pdxpagemaster 's review for:

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey

3.0

adventurous challenging slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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This book for me was either very engaging or completely a slog, and there wasn’t a lot of in between.

I think it would have benefitted from being 200-300 pages shorter.

I saw another reviewer say this is Game of Thrones just with more consensual sex and tbh that’s sitting right with me - but I’m having trouble glossing over the fact that she was a child groomed into this religious role? She was bought and the trained for her whole life into this from childhood and there is a religious element to it to keep her in service to the god(s) - but the premise is hard for me to get over.

Then, for being a book that is fixated on “pain as pleasure” and is more than willing to

explain in great detail how it feels to have skin peeled away and knife play for sexual pleasure

- we get very little of the actual romance, even when it’s mostly fade-to-black, and I found myself missing romantic moments: slow burn yearning, inner thoughts, etc. There are relationships, sure, but it feels wrong to consider this a romantic book.

Also the “bury your gays” and “gay women are evil” themes are very strong here.

Ultimately, I just don’t think this was for me. It was fine, and good at times, but I left mostly dissatisfied.