Reviews with content warning for Torture - The Traitor Baru Cormorant

For the first 15% of the book I found it a difficult read to get through due to the authors writing style. I am not a fan of extremely long sentences strung together with commas and this appears to be something that the author used quite a lot in the beginning. In addition there were often times where I had to reread a sentence multiple times because there weren't commas in places I would expect. For example:
'Since a time before Baru could remember how to remember the market had filled the Iriad docks, the most noisy and joyous thing in the world.'
It made the experience much more difficult, and this combined with learning new fantasy terms and jargon spun me out.

However, I was really intrigued by the premise of the story, watching a character go through her country being colonised and her grapple for power. I began to enjoy the book, but halfway through this fell flat again.

I found my interest lost with the intracacies of war. The war felt like the protagonist, and Baru the side character who is watching it all come together. I am told about battles or political alliances falling apart , lists of Duke names I have no personality to match to, so I don't feel like I'm experiencing it.

Of course this is in part due to the fact Baru is hidden away, a tactical adviser as all these events happen and she hears about them via letters of via her meetings.

Unfortunately even when

the final war breaks out

I still found myself searching for more. I wanted to care about the characters, about Baru and those she surrounded herself with. This book just fell so flat for me, and the only reason I dragged through to the end was in hopes I would finally feel connected to the consequences of her actions, or the pain characters went through. But I didn't.

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swordrager's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

4.5

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aileron's review

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adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

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bloodbrooxv's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

As a revenge trope truther, i LOVED this book.
The worldbuilding was thrilling and I adored all of the political intrigues, even tho i felt a bit lost with all of the names and plot threads (probably because I'm not a native speaker).
Baru was such a compelling and complex character to follow, especially towards the end. Her conflict is realistic and speaks volumes when we consider how colonialism is the main theme in this novel. The other characters were a bit flat, but I particularly liked both Tain Hu and Murie Lo.
The thing that bugs me the most about this book is probably the fact that it prefers telling you things rather than showing you, which isn't always necessarily bad. For example, even tho the other characters' motivations are clearly stated in the story, we don't really see how the consequential events play out, but rather we get to know about them through Baru.
Overall i really loved this book, the ending BROKE ME and i can't wait to read the second one.

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jan1e's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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

3.25

Baru is a really cool character and finishing this book makes me excited to read the other two that are out right now. Very long but Dickinson makes it feel worth it with callbacks to other sections of the book. This book had me swept away into another world.

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third_bookworm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense 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

5.0

This book makes me unwell. It's so, so well done and also so upsetting. Really excellent in many ways. This was my second time reading it, and like all my favorite books it truly hits differently the second time through.

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