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Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail
This book made me feel.
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Grief
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual content, Alcohol
Minor: Sexual assault
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Pregnancy, War
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Blood
Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexism, Slavery, Death of parent, Gaslighting
Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death of parent
1 ⭐️ - Terrible. DNF.
2 ⭐️ - Average. I finished it but that's all I can really say about it.
3 ⭐️ - Good. Not a prize winner but the story was engaging enough to keep me interested.
4 ⭐️ - Great Book. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
5 🌟 - BEST. THING. EVER. Read this NOW!
Thoughts
The world building and concept is great. Interesting idea, new takes on fantasy concepts. However I really struggled with the writing style. First person isn't my favourite to begin with but this one felt like every sentence was just off the mark.
Awkward phrasing such as 'I step down' instead of 'I stepped down' or 'I look' instead of 'I looked' made sentences feel abrupt and disjointed, and there was a general absence of descriptive wording to give a good sense of characters and motivations. Very frustrating as I could tell the general world conception was well thought out. We are introduced to a character early on and it felt like there was so much information missing on this apparently important person and then again in following events where it took me a bit to even understand what was going on exactly. Lots of "Missing missing information" as they say.
Character wise, again the clunky writing made it harder to really get a good depth to the characters (when not in first person view) and switching between first person view made it harder to get into the characters voice. A couple of weird consistencies like how royalty talks the same as the main character (especially in regards to Ma and Pah), and the royalty in general acting more like a regular guard then those who run a kingdom.
I struggled to maintain the motivation to read this book due to the writing but felt like towards the end it was showing enough improvement that the next one may still be worth trying, as is the world concept. The main plot point was interesting as it was both obvious and also not (in how it actually occurred). When the author slips into third person POV the writing improved dramatically.
At this time I wouldn't recommend this book but if I find the second book fixes the above flaws it may well be worth struggling through the first in order to enjoy a world and storyline with much potential and a great new concept.
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Physical abuse
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail