Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Name-Bearer

Plot: 4.5/5
World building: 4/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Writing: 3.75/5
Grammar/editing: 2/5

In general, I enjoyed this book and the unique premise. Unfortunately, I don’t think this book was edited at all. There was some expositional elements repeated when they didn’t need to be, and there were a ridiculous amount of typos and missing or incorrect punctuation marks. There were also quite a few run-on sentences. The obvious lack of editing took me out of the story often.

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charliebites's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

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nick_w's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful inspiring relaxing fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

Not very strong writing and some consistency issues. Characters aren’t well developed, and the plot moves too quickly. Entire battles or challenges are overcome in a few paragraphs with little detail or description, which doesn’t leave me aching to get to the next page. Also seems like a LOT of plot points are being set up for book 2. The vignette chapters are only a page or two long and don’t add to the story, they seem to be simulating mystery, but it falls flat.

I do love the Latin culture, LGBTQ+ teasers, and where some of the plot lines seem to be going, and I’m looking forward to finishing the series and seeing the resolution. Just a bit below my reading level and the amount of detail I prefer in a book.

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searobin's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful slow-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? No

4.0

I absolutely LOVED this book, but it does have its issues, so rating it is a bit hard. The two main things are that it ends up feeling like one long prologue, and that the writing feels like YA but some of the violence are detailed to a degree that doesn't suit YA. I really loved the characters, I liked getting to know the friends and some and the travelling companions so well, but it's a bit weird for an adventure book; it felt much more "slices of life" than adventure. I'm also curious about how our MC got so much education, but had so little awareness of how her situation was developing on the outside. It felt like she just ignored/didn't learn anything it for those 10 years.

All in all, I loved how immersed we were in the story, but it is unusual for the genre.

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cozyscones's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

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wy_woman's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

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mickeyisnthere's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.5

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lexi17d's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-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

3.75

I really enjoyed the premise of this book. The representation was great, the story was unique, the characters interesting and well developed. I am a huge fan of our main character. Her development as a character felt very realistic, and I loved reading her journey. The side characters were all very distinct people, and I loved watching her relationships with each one progress and develop. This book has one of the most unique plots that I’ve read, and I love the diversity included in this book within the Latinx and LGBTQ communities.

The biggest critique I have of this book is the writing itself. I recognize this book is an independently published book and is the authors first novel, so I am overlooking simple editing errors in grammar, punctuation, sentence structure etc. (I’m no editor, so I can’t reliably comment on those anyways). However, many of the large plot points and scenes were quickly glossed over and briefly explained rather than shown, which threw the pacing off and left me feeling slightly unfulfilled. I think this book would have greatly benefited with an extra 50-100 pages to really fill out the story and add the detail, world building, and development of side characters that I felt was missing. As this is the first book in a series, I have confidence that it will only improve, though I wish we got to see more of what was happening with other characters later in the book, and got more context with the world earlier in the book. The ending was also very abrupt, and left me feeling confused.

That is all to say that I want more from this book! I think this is a great start for this author and series, and I will be continuing the series once the next books come out. I can’t wait to see how this author improves in the next books, and to see what happens next to our MC!

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