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cleverbaggins's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
I don't usually rate books super badly. Usually I just assume it's not for me and move on. This is one of the few books I've read that I actively hate.
I was so excited for this book. So hopeful. The content warnings needed to be 100% more specific. It is graffic and Grim and without hope. Only a couple of the characters are likeable and they're treated horribly by the main characters.
I thought this book was going to be clever. I thought the scifi aspects, the variety of species and cultures would be explored. They weren't.
This is a book that wanted to say a lot and tried the hardest and most complicated way to do it and then what it had to say was horrible.
It's advertised as matrix and a hades/persephone retelling. What the author is missing is that the darkness in both of those has hope. Has people fighting for right. Has love and the rise of a new future. This book has none of it.
I'm actively angry. This book made my skin crawl. There was nothing explored that should've been and I regret all the people I suggested it to when they wanted more retellings. You couldnt pay me to try another of the authors works.
I was so excited for this book. So hopeful. The content warnings needed to be 100% more specific. It is graffic and Grim and without hope. Only a couple of the characters are likeable and they're treated horribly by the main characters.
I thought this book was going to be clever. I thought the scifi aspects, the variety of species and cultures would be explored. They weren't.
This is a book that wanted to say a lot and tried the hardest and most complicated way to do it and then what it had to say was horrible.
It's advertised as matrix and a hades/persephone retelling. What the author is missing is that the darkness in both of those has hope. Has people fighting for right. Has love and the rise of a new future. This book has none of it.
I'm actively angry. This book made my skin crawl. There was nothing explored that should've been and I regret all the people I suggested it to when they wanted more retellings. You couldnt pay me to try another of the authors works.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Sexual violence, Rape, Violence, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Racism, Xenophobia, War, Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Misogyny
vike_'s review against another edition
1.0
I shall begin by stating I did finish the book, in hopes that things would get better. As I reached the finaly 20 pages and saw that things were just sort of happening, I knew I would be disappointed.
I don't mean to come across as attacking the author, but I honestly did not like how this book was written at all. The dialogue comes across as strange, especially the formatting, the world building is disjointed and presented at odd times. Characters seem to be introduced at convenient times that only seem to serve the purpose of making this world seem small. Among many other small things.
The writing itself is also just so very clunky. Words seem to be added to sentences for seemingly no purpose other than lengthening the book itself. Reading repeating words over and over really pulls me out of the scene. I am sure there is another way to descirbe something as going: "down, down, down and down." If this happened once or twice I wouldn't mind but this occurs very frequently throughout the book.
I don't normally find myself leaving written reviews beyond a star rating, but this book left me disappointed.
I don't mean to come across as attacking the author, but I honestly did not like how this book was written at all. The dialogue comes across as strange, especially the formatting, the world building is disjointed and presented at odd times. Characters seem to be introduced at convenient times that only seem to serve the purpose of making this world seem small. Among many other small things.
The writing itself is also just so very clunky. Words seem to be added to sentences for seemingly no purpose other than lengthening the book itself. Reading repeating words over and over really pulls me out of the scene. I am sure there is another way to descirbe something as going: "down, down, down and down." If this happened once or twice I wouldn't mind but this occurs very frequently throughout the book.
I don't normally find myself leaving written reviews beyond a star rating, but this book left me disappointed.
venealosille's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
- 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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, War, and Child abuse
Moderate: Deportation and Addiction
ielerol's review against another edition
3.0
I don't know if the problem is with the books or with me, but I'd given up on three different books in a row within a few chapters before starting this one, and I persevered through to the end of this one more out of stubbornness than sustained interest. I did like the setting and the aliens quite a bit, but I never really connected with any of the characters. What is Cora's personality like? How about her mother? The twins? I'm not sure I can tell you. They just sort of exist, and do things. The character voices are so indistinct that when switching between the several first-person perspectives I kept mixing up who was narrating. The only character I had a truly clear sense of as a person is Okoni, and he is a monster.
There is also rather a lot of sexual violence and child abuse in this book. It wasn't enough to totally put me off, but toward the end, when I thought maybe we were done with that aspect of the book and then, no, someone's raping a child, it felt more gratuitous.
There is also rather a lot of sexual violence and child abuse in this book. It wasn't enough to totally put me off, but toward the end, when I thought maybe we were done with that aspect of the book and then, no, someone's raping a child, it felt more gratuitous.
boocwurm's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
An Afrofuturistic retelling of the myth of Persephone set on Eleusis, a new planet where humans sought refuge after aliens attacked Earth. The book jumps through time and perspectives to follow three interconnected storylines: A young girl is kidnapped from her agrarian community by a violent warlord; Genetically modified twin brothers use their unnatural gifts to search for a missing young boy in Eleusis’ city; A young woman navigates her relationship with a powerful man and the destiny he hopes she’ll achieve.
There was a lot to unpack in this book. Brissett explores dynamics of race, class, identity and what it truly means to be human—demonstrating how humanity may evolve and escape terror, but certain societal horrors might persist. The Kresge, the alien race who initially attacked Earth, have settled onto Eleusis alongside humans, and their motives are unclear. I found many parallels between the human/Kresge dynamic and the dynamic between Black/Indigenous peoples and white colonizers and enslavers, exploring ideas of righting past wrongs, deeply rooted distrust and persisting power systems. Having gotten through the plot and world-building on the first read, I’d like to revisit this book later to explore these ideas more deeply.
The multiple storylines are very separate in the outset—spanning a decade—but move closer and closer together as you near the end. At first, these time jumps were a little confusing, but nothing more than your average time-jump book. I was much more confused by the shift in perspectives. The POV changes from first to third person at seemingly random times. Even by the end, I couldn’t quite grasp the intentionality behind the first-person sections… The worldbuilding was also a bit confusing, although we got there by the end. The author introduces new terms in early chapters and then explains them in depth in later chapters; I wished some of these explanations had come a little earlier so they’d mean more to me during the story’s foundation.
I liked the characters and their relationships quite a bit. Cora, the main character throughout, is a strong and powerful person who doesn’t let others’ desires for her path define her. If you know the Persephone myth, many of the characters and story tidbits will seem familiar to you, and I quite enjoyed those callbacks (and I’m sure there are many I missed). I also quite liked the author’s writing style. She uses a lot of artful repetition toward the end that I felt really brought the stories together into one cohesive narrative.
Overall, this was a clever sci-fi tale that examines much more than the usual, asking us to examine humanity with a new backdrop.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, and Murder
Moderate: War and Kidnapping
jfull12's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Trafficking, Sexual violence, and Violence
allouise's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Idk maybe it just wasn’t for me but the choices people were making didn’t seem to have any basis in their prior thoughts and actions. She’s like hmm this man has kept me captive I can’t wait to escape and then once she escapes she’s like I love him I’ll do what he told me to do. I didn’t feel connected to the characters except for John and Peter’s storyline it felt very devoid of emotion
ckcombsdotcom's review against another edition
4.0
While it took a little while to get my head around all the characters and time lines, once I did, I didn't want to put it down
theementallyill's review against another edition
The graphic description of a child being raped made me dnf this.