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kirsten1999'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? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Genocide, War, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
Moderate: Infertility, Murder, Bullying, Gaslighting, and Miscarriage
trizk'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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Pregnancy, Grief, War, Xenophobia, Sexism, Misogyny, Death, Child death, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Murder, and Miscarriage
Moderate: Physical abuse and Child abuse
Minor: Sexual content
lifeofchrstnlvly'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
ā¦a personās tragedy doesnāt define them or cancel all the good in their life.
Wholeness, she had learned, was not the absence of pain but the ability to hold it.
The writing in this book is beautiful. M.L. Wang has a talent for writing wonderful battle scenes, with vivid descriptions and lush world-building. Additionally, Wang is able to evoke deep-seated emotions in the reader.
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, War, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Blood, and Death of parent
Moderate: Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Gaslighting
opalmars's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
Donāt get me wrong: the world, magic and characters were interesting. And the plot sounds incredible! A boy raised to be a fighter realizing the empire he was ready to die for has been lying to its citizens for decades? The boyās demure mother secretly being an incredible fighter? A war starting without warning and the mother and son fighting in it? It all sounds amazing on paper!!!
Emphasis on āon paperā , thoughā¦ Because in reality the pacing of this story truly kills its intrigue. In the first third of the book the only things that happen are: Mamoru realizes the empire lies to its citizens, we learn Misaki was a fighter in her past, and Misaki shows her fighting abilities to her son. Other than this, all we get are some EXTREMELY clunky pieces of world-building (long monologues, a lady telling an old story, and classroom history lessons detailing everything the reader needs to know about the history of this world are not a great way of doing the exposition, btw š¬). Here's the thing: the stuff we got WAS interesting! But Iām sorry: 230+ pages into a book and only 3 āsubstantialā things happened??? Thatās insane.
After those ~230 pages we FINALLY get something! Their village gets attacked by another country and they have to fight. And then the fight goes on for 100+ pagesā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ā¦ š Listen. I was happy *SOMETHING* was finally happening, but MY GODā¦ā¦ā¦. A 100+ page fight scene was waaaaaayyyy too much! There were definitely interesting things in that chunk of the book (
We then get the aftermath of the battle, which I enjoyed: seeing the trauma these people have after losing their loved ones, the village being destroyed, the government clearly not caring about them, people realizing that the government is shadyā¦ It was all very interesting. But, once again, it went on for waaaaay too long, with very few āsubstantialā things actually happening ā
Actually, for some reason, most of the interesting things happen at the end of the book (and theyāre never really expounded uponā¦).
Soā¦ yeah. The story didnāt work at all for me. š I genuinely donāt understand why people keep praising this authorās writing. It isnāt terrible, sure (I enjoyed the emotional scenes, the world and magic system were cool), but it sure as hell isnāt great š¤Ø. The pacing was a MESS and the book was full of really long, boring sections; the world-building was ridiculously amateurish (dozens of pages of history class, woman telling an old story, and never-ending monologues, are you kidding me???); there were lots of typos (Iāll forgive it bc this is self-published)ā¦ I also found all of these problems in Wangās newest book āBlood Over Bright Havenā and now Iām wondering if terrible pacing and expository monologues are this authorās signatureā¦ Yikes. š¬š¬š¬ Another thing I didnāt like about the writing: the narrator would randomly āspoilā things??? This only happened a couple of times, but it really took me out of the story. Like, suddenly the narrator would just say something like āWhat Mamoru didnāt know was that his own mother was hiding a super special sword in their houseā (which is something that only comes up in the actual plot several chapters later), or āHiroshi would master the whispering blade a decade laterā (this doesnāt even happen in the book)ā¦. These just always felt really random, idkā¦ š«¤
Now for the characters. I enjoyed Mamoruās story the most ā him slowly realizing the empire was lying to its citizens and having to grapple with what that means was super interesting (itās a shame we didnāt see more of that storyā¦). Misaki was cool. Knowing she had a badass vigilante past but was forced to hide it after accepting to marry into a family who basically didnāt view women as human beings was interesting, but also very infuriating (I just wanted her to get the fuck out of there lol). It was *extra* infuriating because, once again, the author teases us with what could be an interesting story, but then settles for the boring story. š I 10000% wouldāve rather seen Misakiās past in her fighting school and working as a vigilante with her foreign friends. Also, Robin was sooo much better than Takeru!!! It almost felt insulting to get a glimpse of Robin at the end, only to be forced to accept Takeru as Misakiās forever partner. š¤¢
Speaking of which: I donāt like Takeru. He spent *15 years* mistreating Misaki: not talking to her, ignoring her emotional distress after she had multiple miscarriages, lowkey raping her, letting his father beat her, intercepting letters from her friends to completely isolate her, not helping her take care of their children + also mistreating themā¦ the list goes on. And after all that time, Misaki tells him off for not protecting Mamoru and she duels him, and THATāS what gets him to start āaccepting herā?????? (Not even *respecting*! The word they use is āACCEPTINGā)????????? Fuckin pardon???? š¤Øš¤Øš¤Øš¤Øš¤Ø Iām reeeeeally fucking sorry (Iām not sorry at all), but youāre NOT going to make me like this man just because he decided to āacceptā Misaki after 15 YEARS of mistreating her and their children! Him having a sad home life because his parents didnāt like each other and he didnāt want that to happen to him and Misaki so he decided to just mistreat her anyways is a really bad way of explaining his actions (not like I wouldāve been happy with any excuse, by the way; he sucks regardless). The author trying to give him a redemption arc just doesnāt sit right with me. Your parents didnāt like each other? Boohoo. Youāre a grown ass man and you abused your wife for 15 years. I want you dead. š¤·š»āāļø Another reviewer responded to his excuse of ~dissociating into the mountain to get away from his emotions~ with āIf he's the mountain bring me the military grade TNT statā , and I just think that sums up my thoughts.
Random thing: the fact that the map of this world is basically just an upside-down map of *our* world (and the countries pretty much line up) is pretty interesting.
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Violence, War, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Grief, and Misogyny
Moderate: Miscarriage, Suicide, and Rape
narsere's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Domestic abuse, Child death, Rape, Death of parent, Grief, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Suicide, Violence, and War
readandfindout's review against another edition
4.75
Style/writing: 4.5 stars
Themes: 4.5 stars
Characters: 5 stars
Plot: 5 stars
Worldbuilding: 4.5 stars
Graphic: War, Gore, Death, Violence, Murder, Child death, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Grief, Misogyny, Blood, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Child abuse, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Racism and Miscarriage
charlotteregan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I need a hundred (100) business days to move on completely from this book.
Graphic: Sexism, Rape, Murder, Child death, and Child abuse
calmcozycorner'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
4.0
Graphic: Death, Blood, Murder, War, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, and Child death
Moderate: Rape, Xenophobia, and Pregnancy
Minor: Kidnapping
eleonorehilbig's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
however - i absolutely HATE infodumps. pages upon pages of it. we're reading through an actual history lesson that one of the main characters attends ffs.
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Murder, and War
cgn's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Sexism, Grief, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Blood, Murder, Death of parent, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
Moderate: Suicide, Child abuse, and War