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cruelsister's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- 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
abbyschalupa's review
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Besides personal views and preferences, this is a well done sequel. The writing is atmospheric and descriptive, the plot slows at times but makes up for it with quick bursts of action. Plot continues to carry tension and builds up to the big reveals at the end. The last 1/3 flew by with action and reveals while the first 2/3 had slower areas.
3 POVs though one of them was rather difficult to like, the other two had me completely engaged. New side characters are introduced- some are likeable, others not so much, with one of them having their own POV. I couldn’t find myself connecting to the side characters suddenly brought in, with one having spotlight that I found boring and irritating.
A queer normative society is fantastic to see in fantasy. While I enjoyed this read, I wasn’t as deeply enthralled as I was with The Helm of Midnight. I wasn’t as invested with the characters. The last 1/3 did, however, keep me glued until I finished the book. The tension, stakes, and massive reveals were happening all at once.
There’s some symbolism used for a person or soul being split and needing to unite. The description of the writing makes it so visceral and vivid. Truly, the prose is finished and beautiful.
Absolutely dark fantasy, branching into darker territory. Trigger/content warnings: One POV is centered on a child cult, emotional abuse, and child abuse. One scene where a character almost commits suicide though not of their own volition. Murder, death, blood, gore. Cult using manipulation and various form of abuse, with many left implied. Without spoiling close to the end, off page you realize a character will be tortured.
3 POVs though one of them was rather difficult to like, the other two had me completely engaged. New side characters are introduced- some are likeable, others not so much, with one of them having their own POV. I couldn’t find myself connecting to the side characters suddenly brought in, with one having spotlight that I found boring and irritating.
A queer normative society is fantastic to see in fantasy. While I enjoyed this read, I wasn’t as deeply enthralled as I was with The Helm of Midnight. I wasn’t as invested with the characters. The last 1/3 did, however, keep me glued until I finished the book. The tension, stakes, and massive reveals were happening all at once.
There’s some symbolism used for a person or soul being split and needing to unite. The description of the writing makes it so visceral and vivid. Truly, the prose is finished and beautiful.
Absolutely dark fantasy, branching into darker territory. Trigger/content warnings: One POV is centered on a child cult, emotional abuse, and child abuse. One scene where a character almost commits suicide though not of their own volition. Murder, death, blood, gore. Cult using manipulation and various form of abuse, with many left implied. Without spoiling close to the end, off page you realize a character will be tortured.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Murder, Death, Grief, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Blood, Child abuse, and Gore
Moderate: Suicide attempt and Torture
kacybraying's review
5.0
I'm so in love with this series. It's so ambitious and inventive and is constantly revealing new layers of its rich, rich world. The final act in this second book had me absolutely glued to the page. It's such a shame that no tv or movie studio would likely touch it without wanting to remove the neo pronouns (because the world is annoying and backwards), but they're such an integral link to the religion and society in this story that they'd pull way too long of a thread loose with their absence.
Seriously cannot wait to see where this series continues to go. Will we eventually get The Village (Shyamalan)'ed? There's so much more to Arkensyre than meets the eye. But not in the cars turning into robots and vice versa way... UNLESS???
Seriously cannot wait to see where this series continues to go. Will we eventually get The Village (Shyamalan)'ed? There's so much more to Arkensyre than meets the eye. But not in the cars turning into robots and vice versa way... UNLESS???
fadingapple's review
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- 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
4.75
4.75/5 stars
Marina Lostetter....I would pay so much money to understand how your brain works! The plots and characters and twists and messed up scenes you create....woman you are a crazy mastermind of crazy writing and amazing books!
Seriously, this series is somethings else in the best way - I've never read a story quite like it. If you loved The Helm of Midnight you'll love this one, but it is very different. We have a lot more characters and POVs and the story is a little less....clear cut? Linear? It's not so much focused on one thing, like catching a serial killer's mask - it's more about the larger conspiracy, both the public facing and the hidden parts behind the curtain. It's also about the repercussions from the first book that our main characters are now facing, namely Krona. My poor baby has been through it and continues to in this book.
