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alexerz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Murder
hairymclary28's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Moderate: Murder and War
cinnamonandpancakes'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
This is very much a 'first of a trilogy' plot, with an overarching plot laid wide across the end but in such a satisfying way I can't help but adore it.
Cheris and Jedao are tricky characters but they were very compelling all the way through, even when I thought one or both of them were evil!
This is not a book to read for a simple story of good and evil, many awful things are caused by protagonist and antagonist aligned characters, but it is excellently constructed and a joy to watch all the moving parts fall into place.
Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, and War
Minor: Suicide
ellisdex'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
The calendar- and mathematics-based magic system is incredibly cool once you figure out how it works, particularly as the book is from the viewpoint of someone who gets it more than most. The servitors are fantastic. The characters all feel very real within the parameters set by the world. Everyone is human - everyone has a family, hobbies, tiny details about their lives that the book explicitly says is sad to lose in war. Honestly I wasn't sure what to expect with the theming, but it's about the cost of war, whether the ends justify the means, and how governments keep themselves functioning at the expense of their own. It's incredibly interesting and very poignant. Super excited to read the rest of the series.
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide
Detailed description of creepy insect stuff.annalisaely'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: Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, and Murder
booksthatburn'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
5.0
My favorite thing in this book is I now get to add “calendrical rot” to my vocabulary, I don’t know how I will use it after this but I’m very glad to have it now. My second favorite thing is the way that behavioral manipulation and mind games are shown in such a subtle and empathetic way. I was so immersed in the MC‘s perspective that while I trusted her as a narrator, my understanding of what was going on was very tied to how much she did or did not figure out about what her shadowy companion was doing, since we never get his perspective. Their conversations are fascinating, the way they jointly and separately have to navigate the MC’s ability to have conversations with other people led to some great moments, and it meant that wow there were times that had pretty straightforward delivery of a lot of information, they only technically fell in the category of info dump because they were things that naturally needed to be explained. Even the little moments where the companion comments on the way something has changed was used artfully so that the reader could care more about what it Is even though the MC needed to learn what it Was.
I’m a big fan of interstitial chapters and the ones here are fantastic examples of world-building and subtle character development. They’re funny and add up to be very informative but the story will still make sense if you don’t pay attention to them. They’re a window into a perspective that’s very different from the MC, and this is used in a combination of explicit and implicit world-building to show literally what someone says about their actions and to demonstrate other ways of thinking about events shown in the main chapters.
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Minor: Child death, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Torture
CW for ableism, panic attacks/disorders, gore, body horror, violence, torture (not depicted), sexual assault, suicidal thoughts, suicide (backstory), murder, child death (backstory), death.