Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

56 reviews

bujo_bellel's review

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Okay so I was really expecting this book to be like fully mind-blowing and stuff but tbh it didn't really  live up to that expectation. First of, the thing was Liesel was so random, like they didn't even know each other that well and boom they have a thing?? Like? I'm not sure if I missed out something between them in the last books (to be fair I took a long break in between the last book and this one) but I don't actually remember seeing much chemistry between them and just friendship of sorts? And like why was she in a sort of relationship with Liesel when she had Orion and she still had that kind of relationship after knowing Orion was alive like huhh??? The reveal that
El was actually really the one bringing down the enclaves because she had the ability to kill the mawmouths which were actually the foundations for the enclaves
was quite shocking but like it didn't really feel like much after reading the reveals in the past 2 books? The characters didn't really grow that much and the relationship between El and Orion was kind of weird
like the reveal that Orion was literally a mawmouth and that his mother, the next Domina of New York is literally a maleficer because she made him her Mal killing machine that can also extract the mana from them was part of it but still
made this book like kind of not as high stakes? Like the relationship between El and Orion made the ending of the last book so impactful and now in this book it was barely there. The previous 2 books were very high stakes and fast paced but this one is much slower and they're also out of The Scholomance which was part of the reason why the previous books were so engaging. I really loved El's character and I still like her in this book although I missed her usual snarkiness and I guess she really grew to be a bigger person but I miss her insults that are like the funniest comparisons ever but we didn't get to see much of that since El was nicer in this book. Like I really liked being in her head in the past books precisely because of the way she thinks and it wasn't as present in this book. Also I didn't like that El's friends were barely present in this book.. like they were there but for didn't add as much as they used to. I'm also kind of in a book hangover after Iron Flame and this made it worse honestly. Had really high hopes because I loved the other books :(
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bookswithbethx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

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chezler24's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

It has been quite the journey with Galadriel "El" Higgins and I was fairly content with how Novik decided to conclude her story. I tried to predict how it would end based on my guesses with Orion's nature and being, and, while I was on the right track, Novik played with her magic system in ways I had not yet dared to consider (no spoilers of course). I appreciated getting to see Enclaves around the world and realizing that the worldly wizarding hierarchy isn't that different compared to how social hierarchy functioned within the Scholomance pre-graduation.  Unfortunately, this global jumping around can sometimes come across as a bit disjointed while Novik attempts to spin out world-building at such a large scale. This along with a random sexual relationship with Liesel amidst her relationship with Orion left me wishing some threads had been edited more tightly for clarity. As a series, I really enjoyed the Scholomance trilogy, but this entry might be the least favorite of the three.
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nicchen22's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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

5.0

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nightsong0123's review against another edition

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Sexual content
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katharine2k's review against another edition

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adventurous funny 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

4.25

After the devastating end of book two
when Orion shoved himself off into the void and presumed dead
it took a lot of trudging to get through about the first half of this last book. Either I had grown too attached
to the school and Orion
or the actions that El made out of her grief and overall character development was frustrating to me and there were many times I just had to put the book down. I will say that at that halfway point, when I felt like El had come through the worst of her situation, I could not put the book down. Finishing the trilogy has left me with a lot of mixed feelings, most of them still being in love with the Scholomance and the characters and the other half still wanting to be a part of the adventure that is melting maw mouths and destroying evil enclaves. 
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kaitrates's review against another edition

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

2.5

Update 7/3/23:
Everything took SO long to get to and then the payoff was MEH. The emotional conclusion wasn't there. We were dragged all over the world for what?! To make it longer? UGH

One star because there were some bits of prose that took my damn breath away.
One star for El's character arc b/c that part was satisfying especially as it related to the prophecy. It was nice to see her step into her power and grow in the ways she did and end up surrounded by communmity.
1/2 star b/c I can imagine the reveals were HOLY SHIT moments if you weren't banging your head against the wall to *just* *be* *done* *already*. 

__
Original review 6/30/23:

Thank god it’s over how could something that was meant to be enjoyable be such a drag?! 
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bchallis's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

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cassielaj's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

Ahhhhhhhhhhh I love this series and this was a phenomenal ending to it. El is one of the best main characters I’ve encountered: I love her determination to do good (especially when it’s a little bit out of spite), her dedication to her friends, and her reluctant acceptance of her abilities throughout this book. The story that Novik weaves here is intricate — at the halfway point, I had no clue how everything would get resolved before the end. But that just made the journey all the more exciting and emotional. I’m already ready for a series reread. 
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gattolinos_nerdy_nook's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

I am surprised with where this book ended up going and how it concluded the series as a whole. It subverted all expectations I had, but not in  bad way. I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

I loved how different the world and rules were once we were outside the Scholomance. It was interesting to see how characters changed or did not change once they were in a different environment form the first two books.
There were some new characters introduced and the plot twists that happened in this book were so shocking that I had to put it down for a bit to digest what I had read and then had to go back to reading so I could get answers.

I think this book is a lot more character driven than the first two books. The book overall is still a mix of character and plot but I think how people are feeling and what they are doing because of that drives the book forward more. I feel like this book ended the series well and enjoyed reading each and everyone one of these books.
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