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clarabooksit's review against another edition
- 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? No
3.25
Moderate: Medical content, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Death, Blood, and Racism
Minor: Dysphoria, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and War
goldendreams'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
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, and Chronic illness
Moderate: Child death and Classism
Minor: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Vomit
therainbowshelf'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? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Classism, Child death, Xenophobia, Blood, Racism, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Death, Dysphoria, Violence, Medical content, and Confinement
booksthatburn's review against another edition
Graphic: Dysphoria
Moderate: Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, and Death
Minor: Child abuse, Genocide, Excrement, Self harm, and Death of parent
unsuccessfulbookclub's review
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Dysphoria, Death, Colonisation, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Genocide, Abandonment, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Xenophobia
ryanlee's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
Graphic: Body horror, Medical content, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death and Physical abuse
Minor: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Murder, Xenophobia, and Genocide
tinybluepixel's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
3.5 ....... 3.75 stars? This was good, but gosh, do I wish this was a full-blown novel instead of a novella.
Firuz arrives as a refugee/immigrant in Qilwa, a city that in the past has been ravaged by plague, and starts working at a free clinic run by a healer named Kofi. As they work there, a new disease emerges, which Firuz calls the blood-bruising.
Ultimately, the story felt too big for it's low page count. There is the underlying mystery of the blood-bruising, the immigration politics and analogies to the real-world occupation of Iran, the oppression of different peoples who then also become oppressed by something else, the feeling of being a stranger to one's own body, gender identities in general, body dysmorphia, transitioning, chosen family and its makings, a whole magic system, and the interconnection of all those issues with the magic system. It actually all feels organic and well-developed, but the page count is far too low for the potential of this exploration. Add to that the obscene amount of medical scenes (maybe I'm just way too stupid for the whole balancing-of-the-humors and blood-clotting aspects of medicine), but it ends up being fragmented, even a bit shallow, because nothing can be handled in the depth it deserves.
Not to say that this little book doesn't raise important questions - because it does. It definitely makes you think. However, I think it just needed a little bit more room to breathe.
Graphic: Blood, Medical trauma, Medical content, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Self harm, Chronic illness, Violence, and Xenophobia
irasobrietate's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This was a wonderfully immersive book about the dualities of power and control, freedom and oppression, healing and harm. Jamnia grapples with complex questions that have no easy answers: if a people was an oppressor in the past, does that mean they deserve their oppression in the present? If you can save 1000 people should you ignore the suffering of 50 that it causes? At what point of suffering does a risky cure become more imperative than a liveable problem? As in real life, we are not left with simple answers or clear cut heroes and villains; life is far too messy for that. Instead we have people just trying to make the best decisions they can with the knowledge and skills at their disposal. Their choices are deeply human and achingly real.
And threaded through this, the characters' cultures and identities deeply influence their actions and worldviews. Both the highs and lows of Sassanian culture affect how Firuz lives their life and responds to the pressures they experience as a refugee in a city-state that fears their people's presence. One of the most personally affecting for me was the way gender identity and expression were treated. When someone introduces themself, they preface their name with their pronoun. Firuz is nonbinary and had an alignment as a teenager that allowed their body to reflect their identity. Now their brother Parviz has grown old enough to need his own alignment, except they are now cut off from the elder mages who would have performed the alignment and Firuz must try to create an alignment spell that wouldn't damage or destroy Parviz's body. The whole way Sassanians seem to approach gender identity and expression was just so interesting and validating. I just love seeing creative uses of magic for accommodating gender identity.
My one big complaint is I wanted more from the story. More of Sassanian history. More of Qilwa's history. More of Parviz and of Firuz's student Afsoneh. More of Kofi and his work. More of Firuz's place in their new home and amngst the people they now serve at the clinic. This could have easily been 150 pages longer, fleshing out the world and the characters more.
Still, based on this brilliant debut, I will definitely keeping an eye out for Jamnia's work in the future.
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Medical content
Moderate: Colonisation, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Dysphoria, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, and Genocide