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A review by fauna_n_fiction
The First Sister by Linden A. Lewis
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-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
4.0
This was SO CLOSE to getting a 5 star. For most of the beginning I was thinking 4 stars, then at the climax of the story I was convinced that I could forgive the things that would make it a 4 star but just as the climax ended and we were getting all the closing stuff, it dropped down to a 4.25.
It is very clear that Lewis put so much world building into this and we are only just getting a small bit of it. This book is FILLED to the absolute brim with BETRAYAL! Literally every single character is called a traitor at least once. The LGBTGIA + rep in this is chef's kiss. The romance in this is beyond chef's kiss.
However, because there is a lot of world building, there's quite a lot of exposition at the beginning and I struggled to wrap my head around the politics of the world for quite a long time. There are also several "mental health journeys" that take place; one of them I lived for, but the other made little sense to me. Perhaps that's just me not understanding properly.
Absolutely fantastic read!
**POSSIBLE SPOILERS**
TRIGGER WARNINGS: violence, death and graphic injury, implied torture, amputation, PTSD, denial of bodily autonomy in various ways (prostitution, plastic surgery, neural implants, experimentation), blackmail, execution, untreated mental illness, mentions of child abuse, dysphoria, gender expression denial
It is very clear that Lewis put so much world building into this and we are only just getting a small bit of it. This book is FILLED to the absolute brim with BETRAYAL! Literally every single character is called a traitor at least once. The LGBTGIA + rep in this is chef's kiss. The romance in this is beyond chef's kiss.
However, because there is a lot of world building, there's quite a lot of exposition at the beginning and I struggled to wrap my head around the politics of the world for quite a long time. There are also several "mental health journeys" that take place; one of them I lived for, but the other made little sense to me. Perhaps that's just me not understanding properly.
Absolutely fantastic read!
**POSSIBLE SPOILERS**
TRIGGER WARNINGS: violence, death and graphic injury, implied torture, amputation, PTSD, denial of bodily autonomy in various ways (prostitution, plastic surgery, neural implants, experimentation), blackmail, execution, untreated mental illness, mentions of child abuse, dysphoria, gender expression denial
Content Warnings
violence, death and graphic injury, implied torture, amputation, PTSD, denial of bodily autonomy in various ways (prostitution, plastic surgery, neural implants, experimentation), blackmail, execution, untreated mental illness, mentions of child abuse, dysphoria, gender expression denial