Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Sistersong

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

22 reviews

musicalpopcorn's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

In this retelling of a gruesome old song, a magical world on the brink of destruction needs saving, but who will be the one to protect it?

This was quite the story. I’m glad I looked up the Twa Sisters beforehand otherwise I think I would have had a massive shock about 3/4 of the way in. The book definitely takes a sharp turn.

I wasn’t all that interested in it to begin with. I didn’t find the story grabbed me, but once it took a darker turn, I definitely felt more inclined to see how it ended.

Interesting idea, so-so execution.

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ginalucia's review

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challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

This book blew me away.

It took a while for me to grasp each character as an individual, but I think that's the point because they, fairly quickly, start to become completely different beings, all going in multiple directions but barging into one another.

I love the way the book handles the trans character. Showing us the internal and external struggle but moving it forward in a gentle and pleasing way. It's part of the story, but it doesn't overshadow or undershadow it.

So unexpected, emotional, gripping, and thoughtful. A tense but enjoyable ride.

For more reviews and book recommendations, check out my YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/ginaluciayt

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confusible's review

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adventurous challenging emotional 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

3.5

I liked this but I’d maybe give it a 3.5 out of 5. I love historical fiction and I haven’t read anything proto-Arthurian, so the subject matter intrigued me. The 3 daughters of a royal family navigating life as both Christianity and the Saxons are invading their surroundings. Ultimately I enjoyed parts of it, especially Keyne’s storyline and her adventures with Mori (I could read a whole book about Mori). I was intrigued by Riva initially but she grew boring while Sinne was annoying at first and I grew to love her later. The world building was great, particularly the use of magic and the description of the magic as tied to the land and a pattern that someone connected to the land can see and pull power from. I did struggle to keep track of which sister was narrating because their voices weren’t very distinct. I also wanted to know more about some side characters, like Os, Cador, and Arlyn. The book moved very slow for me at first but really picked up in the last third and then I couldn’t put it down and I thought Holland brought it all together well at the end. I enjoyed the themes of sisterhood, the power of nature, and the importance of staying true to your identity even if it takes others time to recognize it. One tip for the publisher is that a pronunciation guide for books like this would be very helpful, at least for American audiences, I think struggling with the names was part of why it took me so long to get into it.

One thing to add is that I really liked the way Sinne was turned into a harp, it was gruesome but it had to be and I think it fit with the story so well, we needed to hear a bit more from her

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maeverose's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.0

TL;DR: Has similar themes to the winternight trilogy (old religion vs christianity, war, evil priest, similar tho different time period and setting). If you liked that, maybe you would like this. Though for me, I loved that and was ultimately bored for most of this book. It just didn’t hook me, and it didn’t help that I only really cared for one pov.

That being Keyne’s. As a genderqueer person I’m always interested in books with trans rep, and even though I don’t believe this is own voices I thought it was done really well. There is misgendering and transphobia from certain characters throughout, but it’s not a trans trauma story, and there are many characters who accept his identity (tho it does take them a minute to catch on), and his transness isn’t his whole character. It is a bit binary though, feeding into stereotypes of what a man should be, but given the time period it makes sense? So idk. Overall decent rep. (Loved chapter 23)

I didn’t care for Riva’s pov because it was primarily focused on the romance, which I didn’t like, and I didn’t like Sinne’s pov because of the jealousy plotline between her and Riva. I did appreciate that the author didn’t go full on ‘I’m gonna steal your man’ with that plotline but it still annoyed me. Especially because this is trying to be a feminist book but the two women’s povs we get are so tied to this one man and their feelings for him and their new dislike of each other because of it.

I’m also both disabled and disfigured (though in different ways than Riva or Os), and I found the rep in this book was neutral overall. Not offensive but not exactly empowering either. Anytime Reva’s scars were mentioned it was often in a negative context, but we were shown through Riva’s pov her struggles with it and how much it hurt when people did say negative things about it, and there were characters who didn’t treat her any differently because of it. Os’s mutism was handled the same I would say. I did like to see Sinne learn to communicate with him, and I thought their friendship was really sweet. I would just like to see a disfigured/disabled character be confident in their body rather than focusing solely on the negatives of it. My scoliosis has negatives; pain and physical limitations, but I also genuinely like how my body looks, and that seems to be a hard concept for some people to grasp.

As for the story, it didn’t feel like a lot happened even though things were happening. It felt slow to me. It focused more on character development and their thoughts and feelings than it did plot, which normally I like but because I only cared for Keyne and a few side characters it didn’t work for me this time.

The ending…

Riva and Cynric’s ending. On one hand I liked that it was so unexpected and atypical for most stories like this, on the other hand… he was never redeemed in any way. And he lied to her, the whole time planning on killing her father and her people, then nearly succeeded at that… so he doesn’t deserve a happy ending at all, and I don’t get why she still loved him through all that.

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