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opossumble'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
5.0
Graphic: Dysphoria, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, Violence, and Classism
Minor: Bullying, Hate crime, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Physical abuse
jjjreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Vomit, Dysphoria, Genocide, Hate crime, Bullying, Child death, Grief, War, Xenophobia, Gore, Death, Blood, Body horror, Self harm, Violence, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Outing, Police brutality, and Racism
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
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