Reviews

Baru Cormorant is EVERYTHING to me!!! This book gave me everything I wanted and more, and I've been thinking about it for weeks. If you're like me and love complex political fantasy books about morally gray lesbians with tons of worldbuilding detail, this is a must-read.

To start with, Baru herself is an absolutely fantastic character with tons of depth. I found myself rooting for her basically immediately, drawn in by her curiosity and struggle to understand the rapidly changing world around her, and I kept on rooting for her all the way through, even as her curiosity got her in more and more of a mess. I love that she's so goal-oriented and calculating, but at the same time she makes mistakes and flounders and mopes. Even when she was making incredibly difficult decisions and really struggling, I felt like I understood her character clearly enough that those decisions still felt deeply understandable, especially given the way the text does such an effective job of showing how much Baru has lost in the colonization of her home. And speaking of Taranoki, the worldbuilding in The Traitor Baru Cormorant is incredibly rich and effective! I felt like I had a clear understanding of these different nations, their battle for power, and their complex inner workings. I also found the exploration of the "sanitation" systems, condemnation of certain sexualities, and especially the conditioning methods used to try and fix these issues to be so chilling and very rooted in real life patterns of thought surrounding eugenics and the like. Overall, it just felt like every little detail of the world both fit in and felt like a piece of a larger, more complex puzzle, creating a sense of a real, nuanced world even outside of the scope of what Baru experiences.

Another big positive for me was the relationships between the characters overall! Again, I absolutely loved the political mind games and seeing Baru struggle with who to trust, which makes the moments where she does trust (or not) all the more impactful. Also, I'm so obsessed with Tain Hu it's unreal, she's SO cool and crafty!!!! The characters in general just all felt so vivid and well-written, and I was always invested whether I liked them or not--which made the cutthroat politics of this book all the more intense. The core conflict of this world, of the Masquerade's colonization efforts, was extremely interesting and well-handled too, especially through the way that so much of this colonization is through technology, infrastructure, and knowledge. The discussion of the way these things can have "positive" effects like lessening disease and how that makes them an even more effective tool of imperialism is so interesting, and I loved the way Baru herself struggles with these ideas even while being a savant at learning them.

While I personally love this book's emphasis on complex political webs and tax season details, I can see this being an aspect that other people don't enjoy as much. I felt like knowing about all the practical and logistical parts of war did a great job of setting up Baru's cleverness and the story's tension, and I just really enjoy getting bits of worldbuilding detail, but readers looking for all-out action may be disappointed. For me, though, I had a great time with both the economic details and the duels!

Overall, I can't believe I didn't read this book sooner, but I'm glad I read it now! It feels like it really encapsulates so much of what I love about fantasy, with political intrigue, deeply complex characters, and nuanced worldbuilding. Without spoilers, I've been thinking about the ending for weeks, it was so visceral and moving for me, and I can't wait to get my hands on the next in the series. HUGE win for fans of morally gray, driven lesbians in fiction.

mixedsigneals's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

wattontheworld's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.5

vycee's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

brendalovesbooks's review against another edition

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3.0

Baru's homeland has been taken over by the Empire of Masks. They will change her culture, traditions, pretty much everything she knows and loves. She vows to rise in power in the Empire and get revenge for her homeland from the inside.

I think one of my main problems with this book is I could just never connect with Baru. I never really saw the charisma that supposedly drew everyone to her and made all these people follow her. I just didn't buy it. And I didn't care much for any of the other characters either. They all seemed very one-dimensional.

The world building was pretty good. Much of the time I was drawn into the story enough to want to keep reading, but there were quite a few slow spots.

This kept being billed as a brutal story, but I didn't find it to be overly so. I kept waiting for it to get there, but it never really did except maybe at the end, which still wasn't bad compared to some I've read.

All that said, I didn't dislike this book. If it's the start of a series, I would definitely continue.

danaelycia's review against another edition

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2.0

I wanted to like it, it has all the components of a book I'd love but it is just so boring. Tried reading and listening to audiobook and I couldn't get into either. Nothing grabbed my attention.

thesadcowboy's review against another edition

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While the prose was beautiful, I found myself unable to remember who anyone was and unable to care about any of them or their politics. And when the entire plot is politics and civil war, that makes it tough to care about the book as a whole.

vampossum's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

5.0

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