alexiconic 's review for:

The Shadow Cabinet by Juno Dawson

3.5

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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I enjoyed this, especially the final 150 pages where the threads started to weave together. I liked learning more about the witches’ world, about demons, the Shadow Cabinet, international covens, historical witches … that said, the political commentary was a bit more hamfisted than it was in book 1, where I was more pleasantly surprised by it and it seemed to serve the story and characters better. In this sequel, it sometimes overpowered too much.

Also - Ciara and Luke having sex while she was high? That didn’t feel very consensual sexy. That was icky.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation