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bibliomania_express's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book sucked me in, confused me, intrigued me, and made me keep reading. Yat is a bisexual constable living in a world where any queerness is punished. She is demoted and drugging herself to dull the pain and protect herself from her own memories. Then she ends up stumbling upon a sinister plot, murdered, resurrected by a god, and given new powers to see and interact with life threads. But there's still that sinister, government corrupting, spore-wielding plot to stop, so she doesn't have much time to figure anything out.
At times I found myself confused by exactly what was happening. The narration became purposefully disjointed, with snippets of dialogue breaking in. This was something Yat was experiencing, but since it was so hard to know what was happening, it pulled me out of the story.
I did like that the narrative moved betwern Yat and Sen, with a bit from Ajet and Sibbi to give some of the broader scope. There are also some direct-to-reader style chapters from one of the gods, which were intriguing but also mystifying. This book explores systems of power, corruption, sexism, homophobia, religious zealotry, police brutality, poverty, and what it means to be a hero. It's not subtle about its themes, but it weaves them together well.
I do wish there had been a bit more of Yat and Sen working together, and a bit more of the worldbuilding, especially the religion/magic system, explained up front. A lot of the book rushes along at a breakneck pace, so that coupled with the narrative style made it hard to absorb all the worldbuilding.
The setting, however, was fantastic. I loved the whole botanical engineering aspect, and how it tied into the Weaving magic and the dangerous spores.
Graphic: Death, Classism, Violence, Gaslighting, Drug use, Addiction, War, Xenophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Slavery, and Police brutality
Moderate: Child death, Bullying, Religious bigotry, Transphobia, Blood, Animal death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Biphobia
Minor: Sexual harassment, Ableism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Self harm
kumquats87's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Gore, Outing, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Body horror, Child death, Police brutality, Violence, and Lesbophobia
Moderate: Sexism, Self harm, Transphobia, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Addiction, War, Medical content, Gaslighting, Cancer, Misogyny, Gun violence, and Drug abuse