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pagesbycaroline's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Second read of this book. It's been long enough since I read it the first time that most everything was a surprise, which was delightful. There are many twists that I did not remember, so it was almost like reading it for the first time. I very much enjoy the dark nature of this story and cannot wait to continue reading the series. I remember in the beginning, Katharine was my favorite, but now I am leaning more towards Arsinoe.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gore, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, and Blood
teri_b's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I read this to get an idea as to what my own take on this series is.
Suffice to say that I dnfed this book nearly a couple of times. The toxicity of the relationships that is defined by the adults is appalling. Combined with the underlying representation of eating disorders that can be triggering, I would not consider this book to be a healthy read.
Suffice to say that I dnfed this book nearly a couple of times. The toxicity of the relationships that is defined by the adults is appalling. Combined with the underlying representation of eating disorders that can be triggering, I would not consider this book to be a healthy read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship
emily_mh's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
A sentence that sums up how I feel about this book is: I'm glad I didn't buy it, but I am interested in what happens next. The best part about the book was its premise of three queens vying for the throne, and there was some good world-building surrounding this. Everything else was a bit meh. I didn't like the omniscient narration style, or that it was done in present tense. I think it was the reason behind the poor characterisation of literally every character (but ESPECIALLY Katharine's. Her POVs were... so bland). There was just no internal world for any of them. I was expecting big reactions from the sisters meeting for the first time in ten years, but it was literally "oh there's my sister on her platform" or "oh my sister's talking to me in this forest" which was incredibly disappointing. Flat characters also meant that all the romances fell flat. It was very insta-love. And on top of the characters being meh, the plot had no direction beyond the fact that Beltane was gonna happen in a couple of months. Literally nothing of consequence happened between the beginning and that point. And you'd expect with the whole book leading up to the Quickening, that event would have some impact. But it was over in 10 pages tops. On the whole I was just expecting a lot more from this book. What partially saved it was the unique world-building and the fact that I wasn't dreading picking it back up when I put it down - it was actually somewhat enjoyable and definitely easy to read. That's enough to make me pick up the sequel!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Confinement, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Excrement, and Alcohol
soswiin's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
i tried so hard to like this book. you have no idea
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Vomit
Moderate: Body shaming and Eating disorder
grayscale08's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Cursing, Eating disorder, Self harm, Blood, Vomit, and Murder
Minor: Body shaming, Sexual content, and Death of parent
Most of the mental illness/eating disorder content comes from Katharine’s content. Although self harm and eating disorders are never explicitly addressed, Katharine frequently eats things that are toxic and ends up in pain and has many scars from other poisons.kguled_7's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
The 3 main characters in this book are 16 year old triplets. They must prepare to fight and kill their own sisters after a special ceremony to determine who is the new queen for the island. I loved the plot of this book! I did kinda predict a couple of the things that would happen but I still really enjoyed it! I thought the characters were really interesting. It would have been nice if there was an even distribution of the book for all three main characters. I thought that Katherine didn't get as many chapters or bigger chapter length compared to her sisters. Maybe the other books focus more on one character compared to the other.
SPOILER (kinda)
I'm not sure what I thought the pace of the book would be when I bought it. I think in my mind I figured the year they would spend trying to kill their sisters would take place in this book (it doesn't, it's the next book I think). I can't wait to get the second book (maybe 3rd and 4th too)!!
SPOILER (kinda)
I'm not sure what I thought the pace of the book would be when I bought it. I think in my mind I figured the year they would spend trying to kill their sisters would take place in this book (it doesn't, it's the next book I think). I can't wait to get the second book (maybe 3rd and 4th too)!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder