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Graphic: Chronic illness, Violence, Vomit, Death of parent, War
Moderate: Gore, Xenophobia, Murder, Toxic friendship
Minor: Ableism
More venting:
- I struggled to care about almost every single character. For example, I’m supposed to think the main character is smart (I could tell by the book constantly telling me how smart she is), but I never did, and that was almost her only character trait (other than “petite” and “beautiful” and “special for no reason” apparently)
- i don’t think it’s accurate to call the romance “enemies to lovers” when her enemy never actually feels like a threat.
- There was an attempt at a love triangle. It added absolutely nothing to the character development or the plot, so I failed to see why that extra awkwardness was necessary.
- The writing style felt disrespectful to me as a reader. A PROFESSOR at this WAR SCHOOL should not be defining what a griffin is 70% of the way through the book while talking to their STUDENTS AT SAID WAR SCHOOL. I get that lore dumps are clunky in fantasy, but this was so much worse than anything I’ve ever read.
- I simply do not believe the dragons would behave as kindly to this main character as they do. That doesn’t make any sense to me in the context of the world that was presented. I was given no reason to believe them.
- I don’t feel qualified to speak on disability representation, but I will briefly say that I find it absolutely ridiculous that this world is so unwilling to accommodate anyone. The whole point of the school is to kill off the people who aren’t able bodied “enough”! That feels gross to me, despite the main character working with her own disability and the smallest bit of accommodations late in the book. Again, not my area of expertise, so take that with a grain of salt.
- There was a constant stream of the history of the world but the magic system wasn’t built up at all, which was frustrating. I expected it to be more important but apparently it’s fine if people don’t learn to control things?
- I had to look up a plot summary to make sure I had read the right book because the ending was so predictable and the writing struggled so much that I was convinced everyone else was praising something else. Unfortunately I had read the right book. Fortunately it made little to no impression on me and I can move on having only lost time, not memory space.
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content
Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Fire/Fire injury
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
This is a huge mashup of a bunch of popular tropes; enemies to lovers, competitive survival/hunger games, magic school, magically branded, kid of the boss/warleader, with teen sensibilities but college age soldiers.
Spicy and silly with DRAGONS! .. and secrets, and libraries. telepathy, spirit bonds and a mildly unbelievable political premise.
This one gets bonus points for ethnic diversity and Disability rep.. the main character has joint hypermobility and chronic pain, and one of her friends is deaf-mute and uses sign language. This is a great illustration of people using various accommodations to allow people with different needs to meet their potential. The sexual content focuses on mindful and explicit consent.
The last part of the book annoyed me because BLAH battles.. I'm not really interested in battles.
Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War
Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Medical trauma
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Drug use
I hated it a lot less the second time around. Long story short: the premise is awesome but the writing SUCKS. (Rating: 3)
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship