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A review by skylarkblue1
The Clockwork Empire by Lucas J.W. Johnson
5.0
Thank you to Fireside Fiction and Lucas for an E-ARC!
Content Warnings: Death, Murder (also of children), Graphic Descriptions, Genocide, Racism, Xenophobia, Body Modifications Without Consent, Kidnapping.
This book threw me through such a rollercoaster of emotions and I loved every second of it. Honestly, I think this book had the best prologue I've read in a long time. Instantly gripped and shocked me while perfectly setting up the world it's set in.
The book is a deep dive into an alternate history type path, one of what if Rome had taken over and continued for many years more. Set during Rome's industrial revolution, a very steampunk one, the story follows a group of characters as they try to take down a very quickly expanding hole of corruption and facism within the empire. Down all the winding paths and blockades that appear before them at every corner, follow their steps and hard choices they need to make to continue.
All the moves the characters made felt motivated and with purpose, whether that be through impulsivity, planning, creative thinking or just teamwork. Character growth made sense and was honestly very satisfying to read when the characters had major “growth” moments.
The LGBT+ representation was adorable as well, WLW, MLM, trixic (this was very surprising to see in a book but very nice to read! I never expect to see any kind of trixic relationships even just mentioned!), non-binary, all sorts is featured in this book and despite how much there is, none of it felt throw-away or tokenised, everyone felt human.
Additionally, the way trauma is written was good, in my opinion at least. The way the characters treat others who are having a bad time, who don’t want to talk right now, etc felt real but it also felt good. There’s many quotes, like the one above, that I’m going to keep reflecting on for a very long time. The characters aren’t perfect, but they know how to treat each other well and how to look after each other when it comes to things like this. PTSD rep is something that is easily hit or miss, but I think this hit a bullseye.
Overall, 5/5 is the only rating I’m allowed to put, if it was up to me I’d rate it higher though. I honestly have no issues with the book, do however take note of the content warnings as the book doesn’t pull punches on occasion. It doesn’t hide the corruption, the xenophobia, the consequences it all has. The prologue is available for free online and I recommend reading it. This part also is the heaviest in terms of graphic/dark content so if you are alright with this part, you should be alright for the rest of the book! But believe me, whatever facts/answers you think you might know from that prologue, you might just have all those thoughts flipped upside down once you read the rest of the book…
Content Warnings: Death, Murder (also of children), Graphic Descriptions, Genocide, Racism, Xenophobia, Body Modifications Without Consent, Kidnapping.
"You don't need to face it to get over it. It's traumatic. You're allowed to move on without revisiting the trauma. You're allowed to move forward with a new life."
This book threw me through such a rollercoaster of emotions and I loved every second of it. Honestly, I think this book had the best prologue I've read in a long time. Instantly gripped and shocked me while perfectly setting up the world it's set in.
The book is a deep dive into an alternate history type path, one of what if Rome had taken over and continued for many years more. Set during Rome's industrial revolution, a very steampunk one, the story follows a group of characters as they try to take down a very quickly expanding hole of corruption and facism within the empire. Down all the winding paths and blockades that appear before them at every corner, follow their steps and hard choices they need to make to continue.
All the moves the characters made felt motivated and with purpose, whether that be through impulsivity, planning, creative thinking or just teamwork. Character growth made sense and was honestly very satisfying to read when the characters had major “growth” moments.
The LGBT+ representation was adorable as well, WLW, MLM, trixic (this was very surprising to see in a book but very nice to read! I never expect to see any kind of trixic relationships even just mentioned!), non-binary, all sorts is featured in this book and despite how much there is, none of it felt throw-away or tokenised, everyone felt human.
Additionally, the way trauma is written was good, in my opinion at least. The way the characters treat others who are having a bad time, who don’t want to talk right now, etc felt real but it also felt good. There’s many quotes, like the one above, that I’m going to keep reflecting on for a very long time. The characters aren’t perfect, but they know how to treat each other well and how to look after each other when it comes to things like this. PTSD rep is something that is easily hit or miss, but I think this hit a bullseye.
Overall, 5/5 is the only rating I’m allowed to put, if it was up to me I’d rate it higher though. I honestly have no issues with the book, do however take note of the content warnings as the book doesn’t pull punches on occasion. It doesn’t hide the corruption, the xenophobia, the consequences it all has. The prologue is available for free online and I recommend reading it. This part also is the heaviest in terms of graphic/dark content so if you are alright with this part, you should be alright for the rest of the book! But believe me, whatever facts/answers you think you might know from that prologue, you might just have all those thoughts flipped upside down once you read the rest of the book…