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thewildmageslibrary's review against another edition
adventurous
5.0
I read this for a buddy read and wow, it was hard to put down and keep to the schedule! The world of Sonande instantly drew me in - the author is great at immersing you in the scene. The griot called me to Solstasia and I'm not sure I've left yet.
One of the things I really loved about starting this book was the page with potential trigger warnings. I'll include them below, but the fact they were just included as if it were normal was great to see.
Karina was instantly a delight. I love her snark and slow journey to responsibility. "Hire uglier stable boys." XD She's definitely a reluctant heiress and I found myself rooting for her in spite of her occasional childishness. I cannot wait to see what she does in the sequel.
Malik - oh, Malik. My heart hurts for him. Things go south so fast at the beginning of the story and he spends most of the book trapped and desperate. Despite that, he's for sure not helpless. ;) And the final challenge...well can't say anything because spoilers!
I spent most of this book being completely wrong and it was fantastic. ASOWAR will keep you guessing and screeching, so go read it!!
One of the things I really loved about starting this book was the page with potential trigger warnings. I'll include them below, but the fact they were just included as if it were normal was great to see.
Karina was instantly a delight. I love her snark and slow journey to responsibility. "Hire uglier stable boys." XD She's definitely a reluctant heiress and I found myself rooting for her in spite of her occasional childishness. I cannot wait to see what she does in the sequel.
Malik - oh, Malik. My heart hurts for him. Things go south so fast at the beginning of the story and he spends most of the book trapped and desperate. Despite that, he's for sure not helpless. ;) And the final challenge...well can't say anything because spoilers!
I spent most of this book being completely wrong and it was fantastic. ASOWAR will keep you guessing and screeching, so go read it!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Animal death
Moderate: Violence, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
Minor: Self harm
tay_mackenziemac's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Oh this book!!! It’s a mark of an excellent cliffhanger ending that I spent the majority of this book considering it a 4/5 and then was absolutely blown away in the last 100 or so pages. Brown weaves such an intricate and well crafted story full of magic, world building, family, and resilience. The two main characters are incredibly well written (although I have a soft spot for Malik for sure). We need more authors like Brown in fantasy, proving once again how wanting the genre has been for books not centralized around white medieval Europe. August can’t come soon enough for the second book!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Self harm
Minor: Animal death and Emotional abuse
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
A fast-paced and engaging fantasy, A Song of Wraiths and Ruin is good from the first page to the last. High stakes oaths, fantastic characters with mutually incompatible goals, and the creeping dread of never quite being enough for what everyone expects of you.
This book flew by for me, I sat down to read just a bit to check it out and then devoured it just a couple of days. It does an amazing job of establishing two compelling protagonists with incompatible goals and making you want them both to succeed. The world is rich with backstory and detail without ever feeling overwhelming, and it so perfectly handled the delicate balance of providing a satisfying ending while making me invested in the sequel. I love everything it did and I really want to know what happens next.
When I say they have incompatible goals, I mean that they literally can't both succeed (given the setup of the book) and I want so badly for them to both get what they want. Every time it switched perspectives I was fully into their mind and rooting for them, then rooting just as hard for the other protagonist when it switched back. Having made it to the end, I think I finally picked one I prefer, but it took until the final pages for me to decide (and I suspect the sequel will shake it up all over again). Part of what makes the worldbuilding so good is that it uses the characters' very different backgrounds to highlight different bits of history and the setting, using their different perspectives to talk about overlapping topics in distinct ways over the course of the book.
There are nuanced portrayals of panic and fear (including at least one panic attack) in a way that conveys what the characters are going through without just resorting to ideation. It conveys how terror feels while still leaving enough space and care to generally avoid passing that fear along. Instances of fear are often paired with one or more characters demonstrating ways that they try to cope, most of them were recognizable to me as real ways to deal with panic attacks. I love how much care went into this, especially in a YA novel. It's not a panic attack tutorial, it's a realistic portrayal of how a fictional character deals with a real-world problem, as well as being an opportunity to learn more about the character. It's a great scene in its own right, but it had the added weight of making me feel seen in a small but very welcome way.
The world building is great, the characters are great. I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel, I need to know how the larger story ends.
This book flew by for me, I sat down to read just a bit to check it out and then devoured it just a couple of days. It does an amazing job of establishing two compelling protagonists with incompatible goals and making you want them both to succeed. The world is rich with backstory and detail without ever feeling overwhelming, and it so perfectly handled the delicate balance of providing a satisfying ending while making me invested in the sequel. I love everything it did and I really want to know what happens next.
When I say they have incompatible goals, I mean that they literally can't both succeed (given the setup of the book) and I want so badly for them to both get what they want. Every time it switched perspectives I was fully into their mind and rooting for them, then rooting just as hard for the other protagonist when it switched back. Having made it to the end, I think I finally picked one I prefer, but it took until the final pages for me to decide (and I suspect the sequel will shake it up all over again). Part of what makes the worldbuilding so good is that it uses the characters' very different backgrounds to highlight different bits of history and the setting, using their different perspectives to talk about overlapping topics in distinct ways over the course of the book.
There are nuanced portrayals of panic and fear (including at least one panic attack) in a way that conveys what the characters are going through without just resorting to ideation. It conveys how terror feels while still leaving enough space and care to generally avoid passing that fear along. Instances of fear are often paired with one or more characters demonstrating ways that they try to cope, most of them were recognizable to me as real ways to deal with panic attacks. I love how much care went into this, especially in a YA novel. It's not a panic attack tutorial, it's a realistic portrayal of how a fictional character deals with a real-world problem, as well as being an opportunity to learn more about the character. It's a great scene in its own right, but it had the added weight of making me feel seen in a small but very welcome way.
The world building is great, the characters are great. I'm definitely looking forward to the sequel, I need to know how the larger story ends.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death and Death
Moderate: Violence, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Self harm
CW for mild self-harm ideation, fantasy violence, emotional and physical abuse, anxiety and panic attack, parent death, animal death, major character death.
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