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bookishchef'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
3.75
The worldbuilding isn't great. I'm sorry, but it's true. New questions kept popping into my mind while reading this book, and almost none of them got a complete answer.
Who is the Empire fighting a war against?
No idea.
Why is the Empire at war?
No idea.
How did the Empire come into existence?
No idea.
What are the main differences between each planet/each house?
No idea (except their powers seem to differ a bit and the Ninth has a different religion).
Why do the characters know so little about the other houses?
No idea.
How will the Houses function when the heir apparent dies or when a House bloodline comes to an end?
No idea.
How is this Empire so adept at space travel when they do not have internet, satellites, or even engineers (not in the Ninth anyway)?
No idea.
And so on.
All of this did bother me throughout the story and I had to consciously decide to ignore it.
Luckily, the characters kind of make up for it. All the characters, even the side characters, have their own distinct personalities. This story has over 16 characters to keep track of and they all feel different and unique.
I'd argue that the Second House gets the least developed personalities, but I still know exactly what they're about.
This book is also very funny. Gideon is hilarious and her repertoire with Harrowhark is very entertaining. For me, it never got old.
There's some very entertaining plottwists too. I saw some of them coming, but not all of them and that kept me reading on. I was genuinely invested in the mysteries. Shame we don't get an answer to some of them.
So yeah, I liked it, but I don't really get the enormous hype surrounding it. The book definitely has flaws even if it can be very entertaining.
I hated the ending. It didn't feel earned to me.
Also not sure if the space setting added anything. This could have been a normal Empire consisting of several countries or continents and I don't think it would have changed the story at all. If anything, it would have answered some of my worldbuilding questions.
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Murder, Violence, and Bullying
Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Gore
Minor: Confinement, Vomit, Cannibalism, and War
islanderscaper's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: War, Xenophobia, Violence, Suicide, Death, Murder, Gore, Body horror, and Blood
ljausten05'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? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Suicide attempt, Gore, Toxic relationship, and Vomit
Moderate: Colonisation, War, Abandonment, and Confinement
katbsc's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Negatives:The exposition of this book is so dense and yet not dense enough. It's a complicated, unfamiliar world being built, and building it in your mind is quite the task. The language of the book has an air of trying a little too hard to sound profound, which can be off-putting. There is a HUGE cast of characters in this book, and each character is referred to in a rotation of 4 different ways: their first name, their last name, their house/role, and their physical description. This can be VERY confusing to try to keep straight (at least to me in my ADHD brain)
Graphic: Gore, Blood, Murder, Child death, Death, and Ableism
Moderate: War, Violence, Toxic friendship, Cancer, Xenophobia, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Blood, and Terminal illness
helfire124's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Terminal illness, Gore, Body horror, Death, Blood, Vomit, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Bullying, Cannibalism, War, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Cancer, Child death, Child abuse, Abandonment, Confinement, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts
taylorbarks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
One of my favorite reads this year. Thoroughly recommended.
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
Moderate: Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Death, Grief, Medical content, Violence, and Gore
Minor: Confinement, Death of parent, Vomit, Cancer, Child death, and War
rlgreen91's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Gideon is a great character - I really enjoyed how the author managed to hit a personality sweet spot of self-confidence, compassion, and self-deprecation. I enjoyed a lot of the characterization honestly. I also liked that a good chunk of the dialogue made me laugh - the style of humor reminds me a bit of A Confederacy of Dunces. It can be easy to run into fantasy stories that take themselves a little too seriously, so it was really refreshing to chuckle at some of the interactions.
I also really enjoyed the fight scenes. I can't say I read a lot of stuff with fight scenes, but that's always struck me as something that's particularly difficult to convey as an author. But the fight scenes were so excellent because they were so engaging - you would start one and get caught up in the scene at hand. There was no way you could stop reading mid-scene. That was a very big highlight of the book, so if fight scenes are something you're looking for or picky about, I highly recommend you pick this up.
Like I said above, it's been a bit since I've been this hooked by a mystery. There were definitely moments throughout that made me suspicious about what would ultimately happen, and how that would be a twist on the plot points we were seeing happen. I know that if I were to re-read this, I would find even more breadcrumbs. However, that won't be happening any time soon - I've already ordered the next book, Harrow the Ninth, which I'm hoping contains a lighthearted origin story of the nickname "Griddle". 5 stars.
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Cancer, Child death, and Grief
Minor: War and Infertility
lisa_m's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It took me some time to understand what was going on but once I got into it I started to really enjoy it. This book is absolutely hilarious at times and I was actually laughing.
The setting is something I did not quite understand and I still have a lot of questions about the whole world building and everything. I do think that most of the information is actually in the book but it was a bit difficult at times to understand everything. Also there are a lot of characters that I continuously got mixed up.
The ending was a unexpected though predictable. I thought this might happen but I also thought the author would dare.. I am really interested to read the rest of the series and I hope it will be easier to read since I already know the world kind of.
I also thought the book would be more explicitly lesbian since that was one of the main selling points for me. But who know maybe in the following books.
I did love the relationship between Gideon and Harrow though. It was a bit frustrating at times but also super fun.
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, War, and Death of parent
threeredwood's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Gore, and Blood
Moderate: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, and Violence
Minor: Death of parent, Terminal illness, War, and Child abuse
mycatnorbert'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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Vomit, Suicide, Murder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror
Moderate: Toxic friendship
Minor: Abandonment, Death, War, Cancer, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, and Emotional abuse