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4.22 AVERAGE
4.22 AVERAGE
WOW this book was good!!!! I listened to the audiobook, and the narrators were just okay for me, but the story was so exciting it made up for their performance.
The characters were all complex and interesting and I could not stop listening to this book after I got a few chapters in.
I will say, Laia was really frustrating to me in the beginning of the book. She starts off being really meek and the author really emphasized how beautiful she is which is a book trope that really grates on my nerves (think Cosette from Les Mis or Lucie Manette in a Tale of Two Cities). However, she felt like more of a fully fleshed out character towards the middle and end of the book.
Also, if you're not a fan of love triangles, this book might not be for you. There are 2 separate, overlapping love triangles in this book. However, I do feel like they were well written, they made sense in the context of the world (mostly) and they did help to propel the story forward without taking over the rest of the plot.
I'd give this book a 4.5/5. I'm really excited to read the rest of the series!!!
Also, I'm totally a Helene stan.
TW for assault and discussion of rape in the book
The characters were all complex and interesting and I could not stop listening to this book after I got a few chapters in.
I will say, Laia was really frustrating to me in the beginning of the book. She starts off being really meek and the author really emphasized how beautiful she is which is a book trope that really grates on my nerves (think Cosette from Les Mis or Lucie Manette in a Tale of Two Cities). However, she felt like more of a fully fleshed out character towards the middle and end of the book.
Also, if you're not a fan of love triangles, this book might not be for you. There are 2 separate, overlapping love triangles in this book. However, I do feel like they were well written, they made sense in the context of the world (mostly) and they did help to propel the story forward without taking over the rest of the plot.
I'd give this book a 4.5/5. I'm really excited to read the rest of the series!!!
Also, I'm totally a Helene stan.
TW for assault and discussion of rape in the book
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
The world was I treating and I was invested in the characters enough to want to read the second one but half the time what they do doesn’t make any sense. Like i can’t describe the characters as people because they aren’t consistent. Also the bad people are really bad and I can’t handle the cruel violence. That’s mostly a me thing though.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wasn't a huge fan of the Martials and slave content. But I liked the MCs and I wanted to learn more about the magic.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
ooh first you think it’s just regular caste system dystopia but at least the characters are compelling and the all of the sudden SURPRISE BITCH, there’s magic and jinn and mind reading and double crossing and you finish it in one day and immediately get the second one from the library
December 2020
Yall. This book is brutal.
The fourth and final book has just come out and I'm re-reading the series to refresh my memory.
August 2016
I read this book about a year ago and never reviewed it. With this re-read, I have to say that I'm sticking with my previous 5-star rating. With just a few flaws, this book was amazing.
There is such a raw brutality to this book. The characters survive things that real people never could. The monsters are worse. But it's fiction and easily forgivable. Nothing is such a stretch that you have to totally suspend your disbelief.
The mention of supernatural characters was too brief, but it's clear those will be explored in future books. The main thing in this first book is to establish not just the world but the characters. The ending whetted my appetite for more, which was surprising since I don't generally like books that are so stark.
The world was rich; Tahir takes this unforgiving military school and surrounds it with a city of slaves. But they are slaves with a rich heritage. And there are tribes outside the city with bright colors and easy, generous people who love to laugh. She creates such a contrast that it just makes each thing more vivid. And while I could feel the cold of the stone and smell the sandlewood, I wasn't so involved that I cringed at each lash. Tahir gave us just enough to horrify us, not put us in the place of each character.
Tahir doesn't shy away from a plot that abuses her characters. Nothing in this book is fair. When you have a world like that, you have a lot of evil. A lot of characters are power hungry and ruthless because that's all there is. No justice means no one has to have a sense of moral responsibility. So even the good guys had their base faults.
