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liemannen's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery
Moderate: Drug use and Pedophilia
This book is set in a world where sex slaves are a commonplace thing. Human "pets" are also the norm. The main character often compares the two types of slavery, glorifying one of them.jmross10's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book (and this series) get a bad wrap a lot of the time. The main reason for that is people don't read the synopsis or they do read it and completely disregard what it says. Then they act shocked when they find out there is sexual slavery at the center of the story. It is an understandably surprising premise but if you give the book a chance you will see there's more to it than what the surface suggests. A big part of the main character's journey is being forced to re-evaluate his view of the world now that he is seeing it from the other side.
There is a slow burn romance that develops over the duration of the series but don't go into this book expecting to see much of it. There are the tiniest hits of what could be. There is no actual suggestion as to what it is.
For that matter, don't go into this book expecting to know what's going to happen next either. While the world is interesting and the characters are messy, the most captivating part is easily the chaotic political maneuvering in Vere. Everyone seems to be twenty steps ahead of the reader. Some of them - Laurent - are thirty.
Captive Prince is not necessarily an easy read but there are real emotional stakes, consequences for character's actions, and an unraveling of political plots that makes it well worth the effort. Pacat is an excellent writer and worth giving a try!
There is a slow burn romance that develops over the duration of the series but don't go into this book expecting to see much of it. There are the tiniest hits of what could be. There is no actual suggestion as to what it is.
For that matter, don't go into this book expecting to know what's going to happen next either. While the world is interesting and the characters are messy, the most captivating part is easily the chaotic political maneuvering in Vere. Everyone seems to be twenty steps ahead of the reader. Some of them - Laurent - are thirty.
Captive Prince is not necessarily an easy read but there are real emotional stakes, consequences for character's actions, and an unraveling of political plots that makes it well worth the effort. Pacat is an excellent writer and worth giving a try!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Classism
shonaberu's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and Trafficking
Minor: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
lcoll93's review
dark
fast-paced
- 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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, and Trafficking
Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, and Violence
Minor: Animal death and Drug use
sofipitch's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
It's hard to put into words my feelings for this book. It reads a bit like fanfiction in that there are a lot of aspects of the world that seemed underdeveloped. And for a first book, while it definitely felt intriguing, I felt needed more to be able to call it a book with a plot. So when I found online that the story had originally been posted on Livejournal as a serial it made a lot of sense. This doesn't feel like a book so much as the 1st part of a story.
The sexual content also weighs the book down, I was thinking "do these ppl do anything else?" And again that made the world building feel underdeveloped. But it mostly goes away in the second half and that's around when the actual plot of political intrigue begins. I wouldn't have planned on reading the next books in the series based on the first half, but the second does have me hooked. But this book for sure isn't like, high literature. It's pulp.
Big trigger warnings for sexual abuse.
The sexual content also weighs the book down, I was thinking "do these ppl do anything else?" And again that made the world building feel underdeveloped. But it mostly goes away in the second half and that's around when the actual plot of political intrigue begins. I wouldn't have planned on reading the next books in the series based on the first half, but the second does have me hooked. But this book for sure isn't like, high literature. It's pulp.
Big trigger warnings for sexual abuse.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Rape and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Drug use, and Pedophilia
magicshop's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
'Is there anyone at this court who isn't my enemy?'
'Not if I can help it,' Laurent said.
this book got me out of a months-long reading slump and was actually quite enjoyable for the most part, despite all my notes of mild-to-extreme disgust peppered throughout and my actual score. buckle up, it's a long story.
p.s.: if you read this review, regardless of anything else, make sure to pay attention to the many, many warnings listed below it.
you should read this series if...
- you're looking for a well-written queer enemies-to-lovers story full of satisfying cliches that are deliciously coupled with the author's clever originality, the literary cherry on top
- you like political intrigue and worlds that feel alive and lived in without getting overly convoluted
- you're willing to get through a rough first half of the first book; more details in the actual review below
the good
- solid writing style "despite" having fanfiction-adjacent (original fiction published serially online) origins. in my experience i think fanfiction has had some of the best writing i've seen in my life, so i've never quite found this argument very fair, but there you have it.
- lots of words for me to learn! i consider this a positive cause i like learning new language bits and it wasn't so excessive that i needed to pick up a dictionary every 5 words or anything. it was a perfect amount. apparently the author used the story as a kind of thesaurus exercise, which explains a lot. this aspect was mostly lost in the 2nd and 3rd books as she became more focused on other aspects of the writing process instead.
- political intrigue up the wazoo.
this book had me guessing 3 different possible scenarios within 2 pages as resolution for a plot point. this just so happens to be one of my favorite things for any media to do so i was charmed instantly - interesting and mutually unique characters, who become infinitely more interesting and well-developed as the series goes on
the bad
- no real plot until uhhh. halfway through? it's pretty much just exposition coupled with varying flavors of sexual assault. 😬
the pov main character has a bizarre and partly sexual fascination with fair skin, while being dark-skinned himself and oh did i mention he's also a slave. enough said lol. this would not have necessarily been a negative had it been explored adequately by the story, but that was not the case. this fascination does, however, dwindle to practically nothing for the remainder of the series.the pov main character (again, curiously so since he's supposed to be the least offputting character — i actually think he has some of the most ingrained controversial shit to unpack) has a bizarre and vaguely pedophilic fascination with another character's "beautiful" 14-year-old face, among other, more concerning adjectives - and my biggest fear: that the previous two points are actually a trait of the author and not of the characters involved. this is admittedly unlikely since, like i mentioned before, pacat thankfully reduced the presence of most of the upsetting elements from this book as she wrote the rest of them. i assume she realized their precariousness and how much her story's success depended on hooking the reader without potentially triggering them every other passage. as far as i know, in many ways captive prince started as an experiment and wasn't meant to be much more than a story exploring multiple sexual concepts, but quickly became more than initially imagined. pacat therefore adapted, and very well at that.
- like previously mentioned: excessive rape/sexual assault/coercion scenes, if there can even be such a thing as a "necessary" or story-sanctioned rape scene. this is the most controversial and most famously debated point within this book. my personal take is that some scenes are excusably useful to the setting and the story and others, the majority, seem to be there simply to attempt to titillate the reader, if they're inclined to react in such a way to that kind of content. these i quite disliked and wish they hadn't been there. the book shows a lot of promise in ways entirely unrelated to these acts, almost as if there's a divide within it. see my next point.
the complicated
- the slow heel-turn (i promise these words can go together lol) from
sexual slavery fantasy sprinkled with political elements book to full-on political intrigue book was. something. i read the second half of this thing within a day; i couldn't keep my eyes off the twists and turns it took. this would go (and sorta did go) in the good section, but fits better here because i do absolutely wish the first half had been... easier to digest and enjoy, to put it mildly. - damen's entire deal.
he's incredibly hypocritical when it comes to vere's culture, being that his own country not only also keeps slaves but actively grooms them to be submissive and docile. he does not see this as a point of contention whatsoever from what we see in this book, and in fact acts as if akielos is the morally superior society. this goes in the complicated section (instead of the bad one) because much of it is further explored in-depth in the subsequent books.
i think this book's controversial status is well-earned, and i didn't indiscriminately enjoy the entire ride. nor did i completely hate it. i think having grey-colored opinions about things, especially pieces of media (especially especially pieces of media that are only one part of a as-of-yet unknown whole), is a natural and healthy course of action. this is the case here. i enjoyed, then didn't enjoy, then enjoyed myself again, several times, throughout this story, and i don't regret reading it for a second since it introduced me to one of the best-written love stories i've ever seen in media.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Pedophilia
abbiebooks's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Slavery
Moderate: Torture
Minor: Drug use and Murder
alisylvi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
A total guilty pleasure
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Animal death
doggipet's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Murder, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Blood and Alcohol
foxcrofty's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
So this book is ostensibly a romance, but by and large it is more brutal and violent than romantic. It certainly is leaning in an enemies to lovers way, but don't expect to get passed enemies to begrudging allies in this first book.
The world building is good, the setting largely based in a vaguely historical Greece/Rome/Venice area. I personally love a court drama and the salaciousness of the sex soaked society was a bit jarring after so much YA but at least it was consistent. The other nice thing is that there seems to be no qualms at all as about same sex couples in this, granted, in most cases they weren't romantic relationships as much as they were this strange master/servant arrangement.
This books absolutely has a content warnings list as long as my arm, so I would not recommend it to anyone who doesn't know what they're getting into.
The characters might be my favorite part. Damen, who would absolutely fit the picture of a muscle bound stock model on any romance cover, is a kind and smart protag who's been thrust into an absolutely impossible situation. Laurent, who for me is like the perfect blend of Kaz Brekker and Prince Cardan wrapped up in the salaciousness of a romance novel, is a nuanced and intriguing character, easy both to hate and to like, which puts the readers in the same shoes as Damen most of the time.
I'm excited to see where they go from here.
The world building is good, the setting largely based in a vaguely historical Greece/Rome/Venice area. I personally love a court drama and the salaciousness of the sex soaked society was a bit jarring after so much YA but at least it was consistent. The other nice thing is that there seems to be no qualms at all as about same sex couples in this, granted, in most cases they weren't romantic relationships as much as they were this strange master/servant arrangement.
This books absolutely has a content warnings list as long as my arm, so I would not recommend it to anyone who doesn't know what they're getting into.
The characters might be my favorite part. Damen, who would absolutely fit the picture of a muscle bound stock model on any romance cover, is a kind and smart protag who's been thrust into an absolutely impossible situation. Laurent, who for me is like the perfect blend of Kaz Brekker and Prince Cardan wrapped up in the salaciousness of a romance novel, is a nuanced and intriguing character, easy both to hate and to like, which puts the readers in the same shoes as Damen most of the time.
I'm excited to see where they go from here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and Trafficking
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Incest