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panthalassa'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
4.5
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment, Cannibalism, Classism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and War
lolajh'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
5.0
Gideon and Harrow are just about the most well-written female characters ever. Both snarky, sarcastic, traumatised lesbians that are so pure and loveable beneath it all I love them so much 😭 How Tamsyn has written them so beautifully, so perfectly complex I do not know.
One thing that I got slightly tired of is the mention and practical character trait at this point, of Gideon exercising. It happens way too often for far too long each session; the expression of her “keeping going until she’s spent” is just a very unhealthy relationship with exercise and I believe Gideon’s strength could still be conveyed without her exercising being described as this. And it is glossed over, not at all referenced to be something unhealthy, which can definitely be a dangerous thing to convey. I still love Gideon, but do find myself skipping over mentions of her exercising because it can be a bit triggering at times and makes me a tad bit uncomfy. Act Three and onwards she does turn into so much more than just a “hot butch lesbian”. She has emotions and reactions that haven’t really been shown in the book; anxiety, fear, worry, selflessness, all things in which the events at Canaan House motivate her to feel. Her whole “strong and confident” thing is really a front she has used to protect herself from being hurt her whole life when she’s had no friends and no one to truly care about, so when that wall is brought down by herself and Harrow and others like Palamedes and Jeannemary, she becomes so much more of a character to root for, more than just what I first perceived to be a cocky, narcissistic, one-dimensional character.
Harrow’s development was amazing too. After having hardly any insight to her true character for the majority of the book, when her backstory and past with Gideon is finally explained, when her behaviour with Gideon is finally explained, it becomes more than just a petty rivalry between these two. They have some traumatic history with each other, and their rivalry leads them to knowing not a lot about each other.
Graphic: Gore, Cancer, Cannibalism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Death of parent, Body horror, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
rtaire'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? No
5.0
Graphic: Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Grief, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Body horror, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cancer, Colonisation, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Injury/Injury detail
frogsovereign'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: Death, Murder, and Mental illness
Moderate: Suicide
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
4.5
Graphic: Cursing
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Child death, and Terminal illness
Minor: Blood, Body horror, Violence, Terminal illness, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, and Cannibalism
msradiosilence'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
5.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Infertility, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Murder, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Body horror, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Bullying, Cursing, Gore, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Suicide, and War
relin's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Medical content, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, and Mental illness
Moderate: Cursing, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, and Vomit
Minor: Cannibalism, Eating disorder, and Physical abuse
Due to how necromancers work in this world, there is a lot of detailed descriptions of death, blood, and gore. Sometimes the blood/flesh of other people, most frequently their own in order to interact with bones and spirits. There is one description of a character that tied power to an eating disorder, but mentioned in passing. Medical trauma, terminal illness and cancer go together in one characterdancers_and_dragons's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Muir does a fantastic job of painting her fantasy world in gritty detail, not shying away from the gore, blood, and bone that result from necromancy in The Locked Tomb trilogy's system of magic. While the descriptions sometimes verge on body horror, Muir does a fantastic job of balancing the disgust from some characters with the fact of the characters' reality. Gideon is not always a reliable narrator, but that also makes the book very immersive, as you only see the plot, as a whole, through her eyes instead of anyone else's.
Overall this was a riveting mystery with gut-wrenching detail in both emotional and physical descriptions that made me both feel for the characters and engage with their stories. It's certainly not a book for everyone, as it covers some dark themes and looks intimately at death and its implications, but I found Muir's exploration of necromancy's possibilities both insightful and intriguing.
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Cursing, Death, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Vomit, and Terminal illness
Moderate: Child death
chaotic_neurotic's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit
thepov42's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Violence, and Mental illness
Minor: Slavery