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rheagoveas's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Violence, and Blood
kadomi's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
WTF did I just read? Finishing this book left me quite confounded. It had a strong start, a confusing middle, and an absolute what the fuckery ending. I haven't been so confused by a book since reading Harrow the Ninth. Speaking of that series, the middle part vaguely reminded me of Gideon the Ninth, but way less cool.
In any case, this is a challengingly written sapphic revenge story that is very anti-capitalist. The first person narrator Marney (a terrible narrator, I kinda hated her) loses her family as a kid at a peaceful worker protest. Her family all worked in the ichorite industry, a mysterious metal that is driving industry, and Marney is a so-called lustertouched, highly sensitive to this metal to the point it makes her ill, but also able to manipulate it. Marney then runs into a band of bandits, let's say they're communist, as they're also plotting to overthrow evil nobility and capitalists. Oh, and just about everyone is a 'crawly', a lesbian.
Eventually, Marney falsely pretends to be a baron's daughter, in the running to marry the ichorite industrial's daughter, so she can finally move in and kill him to avenge her family. And then it gets weird...er, I should say.
I'll give it 3 stars because it was fascinating, but I can't honestly say I would recommend it to anyone, other than admiring that such queer literature exists today.
In any case, this is a challengingly written sapphic revenge story that is very anti-capitalist. The first person narrator Marney (a terrible narrator, I kinda hated her) loses her family as a kid at a peaceful worker protest. Her family all worked in the ichorite industry, a mysterious metal that is driving industry, and Marney is a so-called lustertouched, highly sensitive to this metal to the point it makes her ill, but also able to manipulate it. Marney then runs into a band of bandits, let's say they're communist, as they're also plotting to overthrow evil nobility and capitalists. Oh, and just about everyone is a 'crawly', a lesbian.
Eventually, Marney falsely pretends to be a baron's daughter, in the running to marry the ichorite industrial's daughter, so she can finally move in and kill him to avenge her family. And then it gets weird...er, I should say.
I'll give it 3 stars because it was fascinating, but I can't honestly say I would recommend it to anyone, other than admiring that such queer literature exists today.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Sexual content, and Classism
Minor: Child abuse
lemilysnikda's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This is a complicated book to review because I loved many things but also really did NOT enjoy others. This was not an easy read. The writing style is unusual, blurry, and rambling at times, but it works well when the reader is supposed to be disoriented with our main character Marney. Ultimately I’m still debating if it was worth the struggle for me?
The beginning gripped me immediately. We follow Marney, a child laborer who escapes a protest gone violent and joins an all women gang of anti-capitalist bandits called the Choir. She vows to get revenge against the industry leader responsible. Marney is “lustertouched” from her exposure to the resource ichorite, which gives her the ability to harness (kinda gross) magic but at a cost.
Unfortunately, the story fell off a bit during the second quarter. It’s been a couple days since I finished the book now, and at this point I don’t think I could tell you much that happened in that quarter of the book. I do remember being very distracted by the prose then, but it was not an issue for me at all in the second half.
As other reviews have said, the events in the book’s description didn’t really pick up until the second half of the book. It almost feels like the start of a sequel—so much so that I wonder if this would’ve been better as a duology, which would’ve given us more time to experience the Choir and appreciate Marney’s relationships with those characters more.
At the halfway point, the reader meets a whole new cast of characters—all at the same time via dialogue from one of said new characters. Each of these characters had their own religion, background, political goals, and past romantic relationships with other characters. This was all very hard to keep track of because the characters have such similar seductive and brash personalities. It also didn’t help to be stuck in Marney’s head because Marney is attracted to pretty much everyone. Marney’s reverence for women is an essential part of the character (and was so refreshing to read!) BUT, when everyone is crazy and hot, they all kinda blur together.
I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention that there are also clearly parallels/nods to lesbian culture specifically, but I am sure I missed many of these because I’m not a member of the community. I’m leaving the review of this aspect to people who know what they’re talking about.
This is absolutely not a crowd-pleaser fantasy, but I do think it has the potential (and deserves) to garner a devoted following from the right readers. I’m seeing comparisons to Gideon the Ninth, and I think that’s right to an extent, but the tones are a bit different. I would also throw out a sprinkle of Arcane and A League of Their Own, but there’s something grittier here.
This is not a romance, but note there are sex scenes. Some relationships and scenes are quite toxic and even abusive, which was hard to read. Check content warnings.
eARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review
The beginning gripped me immediately. We follow Marney, a child laborer who escapes a protest gone violent and joins an all women gang of anti-capitalist bandits called the Choir. She vows to get revenge against the industry leader responsible. Marney is “lustertouched” from her exposure to the resource ichorite, which gives her the ability to harness (kinda gross) magic but at a cost.
Unfortunately, the story fell off a bit during the second quarter. It’s been a couple days since I finished the book now, and at this point I don’t think I could tell you much that happened in that quarter of the book. I do remember being very distracted by the prose then, but it was not an issue for me at all in the second half.
As other reviews have said, the events in the book’s description didn’t really pick up until the second half of the book. It almost feels like the start of a sequel—so much so that I wonder if this would’ve been better as a duology, which would’ve given us more time to experience the Choir and appreciate Marney’s relationships with those characters more.