I wish I could say more but truly I'm not sure how to coherently describe this book, with or without spoilers. I can tell you you're in for an intricate plot, fascinating lore and "magic", and some incredible characters that you will love and hate in equal measure. The writing is incredible and will stick with you. All that said...it's dark and there are some scenes that I had to set the book down after and walk away to just let myself process - it has a lot of dark themes and Lostetter doesn't shy away from the brutal and gritty. But really that's part of what makes this series so special, that you feel the characters shock and disgust as viscerally as possible. Not for the faint of heart, but all the more amazing for it.
I highly recommend this series but PLEASE go in with caution and check triggers!
Marina Lostetter....I would pay so much money to understand how your brain works! The plots and characters and twists and messed up scenes you create....woman you are a crazy mastermind of crazy writing and amazing books!
Seriously, this series is somethings else in the best way - I've never read a story quite like it. If you loved The Helm of Midnight you'll love this one, but it is very different. We have a lot more characters and POVs and the story is a little less....clear cut? Linear? It's not so much focused on one thing, like catching a serial killer's mask - it's more about the larger conspiracy, both the public facing and the hidden parts behind the curtain. It's also about the repercussions from the first book that our main characters are now facing, namely Krona. My poor baby has been through it and continues to in this book.
I wish I could say more but truly I'm not sure how to coherently describe this book, with or without spoilers. I can tell you you're in for an intricate plot, fascinating lore and "magic", and some incredible characters that you will love and hate in equal measure. The writing is incredible and will stick with you. All that said...it's dark and there are some scenes that I had to set the book down after and walk away to just let myself process - it has a lot of dark themes and Lostetter doesn't shy away from the brutal and gritty. But really that's part of what makes this series so special, that you feel the characters shock and disgust as viscerally as possible. Not for the faint of heart, but all the more amazing for it.
I highly recommend this series but PLEASE go in with caution and check triggers!
bassgirl456's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
4.0
siavahda's review against another edition
4.0
HIGHLIGHTS
~pocket watches vital to national security
~a stained-glass dress
~blue assassins
~a magic system that runs on secrets
~a very important light fixture
*spoilers for The Helm of Midnight, book one of the trilogy!*
The first, most immediate thing you need to know about The Cage of Dark Hours is: no, you really can’t just rely on the recap at the start of the book to refresh your memory about the events of book one. You need to actually reread the first book in the series, The Helm of Midnight, before diving in to this.
It’s worth it, I promise. Firstly, because Helm is excellent in its own right. But maybe even more importantly…starting Cage minutes after finishing a reread of Helm?
Means that Cage’s very first line hits you like a bulldozer, turning everything you thought you knew about the world Lostetter has created upside-down and inside-out.
I CANNOT EVEN.
This series reads like the progression of a would-be initiate into an ancient mystery cult; there are layers within layers, circles within circles, and every step towards the centre comes with new revelations. Having made our way through Helm, Cage initiates us into the deeper mysteries of Lostetter’s world – but this secret knowledge raises as many new questions as it answers; far from filling in all the gaps, Cage reveals to us a vastly larger world than we were led to believe existed. We knew things were not as they appeared to the characters of book one, but good gods, we had no idea of what was actually waiting for us behind all the misdirections, myths, and outright lies!
If we think of the world of the Five Penalties as a skeleton, then the bones of the truth are buried under the skin that is – for lack of a better term – civilisation; a not-always-so-polite fiction that everyone believes in. There’s objective reality, and then there’s what (almost) everyone thinks and believes exists, and which they make into a kind of truth by virtue of thinking and believing it.
And honestly, I’m in complete awe at this entire structure; not just the sheer uniqueness of the world Lostetter has created (although that delights and confounds me endlessly) but the world she’s built on top of that, and how well both fit together. She’s crafted this literally epic – in scale and scope and sheer awesomeness – conspiracy, made it virtually seamless, and made sure there’s no way we’ll ever guess what’s really behind the curtain. The world Krona and the rest of the characters inhabit is every bit as intricate and believable as our world, and then the real world, the world underneath all that, is just–
AHHHH. I can’t talk about it because spoilers, but seriously, WHAT, and HOW, and WTF, and I CAN’T EVEN, and THIS IS SO DAMN COOL.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
~pocket watches vital to national security
~a stained-glass dress
~blue assassins
~a magic system that runs on secrets
~a very important light fixture
*spoilers for The Helm of Midnight, book one of the trilogy!*
The first, most immediate thing you need to know about The Cage of Dark Hours is: no, you really can’t just rely on the recap at the start of the book to refresh your memory about the events of book one. You need to actually reread the first book in the series, The Helm of Midnight, before diving in to this.
