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anitaxlit's review
adventurous
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I'm so sad to say that this book was definitely not for me, and I'm so disappointed because I wanted to love it!
On the first hundred pages I thought it was bad, but that perhaps it was simply due to poor translation work. By page 200 I concluded that sadly, both the translation and the writing were poor. The translation reads stunted and awkward on every page. The writing was bad because of... everything else.
First off, it was sexist. Slut-shaming abounds. Women are treated like shit. There is one comment — completely out of the blue, with no reason whatsoever — about a miscarriage that I found triggering even if the topic isn't normally triggering for me. I found the book generally insensitive toward women.
I've seen other reviews mention this and I must repeat it myself: the author gives each character a defining trait and mentions it every chance she gets. The fact that Ophelia, the MC, is clumsy and sickly is repeated non-stop thorughout the book. Whenever Thorn is mentioned, there is a remark on how tall he is. With Berenilde, it's her golden curls and beauty. With Rosaline, the horse's teeth. With Gail, the black hair. With Fox, the red moustache. These things are mentioned every single time one of the characters does something.
They are also completely devoid of any personality, sense or emotion. Berenilde was so confusing, I really couldn't understand her. Archibald was the most consistent of all? I think?
Ophelia has no emotional reactions to the horrible things that happen to her, and there's a lot of those! She encounters things which should be a complete cultural shock and barely reacts. Also, she can "read" objects to know things about their previous owners and travel through mirrors (which is so, so cool!!), but she never takes any advantage of that. I totally forgot about the mirror thing for like a hundred pages, and the saga is called The Mirror Visitor!
And the "romance"... Thorn says he's getting used to her and immediately Ophelia deduces that he's in love with her.
Girl what.
You need to sit down.
You need to take several seats.
And this is not simply the character being naive, the author seems to be pointing us in that direction! How can I believe he loves her when they haven't had any meaningful interactions at all?
What's most frustrating is that this had the potential to be great! The premise is amazing! The world it presents is cool! The plot is intriguing and it has one (1) twist that I liked! But the execution was done poorly, and it took away from the enjoyment I might have found in these things. So yeah, I'm sad about this.
On the first hundred pages I thought it was bad, but that perhaps it was simply due to poor translation work. By page 200 I concluded that sadly, both the translation and the writing were poor. The translation reads stunted and awkward on every page. The writing was bad because of... everything else.
First off, it was sexist. Slut-shaming abounds. Women are treated like shit. There is one comment — completely out of the blue, with no reason whatsoever — about a miscarriage that I found triggering even if the topic isn't normally triggering for me. I found the book generally insensitive toward women.
I've seen other reviews mention this and I must repeat it myself: the author gives each character a defining trait and mentions it every chance she gets. The fact that Ophelia, the MC, is clumsy and sickly is repeated non-stop thorughout the book. Whenever Thorn is mentioned, there is a remark on how tall he is. With Berenilde, it's her golden curls and beauty. With Rosaline, the horse's teeth. With Gail, the black hair. With Fox, the red moustache. These things are mentioned every single time one of the characters does something.
They are also completely devoid of any personality, sense or emotion. Berenilde was so confusing, I really couldn't understand her. Archibald was the most consistent of all? I think?
Ophelia has no emotional reactions to the horrible things that happen to her, and there's a lot of those! She encounters things which should be a complete cultural shock and barely reacts. Also, she can "read" objects to know things about their previous owners and travel through mirrors (which is so, so cool!!), but she never takes any advantage of that. I totally forgot about the mirror thing for like a hundred pages, and the saga is called The Mirror Visitor!
And the "romance"... Thorn says he's getting used to her and immediately Ophelia deduces that he's in love with her.
Girl what.
You need to sit down.
You need to take several seats.
And this is not simply the character being naive, the author seems to be pointing us in that direction! How can I believe he loves her when they haven't had any meaningful interactions at all?
What's most frustrating is that this had the potential to be great! The premise is amazing! The world it presents is cool! The plot is intriguing and it has one (1) twist that I liked! But the execution was done poorly, and it took away from the enjoyment I might have found in these things. So yeah, I'm sad about this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Torture
Moderate: Miscarriage and Sexism
peachmoni's review against another edition
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Physical abuse, Violence, and Grief
Minor: Torture, Toxic relationship, and Blood