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clairew97's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Vomit, Murder, Gore, Violence, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Alcohol, Body horror, Bullying, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Child death, Grief, Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Terminal illness, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, War, Religious bigotry, Classism, and Death of parent
theespressoedition's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Child death, Blood, Murder, Animal death, and Gore
Moderate: Cursing, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, War, Vomit, and Torture
Minor: Sexual content
livwoods'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
4.25
I might come back to this review after I’ve had a chance to parse my thoughts, but I just flew through the last 11% of the book, and wow, the last 50ish pages and where the story left us bumped my rating way up!
I’ve read both For the Wolf and For the Throne, as well as the short story “One Lane Bridge”, and I think this is Hannah Whitten’s best book yet. Dellaire and the Mortem-cursed country of Auverraine is a fun, glittering, and bejeweled world of recreational poison use, dead gods, and courtly politics and espionage. The characters are fun and I enjoyed following Lore as a protagonist, but shout-out to Bastian—the seemingly irreverent, moderately dastardly Sun Prince—who was my favorite character to read. That’s not to count out Gabe, our Golden Retriever-esque monk who’s too loyal and upstanding for his own self-preservation, but right now, I’m firmly Team Bastian (but giving myself the choice to change my mind whenever Book 2 comes out). I’m a sucker for love triangles, too, and am waiting to see what shenanigans this trio gets up to in the books that follow.
I don’t read much high fantasy where intricate court politics and royal espionage are involved, but this level of intrigue, mystery, and machinations suited me fine, and the twists keep the pages turning.
The pantheon of gods was by far my favorite element, and I’m hoping we can dig more into the mythology of the world as we move further into the series. (And maybe get some backstory for what really happened before
This definitely feels like a first book in a trilogy and therefore has some of the standard conventions of getting a series off the ground: slower-paced world building and character development to get you invested for when the puzzle starts coming together. And a lot of the earlier pages are spent setting up the world, the court, and the key players in the mystery. But by the end of the book, the chess board is set and the pieces are in place for whatever Book 2 has in store, and I can’t wait to see how the game plays out from here!
Graphic: Cursing, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Animal death, Death of parent, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, and Vomit
Moderate: War