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bookishmel's review
DNF at 35% This was literally just like an info dump of everything related to the fae and typical fantasy books we know and love. The setting of being in North America in a modern day setting was also very startling and not done well. An example of this same thing that was also startling was Crescent City but with it being set in a different world and the writing just made it easier to digest. I also was not a fan of the constant pop culture/media references that would be dropped unnecessarily, it took me out of the story and I like my fantasy books to be immersive. It was just not for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicide, Grief, Drug use, Xenophobia, Violence, Sexism, Racism, Mental illness, Death, and Murder
lolajh's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
There’s a loooooot of hit or misses in this book. The plot, the characters, the world, the ideas of them are good, I just don’t know if I’m fully satisfied with the result.
First, the world. It is quite a bit hard to keep up with the worldbuilding. I have absolutely no idea what the difference between fae and faerie is, the different factions like Spring and Summer etc., Unseelie and Seelie, lesidhe and sidhe, like I could not keep up with it and maybe probably that is a me issue but it’s fine!
Then the characters! Arlo’s Percy Jackson insecurity variance gets a bit annoying, like we know she’s insecure and is obviously going to end up super powerful (that’s very predictable, and predictability is a huge thing in this book); Vehan and Aurelian have like no personality and suffer severely from the miscommunication trope; Nausicaä is lesbian and awesome I wish the whole book was Nausicaä, though her and Arlo’s romance was incredibly underwhelming. Like I get it’s a slow burn but I really felt like nothing was there ; Hero’s chapters are annoying, him being a villain didn’t mean much to me reading it since he was practically a villain from the beginning so there’s nothing to really go off from there, okay if his chapters weren’t in there we could’ve got the kids figuring out the mystery the same time as the audience (I hate reading stuff they’re just finding out about that I’ve already been informed of in other chapters) And Vehan’s mum being the head of it all too and being on and off romantically with Lethe was kind of cool and slightly unexpected, but again, I am not attached to her character at all so it didn’t really mean anything to me
Also OH MY GOD STOP WITH THE HARRY POTTER REFERENCES. Having trans people (they are so on the side so don’t hope for that), a book written by a trans author, and having Harry Potter references is so contradictory oh my god. Don’t know if I’m motivated enough with this story to keep up the series.
Also OH MY GOD STOP WITH THE HARRY POTTER REFERENCES. Having trans people (they are so on the side so don’t hope for that), a book written by a trans author, and having Harry Potter references is so contradictory oh my god. Don’t know if I’m motivated enough with this story to keep up the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Death, Violence, Grief, Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Blood, and Mental illness
pey333's review
adventurous
dark
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? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
Moderate: Murder, Death, Blood, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness
Minor: Sexism
jama_vata's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Cursing, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Grief, and Confinement
Minor: Drug use, Vomit, and Mental illness
hannahwhiteyy's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This was a really good book! Written by a queer author, the book showcased a beautiful diversity of gender, sexuality and race. It was slow-paced in the beginning, which I didn’t love - hence the 4 stars. By the middle and end, I was truly engaged and genuinely related to each of the main characters. Worth the hype, but be careful of the content warnings!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Gun violence
Moderate: Mental illness, Drug use, Drug abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Trafficking, Stalking, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Racism
jenny_librarian's review
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? No
3.0
I was in a slump when I started reading this. The sheer amount of infodumps and worldbuilding nearly put me off altogether. But I pushed through and I kept reading, and it never really got any better.
Part of it is probably due to this book being a debut. Big chunks could have easily been edited out and some sentences would have had much more punch if they’d been shortened to erase some of the purple prose. It’s not bad, but it’s distracting and a bit clunky.
I was slowly familiarizing myself with the character (although I still can barely tell Vehan from Aurelian), and then the whole D&D and seven sins things were dropped in and it was just too much. The whole faerie world was already big enough without including the sins in it. And the whole role play thing with the dice was too much. If you want to make a game type book, then make a game type book. Don’t just drop a role play element in the middle of a novel that had nothing to do with it until then.
I really wanted to enjoy this book (gay fairies in Canada, I mean come on!) but it fell flat for me. I don’t care enough about the characters to continue with the sequel, and the dice thing is just too weird for me anyways.
Part of it is probably due to this book being a debut. Big chunks could have easily been edited out and some sentences would have had much more punch if they’d been shortened to erase some of the purple prose. It’s not bad, but it’s distracting and a bit clunky.
