karaboureview's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Graphic: Violence, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Cannibalism, Death, Child abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Child death, Chronic illness, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Sexism, and Ableism
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Trafficking, Genocide, Adult/minor relationship, War, and Abandonment
abesreading's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Violence, Gore, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Sexism and Sexual harassment
Minor: Kidnapping
ana24gs's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
“I am not afraid of you, your kind, or your god.”
I liked the book. The characters were "x" but the book was entertaining and left you wanting to continue reading. But despite the action in the book, I couldn't take seriously the danger that the protagonists went through (until the end).
I think the reason why I could not take the danger seriously is the writing, certain lines, and certain dialogues were very painful to read and felt ridiculous. Plus, sexism is added in the dumbest way someone can add sexism to a story (and it doesn't make sense either). And there were a lot of scenes that didn't make sense, they could have been skipped and it wouldn't make a big impact on the plot.
The characters were fine, nothing new. Penryn is a strong, determined girl (with "I'm not like other girls" vibes) and she cares a lot about her family. All the decisions she makes are for the good of her family and she protects them at all costs. Raffe is fine, that is, but it did bother me, sometimes, how ungrateful he was to Penryn but "x" I kinda understood at the end.
I don't think I'll read the next book, although the ending of this one was good, I don't see myself enjoying the next one. But this was a fun time.
If you like action, a forced proximity relationship, dystopia, and a strong protagonist who would do everything for her family, then go for it.
⚠️ SPOILERS ⚠️
The only thing I can say is that the time they spent in the town (the one that is forming the resistance) was very ridiculous. I do consider that she needed to spend time there because that way she meets the twins who end up helping her find her sister, but why add sexism? Why? It seemed to me that there was simply no reason to be. They are at the end of time, IN A WAR, they need hands to fight and they decide that women will only clean their silly clothes, what? Wtf.
I thought that the ending was good, I felt the danger that the protagonists were in and you can feel that both are worried about each other. I also loved when Penryn found her sister, it was a very good scene. But the final scene was disappointing to me.
“Sometimes, as we’re stumbling along in the dark, we hit something good.”
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Sexism, Violence, and War
gcaron0328's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Spoiler
the main character’s mother has schizophrenia and this is demonstrated by the mother being extremely violent and not mentally sound. It is hinted that in the past she injured her child in such a way that the child can no longer walk. The main character cannot reason with her mother. Much later in the story, the main character has to wear a revealing dress in order to get into the enemy lair. She refers to the outfit as sl*tty and judges the other women there who are wearing similar outfits in order to get the good graces of the enemy. It also is very anti-s*x work in that scene.<\spoiler> despite all this, i still liked the book and im excited to read the second one.Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Mental illness, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual harassment
madarauchiha's review
- 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
0.5
That said, sometimes it doesn't always work out that well. Like this book, for example. Oh god, this book. If you liked this book fuck you. You are embarassing, you're ugly, your blood is disgusting, cashapp me 50 million dollars as an apology.
There's a part where the self insert main character meets a female angel [who are super rare for some reason??? Why is there only one sexy bitch??] and we get that evil misogynistic trope of the mc being plain jane and unattractive and this female angel being everything she isn't. Like when will we stop pitting women against each other for the sake of voting male love interests?
The prose is godawful. This is shitty marvel cinematic universe rip off levels of bad. They banter so wittily and it's nothing like actual real live human conversation.
Speaking of, there's a love interest? I guess? If you squint, it's there. The author is trying to set it up as a forbidden love but like cmon. This is being telegraphed from 2 inches away from your ear. By the way: the main character is a 17 yo human earth girl. A child. A CHILD. INFANTE. BABY. Are you genuinely telling me this old as fuck, ancienter-than-ent-testicles angel is romantically / sexually attracted to this underage girl child? Disgusting. Fuck you susan ee. [idk if Ents have testicle but Tolkien is dead so I'm taking over lotr canon, tyvm]
I didn't like any of the characters. MC was so flat and boring, a very overdone character we've all seen in ya and even generic, poorly written fantasy. It's like a rip off of that hunger games girl.
The ableism! Oof! What a mess. The little sister character who is essentially the Fancy Lamp plot device [not calling her sexy, she's underage cmon] and the plot kinda tosses her here and there. Does she have a personality? Not really. She's repeatedly called cr*ppled, and that is also used to describe other people. They call her wheelchair bound, as well. Also she magically
Spoiler
becomes no longer disabled due to heinous medical experimentation / tortureOh and the mother character [did she ever get named?] is mentally ill. This unnamed mental illness makes her so violently crazy that 1 she abused her youngest daughter into permanent disability 2 plays with corpses 3 rampantly and randomly murders people 4 hears voices that she calls 'demons' and sometimes obeys them.
The plot doesn't occur until maybe the last 10 percent of the book. The rest is a walking simulator. The concept of angelic hierarchy is kinda neat, as is the
Spoiler
scorpion children monstersMy moonreader app says this took 0.72 hours to read, and yes I was clicking through the pages at, like, 1 per second. This book gets no respect or attention span.
Content warnings [probably incomplete bc fuck paying attention to this book]:
Minor: whorephobic language, racism in calling a lil white girl the next Dalai Lama what the fuck susan,
Medium: cannibalism
Major: gore, wing trauma, blood, amputation, child abuse, ableist c slur, dogs, misogyny, sexual harassment, body horror, child death, murder, slavery, medical gore, medical abuse, experimentation, torture,
Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Torture, and Slavery
Minor: Pedophilia
eliterhate's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Child death
Minor: Sexual violence and Sexism
Spoiler
There's a part where the main character almost gets raped, but she manages to fend the offender off.chloheyyy's review
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Misogyny
Moderate: Child death and Mental illness
Minor: Confinement, Gore, Sexism, and Trafficking