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Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol
Minor: Bullying, Police brutality
Also me: time to read the second one!
Easy, quick read and palate cleanser for me after a bit of a reading slump. I think the premise was really interesting and the last third of the book was especially compelling. It was definitely entertaining and a page turner, and I will 100% be reading the sequel since the end is sheer cliffhanger.
I wish the characters were better developed - the side characters in particular were inconsistent to me and I had a hard time keeping track of people's motivations and alleigances. Also total lack of diversity and I didn't get a sense of much growth from anyone really. Hopefully that's developed in the sequel but I'm not holding my breath.
It was also fairly formulaic, predictable, and fell back on a lot of tropes that I find pretty tired these days. She relied heavily on telling us rather than showing us, even while she laid out plenty of more subtle clues to the direction of the story. And the paragraph break before a single line for emphasis?
Really drives me crazy. 🙃
It felt like a strong premise that was ultimately undercut by conforming to the style of popcorn fantasy books that are really popular right now. I think the author's prose and world building have promise. She needs to trust her audience more to follow her lead and to show rather than tell.
Graphic: Blood, Abandonment
Moderate: Child abuse
PROS:
🩸The Infection
🖤Raven
🩸The Highwaymen
🖤Court Intrigue
🩸The Magic System
🖤All magic has a cost
🩸The Nightmare
🖤The poems
CONS:
🩸Royals only concerned with their own power
🖤Genocidal tendencies
🩸The cost of some magic is too much to bear and it isn’t always a choice
🩸🩸🩸🩸🩸 out of five infected young girls with cat like yellow eyes
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence
Moderate: Genocide, Blood
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Sexual content
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Abandonment
Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual content, Abandonment
Minor: Genocide, Infidelity, Murder, Alcohol
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Death of parent, Alcohol
Minor: Cursing, Self harm, Vomit
Graphic: Body horror, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Murder
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Abandonment
looking forward to reading book two!
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Death of parent
Minor: Child abuse, Child death
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Sexual content
Minor: Child abuse, Child death