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ravensandlace's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
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I really wanted to like this book. It had two very big criteria for me to like it: spies and Russia. So I should have loved it right? Wrong. I did not care for this book at all and it saddens me greatly. I still might watch the movie though because I love Jennifer Lawrence. And I have heard that the movie is slightly better than the book.
One of the big issues that bothered me was how the author described women. It was borderline degrading. Oh, who am I kidding, it was incredibly degrading to read the descriptions. It felt like he was describing cattle. I know that the author used to be a journalist but that still doesn’t mean he can describe women in any way he likes. Chest size and looks were constantly mentioned. Chest size, especially, was remarked upon all. the. time. Dominka’s uncle would often comment on her looks frequently, which was just creepy. It wasn’t in a friendly uncle way but more of a “ I wanna sleep with you” kind of way.
I think the author read a lot of Dan Brown and tried to copy Brown’s style of writing. There were so many info dumps of Russian spy things and the history of Russia’s spy ring but it wasn’t done well like with Brown’s books. It was just boring to read and I often had to force myself to read the huge blocks of paragraphs.
I was also promised a passionate romance between Dominka and Nate. Yeah, I didn’t get that at all. A few sex scenes which weren’t anything and just a lot of angst. Like so much angst. There are grown adults and it was irritating to read about them lusting after each other. They easily could have been together but instead chose to be difficult. I hate that.
Overall, I was pretty disappointed in case you couldn’t tell from the review above. I probably won’t continue with the series unless I am told it gets better and even though, I would have to really be convinced to pick this up again. It took a lot to read this and I don’t have the time to read books I’m not interested in.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence
In this book, the uncle of the main character makes a lot of remarks regarding the MC's beauty. They are comments not appropriate and are not challenged as they are mostly thoughts to himself.
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