kaylaboevers's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Slavery, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Classism, Racial slurs, and Racism
Moderate: Genocide and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Sexual assault and Rape
kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Misogyny, Torture, Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Genocide, Grief, Infidelity, Police brutality, Violence, War, Suicide, Sexual assault, Animal death, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Slavery, Sexual harassment, and Sexism
asiamh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Death, Violence, Confinement, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Body horror, Classism, Religious bigotry, Hate crime, Gore, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Child death, Death of parent, Sexism, Grief, and Physical abuse
sweetnotbitter's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Torture, Racial slurs, and Racism
Minor: Sexual assault
squinnittowinit's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Original review:
Overall, this is a good story with a (unfortunately) very relatable setting: an oppressive society that treats certain people as lesser due to something inherent that they cannot control. I felt the author's pain and anger surrounding this real-world issue in the writing, and perhaps if this had been my first exposure to the mindset of the oppressed group, I might have found it more impactful. However, I personally found it a little tiring for specific reasons that I will mark as a spoiler below.
Again, it is a good story, just one I've seen many times already. Nothing about it surprised me and as much as I was rooting for them, I didn't love any of the characters by the end. I'm not sure if you're supposed to or not.
Spoiler
The specific reasons I found this book to be tiring have a lot to do with the main characters. All three were naive to a fault, and retained that naivete throughout the entire book, even as their views on certain things changed. I suppose it's realistic, as they are all teenagers and teenagers are very naive, but I found it very frustrating to read about them doing impulsive and very ill-advised things over and over again and then only afterwards thinking that they might have been bad ideas.Next, there is the issue of trauma. This is a book based in racial trauma, which makes it automatically not a fun read for me. Again, I really want to stress that I'm not saying it's bad, but it's very real, and it's hard to laugh at any of the jokes or moments of levity when the whole book is about oppression and I already experience oppression nearly constantly in my real life.
Next, as I said above, nothing about this book surprised me. I was never on the edge of my seat or uncertain about the fate of the characters, because I've seen this story so many times. It hit all the beats I was expecting it to, and the only death I didn't predict was a character that I didn't care about at all.
Finally, the romance. I'm all for a good romantic subplot, but I couldn't get behind this one. It was going for "enemies to lovers" but was done with no subtlety, I felt like I was being bashed over the head with foreshadowing about this relationship. Then, the actual enemies to lovers part happened seemingly overnight, and they suddenly didn't hate each other anymore. The romance gave me some emotional whiplash and made me feel like I was missing time.
Graphic: Death, Child death, Racism, Genocide, Classism, and Death of parent
Moderate: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, and Murder
Minor: Ableism, Vomit, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia
erisdar's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Spoiler
romance subplot that i didn’t really believe and didn’t wantBut other than that, a big mix of heartbreaking and joy was felt during this reading.
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Rape
macmannwood's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Spoiler
i think that daughters should get to kill their abusive fathers more oftenGraphic: Slavery, Sexual assault, Self harm, Racial slurs, Violence, Racism, Genocide, Gore, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, Hate crime, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Blood, Colonisation, Death of parent, Trafficking, and Suicidal thoughts
imgunnagetyou's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.25
i feel like the charas, zel in particular ... goes back and forth with their ideals so much ?
Spoiler
for example, one page zel says that all the guards are just thieves and pieces of shit basically and its like ok true but later on in the book suddenly she doesnt want them to die?? example two: inan's entire arc???? this dude was HELLBENT on killing magic but sees zels memories and suddenly is like o thats a bad idea ig like how the fuck did, what, 18 years of brainwashing suddenly ppPoof just because of that? id understand if he hesitated but the way he completely changed over the course of 3 days was so annoying.second,... i fucking hate insta love and my god its in here two fold its so bad too
example:
Spoiler
one of the insta love couple is zel and inan, and.... how???? zel hates amari for the first half of the book bc amari is the kings daughter and the king is a massive piece of hot shit , HOWEVER amari never did anything bad, she was just blissfully ignorant until the day her dad decides to murk her friend. inan on the other hand, is basically their fathers pet, he led the attacks on them multiple times , went over to her village with in intent to kill her and burn it down , killed leksan (well kaea did but inan was chill w/ it ) but somehow zel falls in love with him all bc he has the sudden change of heart and doesnt kill her but frees her from the captors??honestly i genueinly have no problems with the plot or anything but the charas just , are so badly written? they never stick to one ideal or wtv (for lack of better word, its on the tip of my tongue but i cant remember laymao)
anyway no joke im rooting for zel and amari <3 itll never happen but they literally have 10x10 more chemistry than all the other matchups combined. considering this is a trilogy (or soon to be) i honestly dont understand why the charas had to fall in love so fast making it seem completely unrealistic. especially w/ inan and zel god im so peeved over them
i hope the next books are better with this bc ill still pick up the sequels, again , no problems with plot i rlly enjoyed it and the atomopshere very dark very tragic and sad but the charas ...
Spoiler
and ofc the only charas that dont annoy the shite out of me dies bruh LMFAOOOOmusic listened to: Sacred Grove from Twilight Princess
time taken to read: 6:50:38
Minor: Sexual assault
nico_asteri's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Spoiler
The romance with Inan and Zeylie lost me a bit and Inan in general was a little all over the place. I felt like he changed his mind too quickly and could not really follow his logic ever. Maybe you weren't supposed to be able to but there were a few moments where I was so confused I thought maybe I had skipped over something. However that was fairly minor to me. His overarching story made sense and I think he was always going to want to kill magic. He just had too much abuse to overcome. Overall I really liked this book and loved the characters, especially Amari, I'm dying to know what her power is!! The magic system is super cool and I love that the main character has a more "creepy" power. I thought it was really well written and also Bahni Turpin did an amazing job performing the book. I knew whose chapter it was without even having to hear the title.Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture
Minor: Sexual assault
hurricanecait7's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Sexual assault