I was slowly familiarizing myself with the character (although I still can barely tell Vehan from Aurelian), and then the whole D&D and seven sins things were dropped in and it was just too much. The whole faerie world was already big enough without including the sins in it. And the whole role play thing with the dice was too much. If you want to make a game type book, then make a game type book. Don’t just drop a role play element in the middle of a novel that had nothing to do with it until then.
I really wanted to enjoy this book (gay fairies in Canada, I mean come on!) but it fell flat for me. I don’t care enough about the characters to continue with the sequel, and the dice thing is just too weird for me anyways.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Trafficking and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Gore, and Death
Minor: Body horror, Mental illness, Drug use, Grief, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
fthepatriarchy's review
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
this book 😭😭 its 100% one of my new favourites. i had really high expectations for it and it definitely met them. arlo’s so fucking pure gn when she asked for a bathroom in the laboratory bc of the slushies she drank 😭 my heart. me too arlo. me too. also shes the most relatable mc i’ve seen, like yes not all heroes are gladly noble and endlessly brave. she’s strong as hell tho i wanna hug her.
nausicaä’s character development GAH i love her so bad?? n she looks so pretty on the front cover … HER AND ARLO’S KISS this is so unfair i needed to know what happened after they kissed. i feel robbed of a scene where arlo’s lying on her w nos stroking her hair. i want. so badly.
VEHAN my baby </3 THAT ONE SCENE w the psychic or wtv where he was spewing his true feelings 😭 like oh my god come here let me hug you. his mum’s such an asshole oh my god can i please adopt him. please.🥺
the mutual pining between vehan and aurelian near enough killed me. like pLEASE i need them to be able to be together in the next book. feeling so mfing bad for aurelian.
ALSO the amount of represntation … the nonbinary deity oh my god and nausicaä correcting people when they misgendered them 😭 AND THE HUNTER THAT USES NEOPRONOUNS. this is the first book ive come across w a character that uses neos and let me just say i fucking screamed.
im so so so excited for the next book omg 2022 can’t come fast enough </3
nausicaä’s character development GAH i love her so bad?? n she looks so pretty on the front cover …
VEHAN my baby </3
the mutual pining between vehan and
ALSO the amount of represntation … the nonbinary deity oh my god and nausicaä correcting people when they misgendered them 😭 AND THE HUNTER THAT USES NEOPRONOUNS. this is the first book ive come across w a character that uses neos and let me just say i fucking screamed.
im so so so excited for the next book omg 2022 can’t come fast enough </3
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, and Suicide
Moderate: Cannibalism, Drug use, Kidnapping, and Mental illness
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Domestic abuse
madamepincers's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Violence, and Mental illness
Moderate: Gore and Misogyny
Minor: Blood, Bullying, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Xenophobia
sarahdh's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Grief, Mental illness, and Suicide
booksthatburn's review
I love Fae and Greek mythology, so when I realized this was going to give me Tisiphone and the High Court all in one book I was intrigued. Ultimately I’m stopping because it feels like it’s trying to do too much, and by trying to remember the many characters and track the complex blend of two already massive paradigms/pantheons... it got to be overwhelming. The Furies are great, and the Furies plus the Faerie Courts would be really cool, but the Furies, the Greco-Roman creation myth, complex systems for inheritance, political machinations, a serial murderer (or murderers), and the marginalization of the faeries (which are different from the Fae), and the persecution of the Ironborn (which could variously be considered Fae, Faerie, or human?)... it’s a lot. It would be a lot for even a trilogy to establish gradually, it begs for the room to have major details conveyed simply at first and then expanded, distorted, and recontextualized over the course of two books minimum. You can do really cool narrative things with “knowing” something then finding out your information was wrong and it changes how you think about what came before. Here things were established, rebutted, and adjusted so quickly I’m not even sure if they were supposed to be changes at all. I made it just over a third of the way through and I feel overwhelmed by the world and underwhelmed by the plot.
My one regret by not finishing this is I won’t know how things resolve for Tisiphone, but there’s too much extraneous stuff around her very interesting backstory for me to get fully into this one thing I like.
My one regret by not finishing this is I won’t know how things resolve for Tisiphone, but there’s too much extraneous stuff around her very interesting backstory for me to get fully into this one thing I like.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Minor: Body horror and Suicide
Full CWs provided from the Author’s Note. TWs may be incomplete. CW for anger, arson, blood/gore, body horror (minor), death of a child, depression, disownment, divorce, drug use/addiction, grief/grieving, human trafficking, poverty, psychopathy, stalking, suicide (past, off-page), suicidal ideation, toxic relationship/manipulation, trauma/PTSD, racism, violence/gun violence. TW for Harry Potter reference (page 169).