even better than everyone else. It just didn’t make up for the fact that there were so many words used to explain roughly ten plot points. The book could have been cut in half without losing anything.
My biggest complaint, however, is the prose. “The organ in [his/her/my] chest,” “masticated by the fear,” and the sheer number of times something “split” —be it the world, the sky, her chest— nothing seemed to be whole very long or well-phrased. After a while, the book was just repetitive, which made connecting with and caring about any of the characters or events more difficult. If it could have figured out if it was supposed to be romantasy, grimdark, or just straight fantasy, it might have had an easier path, but the book is confused and it takes away from bringing every element to its full potential.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol
adventurous
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A truly complex and intoxicating first book of the series. What I thought was going to be a straightforward adventure romantasy had a depth I wasn't expecting and hit me harder than I would have liked.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Torture, Blood, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Christ kill me. I just really hope Parker doesn't lurk her reviews sections because she seems like a sweet woman and I'm not about to mince my words.
This has to be one of the most obnoxious, disjointed, malformed, pointless, boring, frustrating, just straight up bad books I have read in the last five years, perhaps even longer. It boggles my mind more and more each passing minute that this got published in its current form, and the fact that it was actually successful honestly makes me question my sanity and general perception of reality.
First, the elephant in the room: the writing style is atrocious. If you read the summary somewhere or get it recommended and think "oh, sounds dumb, but it might be a quick fun read!", NO, the style makes any type of light enjoyment completely impossible. It's an overwritten, verbose, pedantic mess of purple fluff where every word was seemingly replaced by its third synonym on Thesaurus.com, in often genuinely headache inducing ways. It reminds me of Wattpad more than anything (I am not even kidding, "cerulean orbs" actually fucking shows up).
But even if you are able to put up with the slop, it's still a really thankless endeavor. Plot, characters, pacing, worldbuilding... it's hard to even begin to untangle where it all went wrong.
Raeve has to be one of the most annoying and frustrating main characters in recent memory, a culmination of every obnoxious "murder girlboss" trope from the romantasy arsenal. She's your typical cookie cutter Strong Female Character who has no explicit flaws and is super super strong and fierce and nonchalantly kills people and has crazy overpowered abilities and a dark backstory (and even an Ooky Spooky Dark Double Identity!😱 god the cringe of The Other is a whole other can of worms I can't even get into right now) and is snarky and sarcastic, and so competent... in theory. In practice, she gets janked around the narrative like a fucking ragdoll (often by plot devices so blatant they are one step from being called Plot Device Creatures) , makes a total of 0 actions that impact the plot in any significant way, and gets saved by a man over and over and over again, all the while serving up some of the cringiest "witty banter" that will make you want to gouge your eyes out from second hand embarrassment. Not only is she constantly avoiding the main plot like the plague and rejecting the insanely railroaded opportunities to figure out anything on her own, but she doesn't even seem too deadset on her own goals! It is not an exaggeration to say that she accomplishes ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in this entire 550 page book. The rest of the cast is a little better, but considering like 90% of the chapters are from Raeve's POV, it's not too big a relief.
And speaking of accomplishing absolutely nothing: this entire plot! I will admit, at first I was somewhat fascinated by this book. Not in a good way, but at least it was definitely entertaining to read? I just kept waiting to see what batshit things it would throw at me, as some sort of unintentional meta-satire of every overdone tropey ACOTAR wannabe that started as a Pinterest board clogging up the bestseller lists. But even this crumb of guilty pleasure is quickly snatched from you. About halfway through, the plot grinds to a complete halt and it never ever starts again. I am not kidding or exaggerating when I say that absolutely nothing happens for about 270 of these pages, I struggle to even remember the actual events that went down. Sure, the twists and reveals promised at the beginning are lame and you can see them coming from a mile away, but at least they're... something? The bulk of this book by contrast is just downright NOTHING, making it insanely boring and somehow even worse than all the direct awfulness. Even the smut scenes are like watching paint dry.
I guess most of it is intended as setup and worlbuilding (AKA a gauntlet of derivative and/or underdeveloped ideas and fun facts), but honestly, assuming up front that people will read the sequel is a mind bending level of hubris for a book this bad.
I am not giving it a lower score because clearly effort has gone into the whole thing... I mean, it is still a 550 page book with a very complex and moderately creative setting. And while it doesn't really amount to any enjoyment for the reader, it is clear that the author was at least enjoying herself? That immediately places it above most of the bottom of the barrel non-fiction slop I've come across. Plus, it's not like there is no potential here at all... but my god. What a truly heinous execution. I genuinely struggle comprehending who this might appeal to. But I guess it was a big success, so what do I know? Clearly it is Sarah J. Maas's world and we're all just living in it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder
Minor: Miscarriage, Misogyny
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
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:
Complicated
Complex world building, enemies to lovers, incredible action scenes.
My only gripe is that a lot of the characters talked with the exact same snark, making some of the dialogue feel repetitive.
