A review by lady_moon
Blackheart Knights by Laure Eve

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

‘But some knights, they have a hunger inside them. It is its own creature, and like all living things, it’s driven by survival. Because if you’re not hungry anymore, the hunger dies, neh? It’ll deny you comfort just so it can go on living. So maybe you get your comfort and it’ll be fine – for a while. But as soon as you think that’s it, you’re sated, it’ll come a-creeping back.’

Rep: sapphic MC, enby aroace-coded side character, Black female side character, enby Asian-coded side character, aromantic-coded pan side character, BIPOC-coded side characters, sapphic & achilliean side characters, queernormative world

Actual rating is 3.5/4.0 stars but I took away half a star because my aromantic ass is tired of the narrative 'romantic love is all you need to be happy'. And overall because I was annoyed at the unnecessary attraction Art and Red was feeling towards certain people - the purpose of it was nothing but to make it more angsty. I really would have enjoyed the book more without this, as I couldn't care less about their random romances.

Some plot twists shocked me, I'll give it that. Other I saw from mile away (like that
Red is Art's daughter from Belisan
). The writing itself was excellent. There were some extraordinary prose, I loved these bits. Now, this books is very interesting combination of story and characters. It's very much an urban fantasy but also slow paced and atmospheric as hell. The plot is a little, weird, a bit sloppy creater. All of the chapters are mostly conversations and fragment of occurrences that let us know what has been happening outside of these conversationsor give us glimpses of the narrators' inner world. It's focused mostly on our main characters (Art and Red) and their inner conflics - but at the same time it felt like a plot-driven book. They are barely left with space to spend with the other characters and to let us feel their relationships properly. The exceptions are maybe one or two characters for each Red and Art. I wanted so bad to get to know Art's friend group - Garad, Lucan and Lillath. We get more of Garad in the first quarter or so of the book and then they're almost dissappear, appearing only a few more times. Not to mention Lillath and Lucan who barely were there, especially Lucan.

I also think it's missed opportunity not to make Art queer and Red a lesbian. Art is ever only explicitly interested in women. Red could easily be a lesbian if one particular character (
Wyll
) was a woman and not a man. Seriously, if Red isn't getting pregnant or something in the next book, he easily could have been a woman or enby.

Now, considering I have almost 200 highlights & notes on the book, I will stop here and finish off with this:

You see, I'm studying political science at university - first year. This books makes me want to drop out and to go live somewhere far away so I can get away from the disgusting, repulsive and dirty thing the politic is.
Because to have Orcade being the same disgusting corrupt little shit her brother was but smarter and worse, and then to have Art, who was so worried the whole time he'll become a corrupt politician, to have his only big misjudgment of someone come bite him on the ass years after it happened, was gutting.