Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - A Dark and Hollow Star

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

A Dark and Hollow Star by Ashley Shuttleworth

11 reviews

pey333's review

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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

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1quillb's review

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Oh my GOD this was incredible. Super diverse characters, interesting plotlines, and sooo much pining—an absolutely amazing read.

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jennamcclendon's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

***SPOILERS AHEAD. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK.***

I heard this book was like a queer ACOTAR and that immediately intrigued me, and I’ve been wanting to read it for quite a while. Turns out it was everything I was hoping for and more. It definitely did feel a little like ACOTAR, but also a little bit of The Cruel Prince (from what I remember from that book). But God, I loved this book. I couldn’t put it down when I really got into it.

I will admit that at first I was confused about the whole fae/faerie/folk system and their magic and how all of the Courts and families worked, but that’s pretty typical of a fantasy book so it’s something I can look past. I immediately fell in love with Nausicaä and that love only continued to grow. She’s so snarky and I love that she’s so morally grey, but underneath the surface, you can tell she has a soft spot for the people she loves. I mean, she literally burnt down a boat for Tisiphone, she can love people. I also really liked Celadon at first (Arlo was kind of 50/50 at the beginning) but I couldn’t deny that this book had you already loving the characters as soon as they were introduced. And Aurelian and Vehan had such a compelling dynamic (PRINCE/BODYGUARD FORBIDDEN ROMANCE TROPE) from their first introduction and I shipped them probably instantly just from them describing each other. I’m usually not one for the friends-to-lovers trope but with them... yes. I could spend hours talking about how in love I am with Nausicaä and how amazing these characters are.

The only real complaint I would have with this book (hence the half star) is that it seemed a little slow in the beginning. There had to be a certain setup of events, like Hero meeting his Hunter and the Reaper in the cafe so Nos and Arlo could meet and Lethe being introduced with his past with Nos and everything. There was a lot of setup and the main squad didn’t even really meet until the latter half of the book. I would have loved to see more of them together. At the end in the lab, their dynamics (AURELIAN AND NOS ESPECIALLY) were so entertaining and I feel like it could have gone so much deeper. It just felt super long at the beginning only to pick up with the major conflict at the end.

However... the ROMANCES. There wasn’t a lot of it, but it still definitely was there. Arlo and Nausicaä had that tension from the beginning in the cafe, and then at the Faerie Ring with Nos being all protective, and then finally at the factory? With Nos being even MORE protective, and also THE KISS??? THE TITLE, THEIR KISS, AND AN ITALICIZED “oh.” ALL ON THE SAME PAGE. I love them so much. I’ve already checked for fanfics and there AREN’T any which should be a crime. And then Aurelian and Vehan. I mentioned it earlier: usually, friends-to-lovers isn’t my thing, but the way they’re so clearly in love with each other but if Vehan’s mom picks up on it Aurelian is going to die? If that happens in the next book I may combust.

Some of the other things I really liked were the way that gender and sexuality were presented. Vehan, Aurelian, and Nausicaä were all CANONICALLY AND EXPLICITLY STATED to be bisexual, gay, and lesbian respectively, and the author said Arlo is later going to come out as pansexual. All of the conversations about the deities and their pronouns and their gender fluidity were very straightforward too, and it was great to see they/them pronouns. Also the neopronouns (Vesper and xe/xem)! This was the first time I had ever seen neopronouns in a book and it was super cool! All of the pop culture references took a second to get used to (as is the case with urban fantasy) but all of the Pokemon and Dungeons & Dragons (I want that die so badly) and Lord of the Rings and SHE-RA references were great.

I think I’ve said all that I’ve wanted to say, but this was such a great book. Once you get sucked into it, you really can’t put it down and you fall in love with the characters (Nausicaä please marry me). It was all super cool and to be honest, I would rather read something like this than something like ACOTAR and The Cruel Prince (although I do want to reread those). Absolutely amazing, 10000/10. I CAN'T WAIT FOR A CRUEL AND FATED LIGHT THIS SUMMER.

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traeumenvonbuechern's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

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hannahwhiteyy's review

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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!

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jenny_librarian's review

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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.

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trilby's review

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adventurous lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

4.5

Characters were engaging (if a little uninventive- great characters, just not notably unique characters), writing was good, overall tone was easygoing and relaxing without being boring, worldbuilding and magic system was thought out and interesting, and I was very invested in the story. The author is pansexual and genderfluid and the queer representation is very well done. Both main romance plotlines were queer, and they were very present without being the focus of the book. The book started out a bit slow and boring but picked up speed quickly.

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camy_1911's review

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adventurous dark funny 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

4.75

This is a great book about a murder mystery set in a faerie world with a wlw main couple, a mlm main couple, non-binary/gender fluid rep. One of the main characters Nausicaä is super sassy and sarcastic. Plenty of funny scenes and pining. Additionally, the author has added content warnings at the start of the book.
Also great pop culture references 😄

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arianamalfoy's review

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adventurous funny 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

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booksthatburn's review

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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.

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