My only gripe is that a lot of the characters talked with the exact same snark, making some of the dialogue feel repetitive.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Classism
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The author does an amazing job of dropping you into this unique fae world and the beginning grips you easily. Once you get to the middle though, you're having to take more on faith in the author (there's a creature literally called a Fate Herder that seemed strategically placed) and the story.
What is delightfully unique about this story is how the reader is not watching the beginning of a romance, but the complicated and beautiful aftermath. Have faith and if you're hooked in the beginning, be sure to read to the very last page.
What is delightfully unique about this story is how the reader is not watching the beginning of a romance, but the complicated and beautiful aftermath. Have faith and if you're hooked in the beginning, be sure to read to the very last page.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Vomit, Grief, Pregnancy
Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Stalking, War
dnf at 27%, about 150 pages in. i’m not going to spoiler tag most of my review because i feel this is important for those who are on the fence about this book to know before going in.
first of all, the writing is absurd. i see where people are coming from when they say it reads like the author used ai as a thesaurus. the words she uses do not match up, and she uses words wrong repeatedly. in only ~150 pages, there were multiple times where i didn’t know what was going on because the author made a simple thing convoluted by her over-description, or just straight up used words incorrectly. the author clearly wants this book to feel like an intellectual, highbrow fantasy, but it only comes off as insufferable. she will use long, fancy words, and then turn around and genuinely write “cerulean orbs”. i have not seen “orbs” used to describe eyes outside of wattpad. listen to the other reviews. if you give this book a try and are put off by the writing style, save yourself the time and dnf then and there.
secondly, the worldbuilding is…something. honestly, just read a sanderson book at this point(and this is coming from someone who does not vibe with his books). instead of actually describing anything in the world, the author writes as though she expects the reader to have lived in the world and know what she’s talking about. i should not have to check the glossary to know if you’re talking about sunrise, sunset, or the new year. maybe if worldbuilding is your favorite thing ever you would enjoy this aspect of the book, but i personally couldn’t stand having her make up new terms for things as simple as day/night, mom/dad, and letters.
third, and perhaps most important, there was a very strange misogynistic undertone in the writing. i know the author was going for an enemies to lovers romance, but do you have to have your mmc brutally torture your fmc while calling her a bitch and a cunt? enemies to lovers can absolutely be done without that.he could’ve still killed her…sister? friend? i could NOT TELL! without torturing her and calling her degrading names. it felt very strange, and honestly, it felt like the author was just doing a lot of it for shock value, ending up with poor writing.
in between all this, many things about the plot are so predictable you can see them from miles away.essi’s death held no weight for the reader because it was clear as day it was going to happen, and she did it, what? one chapter after introducing her, maybe? it really didn’t even feel well-written. again, i had no idea what was going on when reading that scene.
overall, i would not recommend this book. as others have said, i’m done listening to tiktok. there were many flaws in the writing, as well as personal icks for me(such as calling everyone “males” and “females”, a “badass fmc” who is just an asshole, etc. it’s very sjm)and it was just not a good book in my opinion. i’m glad many were able to find enjoyment in it, but for those who are unsure about it, do yourself a favor and find something else to read.
first of all, the writing is absurd. i see where people are coming from when they say it reads like the author used ai as a thesaurus. the words she uses do not match up, and she uses words wrong repeatedly. in only ~150 pages, there were multiple times where i didn’t know what was going on because the author made a simple thing convoluted by her over-description, or just straight up used words incorrectly. the author clearly wants this book to feel like an intellectual, highbrow fantasy, but it only comes off as insufferable. she will use long, fancy words, and then turn around and genuinely write “cerulean orbs”. i have not seen “orbs” used to describe eyes outside of wattpad. listen to the other reviews. if you give this book a try and are put off by the writing style, save yourself the time and dnf then and there.
secondly, the worldbuilding is…something. honestly, just read a sanderson book at this point(and this is coming from someone who does not vibe with his books). instead of actually describing anything in the world, the author writes as though she expects the reader to have lived in the world and know what she’s talking about. i should not have to check the glossary to know if you’re talking about sunrise, sunset, or the new year. maybe if worldbuilding is your favorite thing ever you would enjoy this aspect of the book, but i personally couldn’t stand having her make up new terms for things as simple as day/night, mom/dad, and letters.
third, and perhaps most important, there was a very strange misogynistic undertone in the writing. i know the author was going for an enemies to lovers romance, but do you have to have your mmc brutally torture your fmc while calling her a bitch and a cunt? enemies to lovers can absolutely be done without that.
in between all this, many things about the plot are so predictable you can see them from miles away.
overall, i would not recommend this book. as others have said, i’m done listening to tiktok. there were many flaws in the writing, as well as personal icks for me(such as calling everyone “males” and “females”, a “badass fmc” who is just an asshole, etc. it’s very sjm)and it was just not a good book in my opinion. i’m glad many were able to find enjoyment in it, but for those who are unsure about it, do yourself a favor and find something else to read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Violence
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Grief, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Misogyny
Minor: Sexual violence
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent
Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment