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maggie_atwood's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
Moderate: Violence and Death
Minor: Sexual content and Vomit
beckycarter97's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
caidyn's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
4.0
I was wondering how the conclusion to this duology would go. It picks up a bit after the end, with Amora as the ruler and trying to deal with everything that happened. Not to mention ruling and everyone insisting she find a husband. Oh and trying to get herself back and deal with grief. The book has a lot going on and I felt it juggled things well. I really enjoyed the ending!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Grief, and Violence
dorianlecter's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Death, Gore, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual content
deedireads's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.
TL;DR REVIEW:
All the Tides of Fate is a good conclusion to the All the Stars and Teeth duology. These books are fast-paced, easy to read, creative, and fun escapism.
For you if: You need a good-guy-pirate love interest in your next read.
FULL REVIEW:
TL;DR REVIEW:
All the Tides of Fate is a good conclusion to the All the Stars and Teeth duology. These books are fast-paced, easy to read, creative, and fun escapism.
For you if: You need a good-guy-pirate love interest in your next read.
FULL REVIEW:
“I know you well enough to know that you’re hiding something,” he says. “There’s more to this than you’re telling me. But I’ll play your game, and I hope you give it your best shot with those boys. Because you’re going to be sorely disappointed when you discover that not one of them is me.”
I read All the Stars and Teeth early last year, when it first came out, because Tomi Adeyemi blurbed it. I enjoyed it (hello, good guy pirate love interest), and so when All the Tides of Fate was released this year, I joined the library waitlist. I thought it was a good conclusion to a fun, fast-paced, creative, escapist story overall. (And again: hot pirates.)
The duology is about a girl named Amora, who is the princess of Visidia and heir to her father’s throne. While each of the islands in the kingdom practices a special kind of magic, her family is the only one allowed to practice soul magic — or so everyone thinks. In the first book, Amora’s journey led her to claiming her rightful place. In the second book, she has to pick up the pieces of everything that got broken along the way — breaking curses, healing from grief, ruling with confidence and selflessness. She’s no longer saving the world; she’s working to guarantee its future.
These books feel like they’re on the lower end of the YA reading level — they deal with heavy themes but without too many trigger warnings, they read really fast, and the romantic scenes are handled delicately. But I really liked them for what they are. The world-building is creative, the characters are so lovable, the (again) pirate love interest is a HEART THROB imo, and it’s filled with adventure and morals and magic.
I also appreciated how this book, specifically, handled grief — how it hurts for a long time, how you can’t let it consume you even when it feels easier, how you are allowed to have selfish moments as you heal, and how you aren’t alone, no matter how alone you feel.
If you’re looking for a fast-paced read to escape from real life for a little bit, this feels like a good choice!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Grief
leahsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book. I am offering my honest opinion voluntarily.
I really enjoyed All the Stars and Teeth (see my review here), and was really looking forward to this book. When I got approved for this ARC, I was thrilled!
The story picks up a few months after the events of the previous book, and Amora is struggling with grief as she is learning how to rule her kingdom. Her grief is combined with symptoms of trauma, which is completely understandable, after what went down at the end of the last book (which if you haven’t read, why not?) Added to these stressors, Amora also has to hide the fact that she doesn’t have magic anymore.
I loved the connection between the characters, although it felt like Amora consistently set herself apart from them. The quest that they took allowed for a second tour of Visidia, under completely different circumstances, but with no fewer adventures (and danger) of course. I’d honestly expect nothing less. However, while Amora had a goal in mind, she seemed to get thrown more and more off her path over the course of the book. It reminded me of the episode of The Simpsons where Homer is given a choice between two paths to take. One is bright and green, with rainbows and birds, and the other is dark and ominous, with dead trees, and inexplicably, Homer is torn between which path to take. That’s what so much of the book felt like, and it got tiresome. I just wanted to shake Amora and ask what the heck was wrong with her.
I enjoyed the slow-burn tension between Amora and Bastian, although the female side characters stole the show hands down. Vataea and Shanty were the real show-stoppers in the book, in my opinion. There was a lot of action in the story, with a found family trope throughout, despite everything Amora did to push away the people who care about her. It kept me reading and intrigued, and I really, truly wanted to believe that Amora would do the right thing. But since this is a spoiler-free review, you’re just going to have to wait and read it for yourself to find out what happens.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence
cupidities's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
*Review copy provided by Netgalley, but opinions are mine
I loved All the Stars and Teeth when I read it last spring: gritty and dark YA fantasy that dealt with the troubles of imperialism with sea adventures galore (plus a pirate and a mermaid!). Reading All the Tides of Fate, the final book in this duology, felt like a let-down, though.
I think, in part, I was overly optimistic when reading All the Stars and Teeth. That novel felt like it had great inclusion (so many characters that don't have white skin!), but it's just superficial diversity. Their skin tones don't actually play a role in the story, even though the book is set in a world where the different islands have widely varying power dynamics, with some being exploiters and some exploited. In another author's hands, this could've been a way to explore the racialized foundations of imperialism.
The first book also felt like it was gearing up to be anti-imperialism: Amora uncovers the dark history of her family and their reign over Visidia, and begins to question their right to rule. In All the Tides of Fate, however, Amora has just become queen, and suddenly and wholeheartedly believes that she must rule her kingdom and keep it united, whatever it takes. She grapples with morality in doing so, but for most of this novel, she sees herself as the rightful leader who must preserve her empire.
The rest of this review is going to be a spoiler-laden analysis of the ways this book perpetuates and upholds an imperialist fantasy.
In All the Tides of Fate, Amora goes on a journey across the islands of Visida. She pretends she's doing so to find a husband so she can produce an heir and maintain her family's lineage--explicitly working to preserve her family's legacy as rulers of Visidia. In reality, she's hunting down a person who may know how to help her re-gain her magic and fix her kingdom--again, to help her maintain control over her imperialist domain.
Amora is attacked by residents of the first two islands she visits: first, by drunken men, and then by a political agent trying to usurp her as ruler of his island. In both cases, the attackers are very clearly portrayed as morally wrong: it is immoral for these people to fight for their communities' needs and to try to depose the newest ruler in a corrupt line of exploitative and uncaring kings. After the second attack, Amora begins to question whether she's in the right by preserving her empire, but she visits a third island, where everyone loves her and is so excited to help her fight for her vision, so her doubts are squashed and she again trusts herself to know what's best.
Her trust in herself as the rightful leader then, at the very end of the novel, brings her to suddenly announce that the kingdom will actually be changing form, so that each island gets equal say in how the union is run and maintained. Here, she seems to be offering the islands a chance to represent themselves through elected officials (in a system that sounds an awful lot like the U.S. Senate, which has its own problems of unequal representation), but again, Amora somehow knows what will be best for the kingdom. She doesn't solicit or expect any feedback from the islands in question. Instead, she makes a sweeping reform where she, as the rightful leader trained to be their queen, knows what's best for everybody, which is maintaining the empire, whatever it takes. The islands don't get a say in how the new system will function, or even whether they want to participate; instead, Amora makes her decree and then leaves, going on a new adventure at sea.
And, of course, this opportunity for empire reform is only possible through the self-sacrificial death of Visidia's most loyal subject (and Amora's closest friend, Ferrick). He dies so that Amora can re-gain her magic and preserve the empire; his death, as Visidia's loyal subject, is what enables Amora to reform the kingdom and re-gain the trust of her other subjects. He must die so that she can maintain the imperialist union of islands.
A final note: one of the islands was, in the first book, a hub of sex trafficking and other atrocities. In the second book, however, Amora and the islands' residents are incredibly excited that they have reclaimed control through turning the island into... a giant casino, with gambling and drinking around every corner, as a source of tourism revenue. This made me really uncomfortable because of the way that this pivot was praised as a sign of autonomy and agency on the island's part, as though they had reclaimed their island and economy by turning it into a legal version of what settler colonials had been using the island for previously. This pivot mirrors the same choices many tribal reservations in the U.S. have made--but without acknowledging the ways that this choice was in many ways forced upon the island in the story, and the ways that this choice doesn't actually represent political and economic agency. The island is "repairing" itself with the revenue brought in by tourist gambling, but at what cost? The book offers superficial praise of a difficult and double-edged choice for self-preservation in the face of settler colonialism, without engaging with the harms that such a choice can and does make for residents.
