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vigil's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Ableism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Murder, Medical content, Gore, Drug use, and Pandemic/Epidemic
courtsport3000's review
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
This is one of those situations where I start wondering if I read a different book than everyone else did. Or if I just missed out on something that everyone else caught onto within the story. Because I was so confident that I was going to love this read. SO confident. But I just ended up reading to finish rather than out of any degree of interest or enjoyment.
The one thing I really loved without fail was the worldbuilding. I constantly wanted to know more about the alterations, the titans, the class system. There was so much to take in and I couldn't get enough of it.
I was also especially interested in our main character, Din. He's quirky and likeable and just about the only character that felt fully fleshed out. We got peeks into his romantic life, his relationships with his family, his motivations concerning his career - he's a character that's easy to feel close to. Unfortunately, he was pretty much the only one I really cared about.
Everything else about the book just felt like background noise. Like the kind of story that keeps the reader at a distance to enhance the mystery, but instead just prevents becoming fully invested. It's not that I disliked the other characters or the story itself - I just didn't care at all. I didn't feel strongly one way or another. I didn't feel close to any of the characters. I wasn't especially engaged in the mystery element. I wasn't captivated by the Sherlockish revelations that kept enlightening us while we trailed along one step behind.
There's not much more to say. Tons of early reviewers loved this book and I hope most readers will. I wish I had been one of them because this felt right up my alley until suddenly it wasn't.
Special thanks to Del Rey for an ARC in exchange for review.
The one thing I really loved without fail was the worldbuilding. I constantly wanted to know more about the alterations, the titans, the class system. There was so much to take in and I couldn't get enough of it.
I was also especially interested in our main character, Din. He's quirky and likeable and just about the only character that felt fully fleshed out. We got peeks into his romantic life, his relationships with his family, his motivations concerning his career - he's a character that's easy to feel close to. Unfortunately, he was pretty much the only one I really cared about.
Everything else about the book just felt like background noise. Like the kind of story that keeps the reader at a distance to enhance the mystery, but instead just prevents becoming fully invested. It's not that I disliked the other characters or the story itself - I just didn't care at all. I didn't feel strongly one way or another. I didn't feel close to any of the characters. I wasn't especially engaged in the mystery element. I wasn't captivated by the Sherlockish revelations that kept enlightening us while we trailed along one step behind.
There's not much more to say. Tons of early reviewers loved this book and I hope most readers will. I wish I had been one of them because this felt right up my alley until suddenly it wasn't.
Special thanks to Del Rey for an ARC in exchange for review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Physical abuse
mbomersheim's review against another edition
mysterious
medium-paced
- 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? No
3.0
ARC Review: What an interesting start to the year!
The Tainted Cup is the first book in the new series by Robert Jackson Bennett, Shadow of the Leviathan. The story follows Kol, an assistant investigator with a perfect memory, and Ana, an investigator for the government, as the two of them are tasked to solve a murder via the spontaneous growth of a plant from the body of another government official, and things turn out to be much more complex than they initially seemed.
I don’t want to say much more about the plot because of fear of spoilers, but what I will say is that this book gives Sherlock Holmes vibes. The writing is very methodical and there are some jumps in logic that I didn’t quite see coming but make sense in retrospect. Some of the descriptions toward the end of the book get a bit gruesome, which I thought contrasted the rest of the writing a bit, but it was nothing crazy. I will say, this book took me a hot minute to get into; there is so much world-building toward the beginning that I spent the first third of the book always slightly confused, but once I began getting it, the story flowed better and captured my attention more. Ultimately, I don’t think this book was really for me, but that doesn’t mean it’s not for someone else, rather there were things I tend to look for more in my reading (like more character relationships) that weren’t there. I think the plot left off in a good place for the rest of the series to continue.
This ARC was received courtesy of NetGalley and will be published on February 6, 2024.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, and Body horror
Moderate: War
Minor: Ableism, Death of parent, and Medical trauma
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