Reviews with content warning for Ableism - The Tainted Cup

When I was a kid, my grandparents bought me an anthology of all the Sherlock Holmes stories. When I got into Edgar Allen Poe, they pointed out to me that he's considered to have written the first detective story, and I read The Murders in the Rue Morgue with relish. This seed of detective/murder mystery fiction love has laid dormant all these years, but I think this is the water it needed to sprout.

This is a richly alien fantasy world with fun characters and a well-realized mystery. I am so proud I figured a piece out before our Sherlock expy laid it out for us! This book also made me realize how little the characters in the books I read swear, and once I got used to it... it was kind of nice to have a smart lady running around who says the word fuck. I also loved that the author understood that Sherlock is not a cold or mean person, which shines through in the way he writes his expy, Ana. Her and our PoV character Din have such great rapport while being their own characters. I also loved the disability representation, when it clicked that the protagonist actually had dyslexia and it wasn't some magical side effect I teared up.

Can't wait for the next book in the series!

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no_evil_star's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Imagine Holmes and Watson solving crimes in a world where Han dynasty China meets Pacific Rim, with a dose of Vandermeerian weirdness to hold the conceit together. The central mystery becomes a little convoluted, which means the resolution isn't as neat as it could be, but there's so much fun to be had with the world and its characters that it hardly matters.

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octopus_farmer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A fun mystery!! I couldn’t guess much in the first half - lots of worldbuilding and set dressing. Creative world and neat characterization. The title sucks though. Completely inscrutable until the end when

the plot is revealed

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