No character is perfect (thankfully or they wouldn't be interesting!) but I do wish Laia had been a little faster on the uptake. A reader never wants to be smarter than the main character. There was some degree of that here; you'd think that Laia wouldn't be so focused on her mission that she'd fail to see some of the details that are revealed bit by bit. On the other hand, she's so busy just surviving that I could forgive her. She is at least aware of the world around her enough to not be totally clueless.
Elias is a tortured soul, but this is appropriate because of the world in which he lives. He's not stupid enough to do things simply to appease his moral compass. This is a guy who knows the world he lives in and hates it for what it is. He's admirable for that fact alone. I didn't care what he looked like because of what was important to him and the way he behaved. These things alone made him attractive as a character.
And this brings me to romance, because I am a hopeless romantic and need some degree of that in my stories. This one had just enough. The spark was there but there was so much other stuff going on that it had to go completely into the background. Still present - but not really a major plot element. It was far more about the value of friendship and loyalty than about love.
Steve West and Fiona Hardingham narrate this expertly. They seemed to capture the characters perfectly. I would never have been as immersed in this world if not for their interpretation of it; I think they just made the book better. As is often the case, it is far easier for an audiobook listener to have a better opinion of a book than a reader. These narrators really did put me right there in the action.
This book promises more in the series. Hopefully the following books will equal this one.
June 2015
Wow.
Yall. This book is brutal.
The fourth and final book has just come out and I'm re-reading the series to refresh my memory.
August 2016
I read this book about a year ago and never reviewed it. With this re-read, I have to say that I'm sticking with my previous 5-star rating. With just a few flaws, this book was amazing.
There is such a raw brutality to this book. The characters survive things that real people never could. The monsters are worse. But it's fiction and easily forgivable. Nothing is such a stretch that you have to totally suspend your disbelief.
The mention of supernatural characters was too brief, but it's clear those will be explored in future books. The main thing in this first book is to establish not just the world but the characters. The ending whetted my appetite for more, which was surprising since I don't generally like books that are so stark.
The world was rich; Tahir takes this unforgiving military school and surrounds it with a city of slaves. But they are slaves with a rich heritage. And there are tribes outside the city with bright colors and easy, generous people who love to laugh. She creates such a contrast that it just makes each thing more vivid. And while I could feel the cold of the stone and smell the sandlewood, I wasn't so involved that I cringed at each lash. Tahir gave us just enough to horrify us, not put us in the place of each character.
Tahir doesn't shy away from a plot that abuses her characters. Nothing in this book is fair. When you have a world like that, you have a lot of evil. A lot of characters are power hungry and ruthless because that's all there is. No justice means no one has to have a sense of moral responsibility. So even the good guys had their base faults.
No character is perfect (thankfully or they wouldn't be interesting!) but I do wish Laia had been a little faster on the uptake. A reader never wants to be smarter than the main character. There was some degree of that here; you'd think that Laia wouldn't be so focused on her mission that she'd fail to see some of the details that are revealed bit by bit. On the other hand, she's so busy just surviving that I could forgive her. She is at least aware of the world around her enough to not be totally clueless.
Elias is a tortured soul, but this is appropriate because of the world in which he lives. He's not stupid enough to do things simply to appease his moral compass. This is a guy who knows the world he lives in and hates it for what it is. He's admirable for that fact alone. I didn't care what he looked like because of what was important to him and the way he behaved. These things alone made him attractive as a character.
And this brings me to romance, because I am a hopeless romantic and need some degree of that in my stories. This one had just enough. The spark was there but there was so much other stuff going on that it had to go completely into the background. Still present - but not really a major plot element. It was far more about the value of friendship and loyalty than about love.
Steve West and Fiona Hardingham narrate this expertly. They seemed to capture the characters perfectly. I would never have been as immersed in this world if not for their interpretation of it; I think they just made the book better. As is often the case, it is far easier for an audiobook listener to have a better opinion of a book than a reader. These narrators really did put me right there in the action.
This book promises more in the series. Hopefully the following books will equal this one.
June 2015
Wow.
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
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