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qrschulte's review
adventurous
dark
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book had a really interesting concept for magic, but I didn’t love it for a couple of reasons. I read the audiobook, and I think that was a mistake. There were frequently errors in the audio, where the same sentence would be repeated twice in a row (I swear this happened like a dozen times). There were no chapters, so it was harder to know when we were switching between Lin and Sima quicker. I think if I’d read the ebook or a physical copy, I wouldn’t have had those complaints, and I wouldn’t have kept getting pulled out of the story. I did absolutely love the in-world epigraphs, which are 100% my shit.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Colonisation
Moderate: Body horror, Physical abuse, Slavery, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death, Vomit, and War
mal_eficent's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was so interesting as a tiny snapshot into the world – though I was left slightly disappointed by the amount of story we got. It felt like we were thrown mid story into a world that was fully functional, which I always love, but then that the story never actually...finished. It might be because the narrative is split between the travel guide from years in the future and the character perspectives, which technically does fill in the gaps, but I still felt like it cut off suddenly. I'll forgive it for that, though, as I loved guide inserts being used so much in this novella format.
If you can go with a different version, don't pick up the audiobook version of this. While the narrator is pretty good, the publisher has not paid enough attention to the editing. There's quite a few sentences that are just repeated for seemingly no reason. If this is also in the text, then I'll take my words back, but I'd also knock off a star as it's incredibly jarring.
If you can go with a different version, don't pick up the audiobook version of this. While the narrator is pretty good, the publisher has not paid enough attention to the editing. There's quite a few sentences that are just repeated for seemingly no reason. If this is also in the text, then I'll take my words back, but I'd also knock off a star as it's incredibly jarring.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicide, Violence, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Forced institutionalization