Scan barcode
lolaura575's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Gore, Sexual content, and Violence
elligo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, and Murder
_piercingwords_'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
4.75
While the many footnotes could be very entertaining, they interrupted the reading flow a bit at times.
I'm definitely gonna get the other books of the series.
Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, Bullying, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic friendship, Grief, Gore, Cursing, and Racial slurs
frenchbookslover'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
4.25
Graphic: Gore, Child death, Death, Grief, Murder, Torture, Violence, and Blood
kittykaz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Still, the skill was definitely there, and I am happy to give the rest of the series a chance to catch up on the promises that weren't met here.
Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Death of parent, Excrement, Religious bigotry, and Vomit
mollytotten's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Blood, Torture, and Cursing
Minor: Child death
constellation_library's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Gore and Death
gabberette's review
- 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
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Vomit
hazychapters's review against another edition
1.0
Wordbuilding is pretty good, even if we are drowned by pieces of information. They are useless to us since we do not travel in the universe. The atmosphere is actually quite good, very dark (small trigger warning). I just wish Mia's powers were more emphasized, this is one of her peculiarities, and it is not "used" and even left out for much of the story. Some characters were quite good, but I must admit I didn't appreciate the competitiveness between girls while the guys stay aside to watch the show… Big up to Mister Kindly. I loved him! He is very well thought out, original and brilliant! As for the end, I can't find much to say, except maybe "All that fuss for nothing?". We end up with a kind of reversal of the situation that made me a little angry because it concerns a character we only see twice. So whether he is there or not, it does not change the plot. I also find that his end does not stick to the characters. The author gives us specific pictures of his characters, but he does not even respect them.
I hated the hyper-sexualization of Mia and women in general. I didn't like how the author described the female body (which really embarrassed me and made me feel like an object or a curiosity). This femme fatale role could have been well thought out if it had not been glued to a 16-year-old girl. He wrote scenes of s*xual relationships between two children (16 and 17 years old), and I found that very unhealthy. I don't understand what this brings to the story apart from voyeurism and unease. I could also talk for hours about my anger at Mia's body "transformation" scene. She does not give her consent. I did not feel any rebellion on her part. Aalea has a tremendous hold on her to the point of handling her. But a woman does not have to answer the criteria set by men to be beautiful and desirable. Warning, also romanticization of death and suicide through metaphors; some people can be triggered.
Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Cultural appropriation
Plastic surgery (in form of Magic), graphic sex scenes involving painful intercourse, threatened rape (several)erenreads12's review
- 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
2.5
The smut was admittedly quite well written, but I have major issues with the graphic nature of sex in this book considering the protagonist's young age (and don't get me started on the weird seduction class thing it was just so fkin weird).
But my most pressing gripe....the footnotes. Oh God, the footnotes. This for me was what made the writing feel, despite its flowery metaphors and poetic style, straight up lazy. These footnotes are clearly intended to enrich the world building and its history and culture, but the use of footnotes indicates to me an inability to actually build the world within the text. The footnotes are often incredibly lengthy and, in my opinion, seriously disruptive to the flow of the story, to the point that sometimes by the time I was done reading a footnote I had forgotten what was going on in the story. After a while they annoyed me so much I just stopped reading them and it made absolutely no difference to my understanding of the story, indicating to me that they are entirely unnecessary. And despite the attempts to deepen the worldbuilding in this way, it felt as though thr magic system was just....there. In fact, it was totally abandoned.
Best thing about this book was the ending - the pace really picks up and ends in a mostly satisfying manner. But this wasn't enough for me to remotely consider continuing the series. I know that this is a very popular fantasy, but it certainly wasn't for me.
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence