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lady_moon's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
To be honest I'm not sure I'm satisfied with the path each sibling had. S was annoying for the better part of the book but she didn't deserve this sort of ending. Riva started out well, I liked her in the beginning. And then came Tristan 😐 After they got together, Riva became insufferable. Her whole ending was definitely not what I wanted it to be.
K was fine the whole time <3 In the beginning he was less interesting the his sisters but as the novel progressed, he was honestly the only POV character who hadn't annoyed the hell out of me.
I'm not a fan of
I didn't quite get the ending with K. Like,
Anyway, I have certain opinions (obviously) but I'm really not feeling that strongly about any of that for it to matter to me. I'm happy how stuff turned out for K (I guess?) and that's the most important thing. Historical fiction with trans characters will never be not fun.
Graphic: Blood, Deadnaming, Transphobia, and War
Moderate: Pregnancy, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Confinement, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
catherinedsharp's review
- 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
Would recommend.
Graphic: Dysphoria, Death, War, Blood, Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Fire/Fire injury
becksusername's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Moderate: Colonisation, Deadnaming, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Sexism, Transphobia, and War
abbymrendon's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, War, Gore, Body horror, and Murder
Moderate: Transphobia and Religious bigotry
shcleveland's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
At first, I had a really hard time caring about Riva and Sinne. In particular, I found Sinne's sections grating. Up to about the 60% mark, I was wishing Keyne was an only child. As the plot picked up, however, the importance of Riva and Sinne's threads became more apparent. I had an inkling about the big plot twist early on, but the author managed to have me going back and forth second-guessing my assumptions. If I were just rating on plot and characters, the book would be a solid 4.5 stars. However...
There were so many details about the historical setting that I found confusing or just made me want to beat my head against a wall. "WHAT YEAR IS IT????"' was a question I found myself asking constantly. Based on the ash falling from the sky I'm GUESSING that we're looking at 536 CE and boy or boy does that lead me to more questions about the state of affairs as far as the Christianization of these pagan cultures goes. The Romano-Britons probably would have been mainly Christian at that point if I remember correctly.
Which brings me to the paganism of the book. I couldn't tell if the author was going for syncretism, or just pulling the names of pagan gods out of a hat. Some of the West Saxon enemies might have been worshiping Woden, but probably not these Brythonic-speaking celts? The festivals mentioned also looked suspiciously like the Wiccan Wheel of the Year. The Old English Eostre was used in place of Ostara at least, but... the author is clearly aware that it was the Saxons that spoke Old English since there's straight up OE dialogue for them in the book. It's more likely they would have worshipped Eostre? I have questions.
There's also a reference to Lammas, which is again Middle English though it comes from the Old English for "loaf mass" a term that I don't think even the West Saxons would have been using in 536? I'm pretty sure there's a Welsh harvest festival that would have made more sense.
Anyway, the religion and linguistics were just a distracting mess.
Moderate: Death of parent, Gore, Transphobia, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Sexism
Minor: Pregnancy and War
laurajeangrace's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Transphobia, War, Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Confinement, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia
Minor: Vomit
mooshake's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: War, Ableism, Deadnaming, Gore, Transphobia, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Medical content, Blood, Colonisation, Death, and Dysphoria
Minor: Pregnancy
katie_11's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Deadnaming, Transphobia, and War
thealienamongus's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Blood, Grief, Body horror, War, and Transphobia
Moderate: Deadnaming, Terminal illness, and Death of parent
simon_toast's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Gore, War, Blood, Body horror, Violence, and Sexual content
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Deadnaming