Reviews tagging 'Classism'

The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

20 reviews

uraveragelesbianreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad 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

5.0

I would give this book more stars if I could. Although I do not consider myself particularly vulnerable to tiktok marketing I will admit tiktok made me read this book and for once I would like to thank them for it. The writing of this book is wonderful and its prose keeps your interest and leaves you putting together the pieces at the same speed as our main character, leading to an engaging experience. On the note of the main character, Nirrim as a main character is a wonderful decision. Her development feels slow and steady but is not necessarily linear. She struggles, she progresses and she regresses as she finds her morals and values in a confusing world. Every element of the plot is wonderfully discovered and although not all the plotwists are gasp-inducing ones they all feel earned and powerful to the plot. I will not spoil anything but the ending is just wonderful and so so beautifully well earned. The ending felt like the final note of a wonderful song and if I do not get my hands on the second book as fast as possible I will not know what to do with myself. The main romance of this book was just spectacular. It didnt feel contrived or like it was forced into a plot that did not really need romance, this book NEEDED its romance subplot and it is used expertly to enhance the plot. I have to say Sid and Nirrim are most definitely in my top 3 sapphic book couples of all time. To give you an idea of just how good it is, I annotate my books with pink flags to denote romantic scenes, I went through at least 1/4 of my pink flags in this book alone. The way this book uses its fantasy setting to touch upon real issues in society was done expertly and although it is not technically a dystopia the parallels are quite clear. I would recommend this book to just about anyone but specifically; those who enjoy HEAVY romance subplots, those who enjoy mystery books and are looking to reach out and people who think reading about lesbians uncovering secrets of the past sounds fun.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Violence, and Classism

Moderate: War and Lesbophobia

alsoapples's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism and Blood

Moderate: Bullying, Drug use, Lesbophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Gaslighting

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Child death, Classism, and Gaslighting

Minor: Lesbophobia, Sexual content, Alcohol, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Police brutality, and Violence

haylzno's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring 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

2.75

This was almost a DNF for me. 
The plot really seemed to... stall, like a bunch of times. I found myself getting bored frequently. 
I did listen to this as an audiobook and narration is really a make it break thing for me and I wasn't a huge fan of the narration, so honestly that played a big part. 

I always love me so good queer rep. But the MC and her relationship with her "mother" made me irrationally frustrated. By the time I decided I wanted to DNF I was only about an hour from finishing it so I pushed through, and honestly I don't remember a whole lot because I just couldn't make myself care. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Classism, Death of parent, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Homophobia and Drug use

bonnienoire's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual harassment, Classism, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, and Homophobia

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content

imaginingly's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

the TENSION this book had oh my GOSH
this was really good but— actually that’s all, it was a really good book and i enjoyed it from the very beginning! the ended definitely left me wanting more but it didnt have the “wow” factor to make it a 5 star

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gaslighting and Classism

Minor: Homophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Sexual content, and Death

malhale's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Torture and Physical abuse

k_aro's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• 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

3.75

I really didn't expect much from The Midnight Lie—be as it may, I'm a little bit of a snob over fantasy novels due to the fact that I read a large quantity as a kid, and I saw it recommended from BookTok, which, based on my previous BookTok books has been... a mixed bag. Admittedly I wasn't shocked by many of the reveals, but I don't think that's a critique of the book; I think it's smart about revealing just enough that it makes sense on re-reads.

That said, I did not expect the ending! It's not like, a cheap plot twist, but it's such a painful refusal of closure that it hurts me just thinking about it. I didn't cry over the ending, but sheesh, I'm really looking forward to reading the next book. I also think it's a super well-written villain ending—I've read some books *coughs* The Young Elites *coughs* that REALLY muck up the villain ending and essentially spoil the experience of having read the book at all.

I do have some things I don't love about this book: for one, that Nirrim is so blind to Raven's consistent emotional/domestic abuse, despite her ability to spot it in other people (i.e. Aden). Like, I get that Nirrim and Raven's relationship is different to that of her and Aden's, but it just feels kind of weird that up until the proper reveal of who Raven is, Nirrim's insistent on thinking of her as the same one-dimensional mother figure who sometimes makes mistakes and hurts her. I'm not saying Nirrim has to be on board to condemn Raven the first time she does something bad, but it's just... weird, I guess.

I also think that the first like... fourth? Of the book is a little slow. It's got a lot to set up, so I'm not, like, mad that it's slow, but it does make it a bit hard to get into.

Also, there's certainly NO commentary going on about how the Half Kith's body parts are literally being used for the pleasure of the High Kith. Nope. No commentary at all. Not even about how Raven extorts families to get them families to move up in the world. Nada. Zip. Nothing. (This is sarcasm—sometimes, fantasy caste systems can be a bit... overstated, which to a certain degree could be true here, it also I think treats it with a bit more real parallels that it feels more verisimilitudinous to me.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Confinement, Abandonment, Blood, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Violence, Classism, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Drug use, Murder, and Rape

Minor: Death of parent, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, and Child death

A note on the moderate content warning for rape:

The only reason I hesitate to put it under graphic is because, under all stops, the line between whether or not Aden rapes Nirrim is... concerningly thin, but still technically there. It's highly coercive and under most circumstances, would probably be considered rape—and this is not to downplay the real sexual trauma for whom coercive sex was the source of it—but Nirrim (until a certain moment) is technically never threatened verbally/coerced verbally. Is it highly coercive and at the very least dubious consent? Yes. But is it rape? I really can't tell, and given the purpose of trigger warnings as warnings that might *trigger* someone, I'm not 100% sure what to categorize it as.

Aside from that, the homophobia/lesbophobia is rarely actually acted out character-on-character; it's only as a facet of the fact that the lower Kiths are not permitted to have same-sex relationships. The actual brass tacks of characters being in same-sex relationships are not considered *morally* wrong.

sarahna's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Classism, Grief, Body horror, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Sexual content

giuliaprim's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Classism, and Confinement