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meganparfitt'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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Death of parent, War, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Cannibalism, Torture, Vomit, Excrement, Medical content, and Sexual content
hmatt's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I persevered because Natalie Naudus, and of course the hype. And also it takes a lot for me to DNF a book, so I just pushed through.
Some things I wasn't into:
- As I alluded to before, I had a hard time keeping track of all the characters
- This might also be a genre (/part one in a series) thing, but there are so many events that happen one after another that I didn't feel were super necessary to building the story. This and the multiple time jumps made the story seem both rushed and too long.
- So many of the pivotal moments are glossed over? Like I didn't even realize that a lot of them had happened until after?
- The above also fed into my lack of conviction over the characters relationships with each other. There were really only one or two relationships that felt fleshed-out and genuine to me, and these were the rare ones where we spent a lot of time with both characters together. The main character and their love interest was completely blank for me, I didn't feel any of the build up and had no investment in their relationship.
All this said, it's a "fine" story for me. I did like the writing style, despite my thoughts on how the story comes together. The steamy scene that has received a ton of social media attention is incredibly random in the context of the book but like, lives up to the hype and I could have done with more of that honestly? Well done. I really appreciated the book in audio form for its accurate pronunciations of words/names I would read wrong in my head, and I'd love to read more historical fiction focusing on this area of the world.
Graphic: Violence, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Death, Child death, Sexual content, Misogyny, Medical content, Blood, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, War, Murder, Domestic abuse, and Gore
Moderate: Alcohol, Animal death, and Grief
Minor: Infidelity
jjjreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, War, Xenophobia, Sexual content, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Slavery, Ableism, Child death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Excrement, Fatphobia, Murder, Outing, Lesbophobia, Sexism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Homophobia, and Misogyny
Moderate: Alcohol, Deadnaming, and Physical abuse
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Medical content
wardenred'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
4.75
Look at me and see the person who will win. The person who will rule.
My thoughts are so scattered after finishing this book that I hardly know where to start with the review. I feel like it demanded a lot from me as a reader, what with the rather dense (although beautiful) prose and the complex political intrigue. I think it will take me a while to let all the impressions settle, but I definitely enjoyed the experience.
As usual, for me it’s the characters who make or break the story, and in this case, all of them really shined. Even the ones who didn’t have that much “screen time” all came across as fully realized personalities. When it comes to the main cast, I found myself incredibly invested in Zhu’s journey from the very first page. I have a weakness for strong-willed characters who know what they want and are willing to step over the world to get it—and then somehow find themselves in the process. For some reason, I can’t help but feel this is not just a book with a morally grey cast but pretty much a villain origin story, even though there are a lot of characters who do much worse things for much worse reasons than Zhu, and even though she tries to rely on Ma, the one ray of unequivocal kindness and goodness in the world.
As for Ouyang, his storyline was harder to get into for me, perhaps because it started to unfold when I was already so compelled by Zhu’s story and didn’t feel like taking a break from it to delve into someone else’s. I think if this book has any notable flaws, it’s this: the structural balance between the two storylines. Starting from around the middle, they criss-cross quite nicely, each section of each character’s arc serving to underscore something important in the other’s, too. But in the first half of the book, those intersections aren’t handled quite as deftly and, especially given the incredible density of events, make it hard to follow the story as a consistent whole.
Last but not least, I very much enjoyed the discussion of gender in this book, both the subtler parts where there was a lot of showing instead of telling and the parts where the characters explicitly pondered these questions in their thoughts. Those were handled just as awesomely as the big themes of fate, duty and power, and were just as important to the story as a whole.
Graphic: Medical content, Death, Death of parent, Violence, War, and Murder
Moderate: Torture and Sexual content
samugranjo's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
The characters are lovable at times but with most of them you are gonna feel annoyed too, feel like they have went too far. You both understand them and want to stop them.
The way the author writes about gender is outstanding, I was surprised by how much I related to this book as a genderqueer person. There's also some representation in the ace spectrum that I think was done well considering how little space it had.
Overall really recommend this read, and have to end this review by praising the writing in this novel.
Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, War, and Violence
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Slavery, Torture, Alcohol, Body horror, Classism, Cursing, Genocide, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infertility, and Vomit
fiveredhens's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, Blood, Child abuse, and Death of parent
Moderate: Ableism, Child death, War, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, and Dysphoria
Minor: Cursing and Rape
handful_of_frogs's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Body horror, Blood, Cannibalism, Classism, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, and Sexual content
whatcassiedid'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
4.0
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Death, and War
Moderate: Medical content and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Slavery
therainbowshelf'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
4.0
Graphic: Child death, Classism, Death, Dysphoria, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Gore, Torture, Xenophobia, Transphobia, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Outing, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Grief, Homophobia, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and War
serena_hien'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? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Death, Medical content, Sexual content, Blood, Death of parent, Misogyny, Violence, War, Ableism, Alcohol, Murder, Classism, Dysphoria, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Body horror and Torture
Minor: Child death