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eldane's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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 is exactly the space opera I was needing. This was a beautiful, powerful, and emotional book with some of the best-written characters I have ever seen. It takes immense skill to write bloodthirsty, cruel, murderers as your protagonists, but Bethany Jacobs does it well. The worldbuilding is incredible and detailed, and the plot is tightly woven and well-paced. I also loved the voice and writing style, and the descriptions were out of the world (ha). And the twist at the end? WOW. I was not expecting it at all. This has established itself as one of my favorite books of all time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Cursing, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Gore, and Grief
Moderate: Genocide, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, War, Colonisation, and Pedophilia
christyna's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
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
4.5
trashroyal's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
3.75
goodestmich's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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
4.75
jreed2282's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-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
4.5
icbeck21's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-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
4.0
mebius's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
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
4.0
emislostinabook's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
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? No
4.0
gwynnas's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
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? It's complicated
3.5
meanieinspace's review against another edition
Let's start with the positive: a character like Esek is really hard to actually pull off and make genuinely interesting. There is a great story about how the joker would be a much better policeman than batman in here. She is a great main character which brings me to the negative:
She is *the* main character. That in and of itself is a good thing, in my opinion, and Chono is a great supporting character. But. The alternating between the points of view and times creates a problem where for every pov character the story that is being told is, or by the end, should be a very very different story while the narrative treats it like one story with slightly different resolutions for each character. Jun's story falls almost completely flat as a result. Chono's too to be honest. Oh and Esek's and Six's too.
Esek *is* the main character but by the end it's clear that the story doesn't want her to be the main character and tries to give every character a fitting resolution which quite frankly would have required a different mode of telling their pov segments.
It's like you can't reall have 4 developed main characters and then have all but one of them end up in the same place (figuraritvely and literally). Like telling the story entirely from Chono's pov and making it her story would have been much more effective at that point I feel like (though obviously that's just like my opinion but it would have made it possible to do at least Esek amd Chono justice as characters).
Also I have been wondering how not being a native english speaker effects my evaluation of like the prose. Like I don't even know how I perceive all that. But it feels a little cluncky at times.
She is *the* main character. That in and of itself is a good thing, in my opinion, and Chono is a great supporting character. But. The alternating between the points of view and times creates a problem where for every pov character the story that is being told is, or by the end, should be a very very different story while the narrative treats it like one story with slightly different resolutions for each character. Jun's story falls almost completely flat as a result. Chono's too to be honest. Oh and Esek's and Six's too.
Esek *is* the main character but by the end it's clear that the story doesn't want her to be the main character and tries to give every character a fitting resolution which quite frankly would have required a different mode of telling their pov segments.
It's like you can't reall have 4 developed main characters and then have all but one of them end up in the same place (figuraritvely and literally). Like telling the story entirely from Chono's pov and making it her story would have been much more effective at that point I feel like (though obviously that's just like my opinion but it would have made it possible to do at least Esek amd Chono justice as characters).
Also I have been wondering how not being a native english speaker effects my evaluation of like the prose. Like I don't even know how I perceive all that. But it feels a little cluncky at times.