I loved All the Stars and Teeth when I read it last spring: gritty and dark YA fantasy that dealt with the troubles of imperialism with sea adventures galore (plus a pirate and a mermaid!). Reading All the Tides of Fate, the final book in this duology, felt like a let-down, though.
I think, in part, I was overly optimistic when reading All the Stars and Teeth. That novel felt like it had great inclusion (so many characters that don't have white skin!), but it's just superficial diversity. Their skin tones don't actually play a role in the story, even though the book is set in a world where the different islands have widely varying power dynamics, with some being exploiters and some exploited. In another author's hands, this could've been a way to explore the racialized foundations of imperialism.
The first book also felt like it was gearing up to be anti-imperialism: Amora uncovers the dark history of her family and their reign over Visidia, and begins to question their right to rule. In All the Tides of Fate, however, Amora has just become queen, and suddenly and wholeheartedly believes that she must rule her kingdom and keep it united, whatever it takes. She grapples with morality in doing so, but for most of this novel, she sees herself as the rightful leader who must preserve her empire.
The rest of this review is going to be a spoiler-laden analysis of the ways this book perpetuates and upholds an imperialist fantasy.
Amora is attacked by residents of the first two islands she visits: first, by drunken men, and then by a political agent trying to usurp her as ruler of his island. In both cases, the attackers are very clearly portrayed as morally wrong: it is immoral for these people to fight for their communities' needs and to try to depose the newest ruler in a corrupt line of exploitative and uncaring kings. After the second attack, Amora begins to question whether she's in the right by preserving her empire, but she visits a third island, where everyone loves her and is so excited to help her fight for her vision, so her doubts are squashed and she again trusts herself to know what's best.
Her trust in herself as the rightful leader then, at the very end of the novel, brings her to suddenly announce that the kingdom will actually be changing form, so that each island gets equal say in how the union is run and maintained. Here, she seems to be offering the islands a chance to represent themselves through elected officials (in a system that sounds an awful lot like the U.S. Senate, which has its own problems of unequal representation), but again, Amora somehow knows what will be best for the kingdom. She doesn't solicit or expect any feedback from the islands in question. Instead, she makes a sweeping reform where she, as the rightful leader trained to be their queen, knows what's best for everybody, which is maintaining the empire, whatever it takes. The islands don't get a say in how the new system will function, or even whether they want to participate; instead, Amora makes her decree and then leaves, going on a new adventure at sea.
And, of course, this opportunity for empire reform is only possible through the self-sacrificial death of Visidia's most loyal subject (and Amora's closest friend, Ferrick). He dies so that Amora can re-gain her magic and preserve the empire; his death, as Visidia's loyal subject, is what enables Amora to reform the kingdom and re-gain the trust of her other subjects. He must die so that she can maintain the imperialist union of islands.
A final note: one of the islands was, in the first book, a hub of sex trafficking and other atrocities. In the second book, however, Amora and the islands' residents are incredibly excited that they have reclaimed control through turning the island into... a giant casino, with gambling and drinking around every corner, as a source of tourism revenue. This made me really uncomfortable because of the way that this pivot was praised as a sign of autonomy and agency on the island's part, as though they had reclaimed their island and economy by turning it into a legal version of what settler colonials had been using the island for previously. This pivot mirrors the same choices many tribal reservations in the U.S. have made--but without acknowledging the ways that this choice was in many ways forced upon the island in the story, and the ways that this choice doesn't actually represent political and economic agency. The island is "repairing" itself with the revenue brought in by tourist gambling, but at what cost? The book offers superficial praise of a difficult and double-edged choice for self-preservation in the face of settler colonialism, without engaging with the harms that such a choice can and does make for residents.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Sexual content
molliemoments's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- 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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, and Mental illness
jcantstopreading's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
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
4.5
Writing this right when I’ve just finished... I am so happy that I stumbled upon this Duology and what a way to wrap it all up. The journey had twists and turns and of course heartbreak. I am so happy to follow Amora and the Keel Haul crew on any adventure.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
mearaisreading's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent and Grief