Reviews - The Unbroken | The StoryGraph

3.09k reviews for:

The Unbroken

C.L. Clark

3.89 AVERAGE

surge76's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

courto875's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

paxson's review against another edition

4.0

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

I deeply enjoyed the world building here. It felt connected to a reality I could touch but yet fantastical enough to fill the fantasy bill. A story about empire and rebellion, of colonization and revolt, of love and war. A great first installment to the series and I can’t wait to start the next one.

Content Warnings

mango_r1ce's review against another edition

3.5

slow-paced

rebeccazh's review against another edition

I really wanted to like this but unfortunately I think this isn't for me. Like others have mentioned, the book is very slow-paced. On top of that, I'm a character-driven reader and neither of the two main leads really grew on me. I did like their scenes together and the romance, but I found it hard to really grow attached to either character. However, I really appreciated the commentary on empire. This was where the book really shone, in it's portrayal of empire and colonization.

dareka29's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark hopeful reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I rated this book a 5 immediately after reading, then downgraded to a 4 after having more time to process. The world building was great, along with the underlying complexity of the political conflict and its effect on everyone. I downgraded this because the romance is essentially a master-slave narrative. At one point the “master” makes a choice that is so heinous that it becomes impossible to root for them individually or as a couple. That could be fine, but the book doesn’t really address it and the summary of the sequel makes it sound like it will ultimately be ignored. I would have expected this particular action to destroy all of the goodwill built up between the two characters, and I was surprised that they even continued to interact. If not for that, it would be a much better book.

Content Warnings