At the halfway point, the reader meets a whole new cast of characters—all at the same time via dialogue from one of said new characters. Each of these characters had their own religion, background, political goals, and past romantic relationships with other characters. This was all very hard to keep track of because the characters have such similar seductive and brash personalities. It also didn’t help to be stuck in Marney’s head because Marney is attracted to pretty much everyone. Marney’s reverence for women is an essential part of the character (and was so refreshing to read!) BUT, when everyone is crazy and hot, they all kinda blur together.
I would also be remiss if I didn’t mention that there are also clearly parallels/nods to lesbian culture specifically, but I am sure I missed many of these because I’m not a member of the community. I’m leaving the review of this aspect to people who know what they’re talking about.
This is absolutely not a crowd-pleaser fantasy, but I do think it has the potential (and deserves) to garner a devoted following from the right readers. I’m seeing comparisons to Gideon the Ninth, and I think that’s right to an extent, but the tones are a bit different. I would also throw out a sprinkle of Arcane and A League of Their Own, but there’s something grittier here.
This is not a romance, but note there are sex scenes. Some relationships and scenes are quite toxic and even abusive, which was hard to read. Check content warnings.
eARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship
squid_rl's review against another edition
A fun read until chapter 11, which included a very violent, very long sex scene that seemed to portray the violence as sexy, even though clearly not consensual
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism
charlieeew's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Body horror, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, and War
Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Genocide, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol
steponme_yam's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
An excellent choice for my 69th book of the year. Two things especially impressed me about Metal from Heaven:
1. The worldbuilding: The author has put in a ton of effort to create a world with many distinct cultures, religions, naming systems, etc. - not just the existence of these things, but the ways that these cultures affect everything that the characters do. It was extremely immersive and felt very rich to me in a way that most fantasy novels don’t.
2. There’s a great payoff moment at the book’s emotional climax that really made the whole thing feel worth it to me.
My only dislike is the writing style, which is artistic, beautiful, and not really for me. The writing made it hard for me to get into the first half of the book, but with that said I am doing an immediate reread so I did end up liking it by the end.
(disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in a exchange for an unbiased review)
1. The worldbuilding: The author has put in a ton of effort to create a world with many distinct cultures, religions, naming systems, etc. - not just the existence of these things, but the ways that these cultures affect everything that the characters do. It was extremely immersive and felt very rich to me in a way that most fantasy novels don’t.
2. There’s a great payoff moment at the book’s emotional climax that really made the whole thing feel worth it to me.
My only dislike is the writing style, which is artistic, beautiful, and not really for me. The writing made it hard for me to get into the first half of the book, but with that said I am doing an immediate reread so I did end up liking it by the end.
(disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in a exchange for an unbiased review)
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, Violence, and Police brutality
Minor: Homophobia, Abortion, Lesbophobia, and Dysphoria
timac's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
ellie_1997's review
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
very unique and yet simultaneously the average lesbian experience
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, and War
Minor: Animal death, Abortion, and Colonisation
nightstitch96's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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
If you enjoy books by Andrew Joseph White and/or Tamsyn Muir, you'll enjoy this. It's powerful and weird and full of love and finding where you belong and beautifully queer. Really enjoyed my time with this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Body horror, Chronic illness, Gun violence, and War
Minor: Xenophobia and Abortion
sol_journal's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.0
**Thank you Kensington Publishing and NetGalley for the arc! All thoughts and opinions are my own.**
Posted to: NetGalley, Goodreads, and The Storygraph
Posted on: 7 October 2024
3.4 (rounded down to 3) out of 5 stars.
I don’t know where to start for this one. I wanted to love it, so so SO badly did I want to enjoy this! Rebecca Roanhorse hadn’t steered me wrong before so I was ready for another banger she reviewed.
It fell short for me and I don’t know why! It was easy going first. You do kinda start off kind of thrown into this world, but I think August Clarke does a splendid job of pulling you through with the main character. I think what got me confused some was the sudden ‘you’ that was mentioned and turned out to be a friend (potentially lover too I think?) of Marney. Once I got it though, it was like nothing.
I think what bugged me was the pacing? It started off with a bang, kind of slows down, and I feel like it alternates between these action scenes and suddenly slower informational bits. The world building was slipped into these slower bits, and I think it just felt like a dump at times? I literally entered a reading slump during one of the slower bits and found myself pushing through until it got a little better, but I just couldn’t bring myself to force-read it anymore.
I say this, but still I don’t think it was a /bad/ read. It just wasn’t for me at the moment. I do want to try and pick it back up again another time because the plot was good. I was here for the lesbians and the worker’s revolt, and I was not left wanting. I think the info bits were just dragging too much, and I was too distracted to fully re-immerse myself after picking it back up from one break already. Lots of people did seem to enjoy this read though, and I can really see why! At the same time, I can also see how it isn’t for everybody as well. It’s definitely an interesting ready, and the writing style wasn’t entirely my favorite, but it’s one I want to come back to. Just for now, I had to DNF because I didn’t see myself picking it back up again and actually finishing it before it released.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, and Blood