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kris7's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
asourceoffiction's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-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
2.5
A stunningly written but ultimately disappointing story, which didn't live up to the wonder of The Binding.
I found I was able to enjoy this more when I stopped trying to understand what the hell the grand jeu was, and instead focused on the characters. I liked how this book seems to be set out of time; there are a lot of technical advances, but seemingly no electricity and everyone wears robes. It's an interesting alternate world.
I did event ally get immersed in the human story. But it felt so dressed up in this incredibly elaborate (and, yes, pretentious) game that it seemed to heavily favour style over substance. A lot about the wider world went unanswered, and although the writing was beautiful (I'd expect no less after The Binding), I just didn't care about the grand jeu.
Carfax and Claire are what I cared about; Léo and his total lack of self-awareness actually annoyed me a bit. The way the plot progressed definitely kept me interested (and I came so close to working out what was going on). But I just felt like this grand setting and lofty idea of the grand jeu seemed almost purposely difficult to understand, which actually distracted me rather than pulling me in.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Suicide
gwenkooi's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The first part of the book is mostly confusing, after that it gets better. Overall the story is saved by the mega twist, otherwise I would not have given it more than 3.5 *
alonewolf's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
issianne's review against another edition
4.0
This was a tough one because…it was really dense and made little sense at times (the grand jeu is basically never explained and I can’t tell if this is historical or alternative history) but it was beautiful. And I’m not sure I’d ever want to read it again or even really recommend it to anyone but there was something about it that was impactful. I’m not even sure if that makes any sense HAHA!
sobergs's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
bhgold1711's review against another edition
1.0
I don't really have much to say beyond that I just hated this book.
vermilionred's review against another edition
5.0
I felt like this book articulated a lot of things that I struggle to articulate myself, and feel trite when I try to write them down. "Shouldn't art make us better people? What would it mean to create with an atrocity at the heart of it?" In some ways that question has been answered - Isn't art routinely created with atrocities at the heart of it? - but in more personal, meaningful ways for me it hasn't. Do people set out to make art that makes them worse people? I hope not.
I guess that's a roundabout way of saying that I found this book intellectually captivating. It's difficult to talk about art without seeming pompous, and it's difficult to talk about it in the abstract at all. I liked the abstraction of the Grand Jeu, and this book absolutely captured the feeling of making some kinds of art -- pulling in allusions from everywhere and hammering it into forms without resorting to being formulaic, without losing the message that you're trying to send, until it becomes a constraints problem where cause and effect are clearly laid out. It was also dead-on in terms of what it feels like to have a really excellent collaboration, when they're so brilliant that you can't help but become better in response, and they are driven to new heights by you and back and forth and -- yeah. There's some things this book just absolutely nailed.
Other things I liked:
* Chryesis & her subplot. It allowed the text to very clearly acknowledge that Leo is kind of a selfish dumbass about people a lot of the time.
* Unique setting - rise of fascism & a narrator with genuine sins and wrongdoing to put behind him. I liked that Leo wasn't absolved, and his actions did have consequences he couldn't shake.
* Claire. It took me a while to warm up to her, & the past sections felt like they had more vitality through a lot of the story, but she grew on me as the plotline heated up, and in the end watching her slowly drown under her responsibilities was what I wanted. Also committee meetings in academia really do absolutely suck.
* Perfume vs. matchsticks & different kinds of bullying.
Things I didn't think really worked:
* The Rat storyline just fell extremely flat for me. I don't think her POV really added anything at all.
*I wasn't... I don't know. This is a book that Fucks Around with Gender, and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the way that was resolved. I'm not entirely sure what else I wanted, but some of Claire's early sections felt sort of two-dimensional to me on it. IDK.
* Less 'this didn't work' and more 'I wanted something unreasonable', but I *really* wanted Monteverre to burn down at the end. I felt like it was teased all the way through, with the libraries (flammable), the grandfather who burned down the library, and everyone consistently pushing his descendants to the end of their rope in fire-related ways, and then *it didn't deliver*. And I get that you probably can't end two books in a row with libraries burning down especially when you've only published two but also every book would be improved by a massive Rebecca/Name of the Rose fire at the end, and I wish that this book reflected that fact.
I guess that's a roundabout way of saying that I found this book intellectually captivating. It's difficult to talk about art without seeming pompous, and it's difficult to talk about it in the abstract at all. I liked the abstraction of the Grand Jeu, and this book absolutely captured the feeling of making some kinds of art -- pulling in allusions from everywhere and hammering it into forms without resorting to being formulaic, without losing the message that you're trying to send, until it becomes a constraints problem where cause and effect are clearly laid out. It was also dead-on in terms of what it feels like to have a really excellent collaboration, when they're so brilliant that you can't help but become better in response, and they are driven to new heights by you and back and forth and -- yeah. There's some things this book just absolutely nailed.
Other things I liked:
* Chryesis & her subplot. It allowed the text to very clearly acknowledge that Leo is kind of a selfish dumbass about people a lot of the time.
* Unique setting - rise of fascism & a narrator with genuine sins and wrongdoing to put behind him. I liked that Leo wasn't absolved, and his actions did have consequences he couldn't shake.
* Claire. It took me a while to warm up to her, & the past sections felt like they had more vitality through a lot of the story, but she grew on me as the plotline heated up, and in the end watching her slowly drown under her responsibilities was what I wanted. Also committee meetings in academia really do absolutely suck.
* Perfume vs. matchsticks & different kinds of bullying.
Things I didn't think really worked:
* The Rat storyline just fell extremely flat for me. I don't think her POV really added anything at all.
*I wasn't... I don't know. This is a book that Fucks Around with Gender, and I wasn't entirely satisfied with the way that was resolved. I'm not entirely sure what else I wanted, but some of Claire's early sections felt sort of two-dimensional to me on it. IDK.
* Less 'this didn't work' and more 'I wanted something unreasonable', but I *really* wanted Monteverre to burn down at the end. I felt like it was teased all the way through, with the libraries (flammable), the grandfather who burned down the library, and everyone consistently pushing his descendants to the end of their rope in fire-related ways, and then *it didn't deliver*. And I get that you probably can't end two books in a row with libraries burning down especially when you've only published two but also every book would be improved by a massive Rebecca/Name of the Rose fire at the end, and I wish that this book reflected that fact.