It’s worth it, I promise. Firstly, because Helm is excellent in its own right. But maybe even more importantly…starting Cage minutes after finishing a reread of Helm?
Means that Cage’s very first line hits you like a bulldozer, turning everything you thought you knew about the world Lostetter has created upside-down and inside-out.
I CANNOT EVEN.
This series reads like the progression of a would-be initiate into an ancient mystery cult; there are layers within layers, circles within circles, and every step towards the centre comes with new revelations. Having made our way through Helm, Cage initiates us into the deeper mysteries of Lostetter’s world – but this secret knowledge raises as many new questions as it answers; far from filling in all the gaps, Cage reveals to us a vastly larger world than we were led to believe existed. We knew things were not as they appeared to the characters of book one, but good gods, we had no idea of what was actually waiting for us behind all the misdirections, myths, and outright lies!
The king of the rats is still a rat, and the cats will laugh when they eat him just the same.”
If we think of the world of the Five Penalties as a skeleton, then the bones of the truth are buried under the skin that is – for lack of a better term – civilisation; a not-always-so-polite fiction that everyone believes in. There’s objective reality, and then there’s what (almost) everyone thinks and believes exists, and which they make into a kind of truth by virtue of thinking and believing it.
And honestly, I’m in complete awe at this entire structure; not just the sheer uniqueness of the world Lostetter has created (although that delights and confounds me endlessly) but the world she’s built on top of that, and how well both fit together. She’s crafted this literally epic – in scale and scope and sheer awesomeness – conspiracy, made it virtually seamless, and made sure there’s no way we’ll ever guess what’s really behind the curtain. The world Krona and the rest of the characters inhabit is every bit as intricate and believable as our world, and then the real world, the world underneath all that, is just–
AHHHH. I can’t talk about it because spoilers, but seriously, WHAT, and HOW, and WTF, and I CAN’T EVEN, and THIS IS SO DAMN COOL.
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
greyreads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
The gender in these books makes me feel insane (derogatory).
nbucaro15's review
5.0
After defeating a long-dead serial killer, they now work to uncover the truth behind the Thalo, the quiet, creeping puppet masters of their world.
I love this series. It is such a unique world, magic system, and religion. It's a great cross between fantasy and horror. This book series started out as a mystery surrounding a serial killer and has become so much more than that. This second installment in the series broadens the scope to include the whole society instead of just specific people. However, it does come back around at the end to remind us of the importance of that plot! We continue following our favorite character from book one, Krona, but we also get new POVs including a POV from one of the Thalo. This POV is so interesting because it allows us to learn about what is definitely a cult kidnapping children and how they plan to start a war in order to exert control over all of society. Personally I hate so much about what the Thalo are/do, but it was easily the most intriguing part of the book. Overall, this book gets 5 stars from me because I love the characters and world, but the plot of this book does feel like a set up for book 3. A book I need ASAP!
I love this series. It is such a unique world, magic system, and religion. It's a great cross between fantasy and horror. This book series started out as a mystery surrounding a serial killer and has become so much more than that. This second installment in the series broadens the scope to include the whole society instead of just specific people. However, it does come back around at the end to remind us of the importance of that plot! We continue following our favorite character from book one, Krona, but we also get new POVs including a POV from one of the Thalo. This POV is so interesting because it allows us to learn about what is definitely a cult kidnapping children and how they plan to start a war in order to exert control over all of society. Personally I hate so much about what the Thalo are/do, but it was easily the most intriguing part of the book. Overall, this book gets 5 stars from me because I love the characters and world, but the plot of this book does feel like a set up for book 3. A book I need ASAP!