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nikki_flowers's review against another edition
It's taken me a long time to get to this review because I had so many feelings I couldn't quite explain that I needed to unpack and weed through. I don't think I would've known how to say this until now...
No matter how much I wanted to like this book I, as a trans person, simply cannot get over how poorly Leigh Bardugo wrote her trans character.
First, everyone knows it's not cool to use coming out as a plot twist—especially only to further the story of the non-queer characters. As she's written great queer characters before, Leigh absolutely should have known better. I am convinced that Leigh only made this character trans to write the plot twist at the end. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the entire series was born of a desire to write that offensive plot twist. Maybe that's too harsh, but either way, the premise of this character being trans solely for a plot twist is incredibly demeaning. (I say that this was solely for the plot twist because, regardless of Leigh's intentions, that was the only real functional purpose of this character. The character's experience as a transgender person is never explored in any significant, impactful, or accurate way outside of the plot twist and a such, comes across as being included solely to write the plot twist.)
Second, I despise that we never got to see the character's experience/dysphoria from their own point of view. This was a multiple-pov book and the trans character was one of the main characters. There is no reason, in my mind, that their pov shouldn't have been included. Reading about a trans character's experience/dysphoria exclusively from the perspective of cisgender characters really belittles that experience. Especially, when the cisgender characters continually make incorrect assumptions about that transgender character's experience.
Last, THE FREAKING DEADNAME. The book comes so freaking close to giving this character a new name. There's even a perfect scene at the end where it can be presented. But for whatever reason, Leigh chooses not to rename the character, despite that character expressing they want a new name. And this is the last book in the duology. Meaning their deadname will be forever immortalized and we'll never be able to talk about this character without deadnaming them. That just does not sit right with me.
There was more than enough time for a new name to be picked and presented. Or even, at the very least, a temporary name to be picked and presented. Many trans people try out a variety of names before settling on one. A temporary new name would've been better than nothing.
There is a small chance that we could find out their name in a future Grishaverse novel, but any possibility of that won't happen for quite some time as Leigh said she (understandably) wants to take a break from Grishaverse novels to work on other projects.
Over all this book, in every way, reads like a cisgender author's half-assed attempt at writing trans representation.
EDIT:
wanted to include these amazing points made by other readers
Kit:
Link to full review on Goodreads
No matter how much I wanted to like this book I, as a trans person, simply cannot get over how poorly Leigh Bardugo wrote her trans character.
First, everyone knows it's not cool to use coming out as a plot twist—especially only to further the story of the non-queer characters. As she's written great queer characters before, Leigh absolutely should have known better. I am convinced that Leigh only made this character trans to write the plot twist at the end. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the entire series was born of a desire to write that offensive plot twist. Maybe that's too harsh, but either way, the premise of this character being trans solely for a plot twist is incredibly demeaning. (I say that this was solely for the plot twist because, regardless of Leigh's intentions, that was the only real functional purpose of this character. The character's experience as a transgender person is never explored in any significant, impactful, or accurate way outside of the plot twist and a such, comes across as being included solely to write the plot twist.)
Second, I despise that we never got to see the character's experience/dysphoria from their own point of view. This was a multiple-pov book and the trans character was one of the main characters. There is no reason, in my mind, that their pov shouldn't have been included. Reading about a trans character's experience/dysphoria exclusively from the perspective of cisgender characters really belittles that experience. Especially, when the cisgender characters continually make incorrect assumptions about that transgender character's experience.
Last, THE FREAKING DEADNAME. The book comes so freaking close to giving this character a new name. There's even a perfect scene at the end where it can be presented. But for whatever reason, Leigh chooses not to rename the character, despite that character expressing they want a new name. And this is the last book in the duology. Meaning their deadname will be forever immortalized and we'll never be able to talk about this character without deadnaming them. That just does not sit right with me.
There was more than enough time for a new name to be picked and presented. Or even, at the very least, a temporary name to be picked and presented. Many trans people try out a variety of names before settling on one. A temporary new name would've been better than nothing.
There is a small chance that we could find out their name in a future Grishaverse novel, but any possibility of that won't happen for quite some time as Leigh said she (understandably) wants to take a break from Grishaverse novels to work on other projects.
Over all this book, in every way, reads like a cisgender author's half-assed attempt at writing trans representation.
EDIT:
wanted to include these amazing points made by other readers
Kit:
Link to full review on Goodreads
"...the wildly transphobic turn that [deadname]'s storyline took. And it IS transphobic. It is some terf shit. That is not an okay story for a cis person to tell, no matter what their intentions were. So I can't give this more than one star.
(If you're thinking, "That's wild - no one thinks that trans people are murdering cis people to steal their lives!" then I regret to inform you that there's a widely-knowb, well-respected, literally-central-to-the-movement terf here in the UK who actually, literally, honestly (I swear I'm not joking) believes that trans folk are teaming up with Jewish (I know) surveillance capitalists to turn people into cyborgs, and they must be violently resisted (as in: murdered). So don't fucking ask why [deadname]'s arc is transphobic as hell.)"
"Made the one trans person into a killer who steals the face and identity of someone - that’s not the representation LGBTQ+ ppl want so congrats on almost making a Netflix Jeffrey Dahmer LGBTQ mistake
Forcing the one trans charcter to be once again stuck in a form that isn’t their true self, just to tie up the impossible loose end the author created. Now [deadname] will have to stay in an actual bigot’s form to try to “fix” all of Fjerda culture, religion, and society which will of course inevitably cause civil war…forcing [deadname] to stay in the bigot’s face for at least half a century to clean up the mess."
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia
zidaaan's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Misogyny
Minor: Death, Gore, and Transphobia
veganecurrywurst's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Das ist mein Lieblings Grishaverse-Buch. Der erste Band von King of Scars hat mich nicht so wirklich gepackt, aber der hat es echt wettgemacht.
Ich fand das Ende echt gut.
Hanne/Rasmus und Nina sind meine Lieblings Storyline. Bin super froh, dass sie zusammengekommen sind. Der Plottwist am Ende war super. Ich mag die beiden mehr als Mathias und Nina. Außerdem bin ich begeistert, dass es eine Transperson in der Geschichte gab.
Mayu, Ehri und ihre Schwester fand ich als Charaktere super spannend.
Außerdem bin ich ein riesiger Zoya-Fan sie als Zarin passt perfekt Aber irgendwie konnte ich mich nie wirklich mit Nikolais Charakter anfreunden.
ich war echt traurig als David starb. Die Arme Genya. Ich fand auch toll wie viele Charaktere aus vorherigen Büchern vorkamen
Ein würdiger Abschluss für das Grishaverse.
Mayu, Ehri und ihre Schwester fand ich als Charaktere super spannend.
Außerdem bin ich ein riesiger Zoya-Fan
Ein würdiger Abschluss für das Grishaverse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Racism, Sexism, Grief, Misogyny, Violence, and War
Moderate: Slavery, Emotional abuse, and Hate crime
Minor: Transphobia
livreaderlife's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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
Content Warnings
Minor: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Slavery, Transphobia, War, and Xenophobia
chattycali's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
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? No
5.0
Easily Leigh’s best book in the grishaverse and the perfect conclusion.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Transphobia
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