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sandrae04'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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Mental illness, and Grief
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Self harm
msradiosilence's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.25
Okay, first of all, I love swearing. It’s the most fun a girl can have. But dropping a fuck word, twice, on every page is excessive. And unnecessary.
Speaking of unnecessary, I don’t think there was a SINGULAR person who wasn’t described as beautiful (female) or powerful (male). And the amount of times Hunt or Bryce were described as such?? What the fuck. Also, stop with the racial ambiguousness. Hunt and Bryce are white, not *golden*, not *tan* these bitches are white. I think the only two “brown” people were Juniper (maybe? After 800 pages you forget what happens) and another person I’m forgetting bc it was a brief encounter and I was beyond fed up at that point. It’s not hard to diversity your characters, especially in a fantasy world you made yourself. Stop being ambiguous and say it with your whole chest.
Also, the amount of “toe curling” and nonsense that was happening was unacceptable. Not that Maas knows ANYTHING about anatomy, especially writing lines like “vital arteries.” ??? You mean ALL arteries?? Because I can assure you they’re ALL vital. I’m also calling bullshit on Bryce double fisting a sword and a rifle (which, you get no details. It’s just “Hunt’s rifle.” What kind of rifle? One you need to cock *and* can use one handed? I think the fuck not). And correct me if I’m wrong, but Bryce as a half-Fae is reminded time and again she’s not as strong as the other Vanir so how is she cutting down demons (who Hunt states he fought and BARELY survived ONE) one handed? Huh?
Coming from a forensics background too, the investigation was a hot fucking mess. Nitpicky, but DNA analysts (what I’m studying to be) don’t actually go into the field. The only people at a crime scene are the police, CSI, and nosy nellys. It’s the basics, anything you can google. And this had to be the most boring murder I’ve ever read about, with conclusions that literally anyone could’ve come to in half the time it took Hunt and Bryce, who are the dumbest people on the planet.
Bryce is the reason people who know the victims/people of interest are not allowed anywhere near the case.
For a book set in ONE city, this world has absolutely no meat. If you copy and pasted any passage from ToG about any of their cities, same for ACOTAR, they wouldn’t read any different. I had friends in my undergrad who could world build so much better, and in less than 800 pages!! How can you write 800 fucking pages and not actually say a fucking thing???
Go to therapy. I know Maas said it was great and then immediately shit on it, but Bryce is in no way a role-model. If you are having thoughts about self-harm, unaliving yourself, you need to seek out help. It’s such a dangerous message to put out, especially as a well-known author, that you can just “deal” and you “deserve the pain” and “taking it away is forgetting the ones you’ve lost”. If it’s so serious
I finished this book out of pure spite. There was ONE character I actually cared about (Aidas) and that’s bc I have a hangup about death and darkness gods, etc. Will I read the next one? Not immediately, and I won’t be buying it.
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, and War
ac02's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Drug abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, and Sexual content
Moderate: Violence, Suicide attempt, War, Alcohol, Bullying, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racial slurs
prettylightsandcitynights'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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Minor: Medical trauma
sierraechobravo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Slavery, Suicide attempt, and Vomit
arirable's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Drug use, Torture, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Murder, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Animal cruelty, Abandonment, and Death
Minor: Death of parent
mfsquared's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Drug use, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Slavery
Minor: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Trafficking
juliette_95's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual content, Slavery, and Torture
Moderate: Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicidal thoughts
thevietvegan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
The plot itself isn't awful, I thought the blend of tech and fantasy was pretty cool.
I did, however, have a huge problem with the writing itself. I have no problem with swear words and explicit subjects, I'm used to that and SJM isn't a stranger to that. This book had swear words and extremely explicitly sexual language during several parts of this book for... no reason? Other than to signal just how sexy or bangable a character is. It was kind of exhausting, like, yes, I understand, you're all hot people who want to bang. Let's move on please.
There were several points during interactions between characters that used such random sexual language to simply state that someone's voice was low and sexy. Swear words peppered into exposition that completely halted the text to put emphasis on something totally not important. It was jarring and distracting. It wasn't so bad in the last 40% of the book but the first 60%. Oof. I haven't been this frustrated with a writing style in a while.
I think Bryce as an abrasive, extremely independent unexpected heroine was cool. Pretty familiar to Aelin and Feyre, but it's a trope I seem to like so ya ok. Same with Hunt. Hunt is a familiar trope of dark, broody character with a murderous past who has had to do some shit to find redemption, that redemption being love and/or friendship. I'm noticing a pattern in SJM's male characters and I liked Rowan, loved Rhys, but am finding the trope repetitive.
Will I continue reading this series? Eh... probably. I'm curious as to what Bryce and Hunt do with their freedom and powers. But this is easily my least favourite of SJM's books so far and I'm a little bummed about that.
Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt