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gardensnail's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I enjoyed it. Figured out Belthandros was Pentravesse about halfway through the book. There's a lot more that could be done here about the lingering shadows of belief and devotion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Torture
catpajama's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Murder
Moderate: Gore, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail
redbirdreading's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture
starccato's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Self harm, and Vomit
ruthlessreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? No
4.5
This book was exactly the dark epic fantasy I wanted but didn't know it. It starts a little slow while the world building is established but once it gets into gear, the plot doesn't stop until the last page. There are so many twists and turns, I was never able to predict what would happen next. It's also SECRETLY GAY. Well, not really secret, but it's not mentioned anywhere in the summary or elsewhere that there's a sapphic romance at the core of the novel. It's still primarily a fantasy novel, with plenty of slash and stab adventures & sparkle and bang magic to fulfill all your fantasy adventure desires. But it's also a tender coming of age story about learning who to trust and who to fight for when you've been raised to believe a fight is all you're good for. It's about defying & subverting expectations by being true to the person you discover along the adventure of your life. I really loved this book & highly recommend it for fans of Gideon the Ninth! The main characters give me Harrow & Gideon energy.
Okay, so brief summary: Csorwe, though she's only 14, is a clergy member at the temple of the Unspoken One. As she is poised to sacrifice herself in a religious ritual, she is rescued & smuggled away by Sethennai, a powerful & brilliant mage. Sethennai raises Csorwe to be his weapon, training her to fight, and tasking her with retrieving The Reliquary--an object of extreme power & knowledge. On one of many trips to discover the location of this item, Csorwe meets Struthmili & everything she thought she knew about herself, her job, and her path in life will be called into question when she is faced with a difficult decision: fight for the item she's tasked to recover or save the life of someone for whom she's developing complicated feelings. Again and again, Csorwe will be faced with decisions that alter her fate & lead her down paths she never expected to return. What is at the end of her story? I guess you'll have to read it to find out!
Okay, so brief summary: Csorwe, though she's only 14, is a clergy member at the temple of the Unspoken One. As she is poised to sacrifice herself in a religious ritual, she is rescued & smuggled away by Sethennai, a powerful & brilliant mage. Sethennai raises Csorwe to be his weapon, training her to fight, and tasking her with retrieving The Reliquary--an object of extreme power & knowledge. On one of many trips to discover the location of this item, Csorwe meets Struthmili & everything she thought she knew about herself, her job, and her path in life will be called into question when she is faced with a difficult decision: fight for the item she's tasked to recover or save the life of someone for whom she's developing complicated feelings. Again and again, Csorwe will be faced with decisions that alter her fate & lead her down paths she never expected to return. What is at the end of her story? I guess you'll have to read it to find out!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use, Violence, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Child death and War
There are some pretty dark themes and scenes. Please read content warnings & summaries before starting this series. This is the first book in The Serpent Gates series!local_hat's review against another edition
adventurous
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
5.0
This is the first book in a long time that I sank in to and devoured within about 24 hours. At least the pannacotta didn't totally take that away.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death
adalheid's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture
sapphic_in_the_stacks's review against another edition
This book and concept had such potential, I was really excited to start reading it. Honestly I just couldn't make myself finish it. I was listening to the audio book and I kept listening in hopes it would get better, but it was so slow and dull from the beginning and it didn't get better. The characters are somehow both boring and annoying, their motivations feel so basic. I also couldn't listen to any more unnecessarily gory scenes. I get that Csorwe is supposed to be this badass character, but she's really just annoying and reckless, and the amount that she becomes seriously graphically injured really got to me by this point. When I realized I was dreading trying to get through any more of this book I decided it was time to give up. If it's not good by 70% of the way in, it's not worth finishing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Torture
Moderate: Toxic friendship
Minor: Child death
bluejayreads's review against another edition
4.75
There seems to be a theme lately of me picking up long books with low expectations and actually enjoying them a lot. I was intrigued by the protagonist raised to be a human sacrifice and then deciding not to die, but that back cover didn't seem like it would be worth a whole 18 hours of audiobook.
In a way, I was right. The entire plot on the back cover is done 65 minutes into the book - I actually looked at the timestamp because I couldn't believe it was so fast. The beginning skims though Csorwe's time at the temple of the Unspoken one, blazes though her choice, and covers two years in a matter of minutes (literally 2% of the book, I checked the timestamp). It was moving too fast for me to really care about much that was going on, interesting ideas be damned, and the only reason I didn't stop there was because I didn't want to get in trouble if I got caught having my phone out long enough to queue up another book.
But by the time I went on break and could have dropped this book and started a new one, I didn't want to. Nearly an hour and a half in, the meat of the story finally started.
This is the book I switched out with The Body Keeps the Score (since I could only read that one two hours at a time and I needed something to fill the other six hours of a workday), and alternating the two makes for a heck of a reading experience. It's never explicitly mentioned and I don't even know if the author intended it, but Csorwe displays so many characteristics of an abused child. And none of the abuse is physical. Growing up as a destined sacrifice, it was lack of caring and connection and being told since she was old enough to understand that it was her duty to die and that's what all the adults in her life wanted for her. After her escape, it was psychological and emotional (unless you count putting her in dangerous situations as physical abuse) from Belthandros Sethennai, the wizard who rescued her and who hits 8 of the 9 diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder. And she genuinely loves him because she believes him convincing her not to become a human sacrifice means she owes him her life.
For something that seems like it should be a rollicking fantasy adventure and has so many wizard duels, creepy cultists, and fantasy settings, it is surprisingly character-driven. In fact, it is almost entirely character-driven. The only thing that could really be called a plot is that Belthandros wants a phylactery and uses Csorwe as one of his tools to get it. That doesn't really sound like enough to fill 18 hours, but it's also full of dead worlds, ancient crypts, snake goddesses, prison fortresses, reluctant allies, and a very sweet romance between Csorwe and an adorable research nerd in a similar situation to Csorwe before she met Belthandros. It was quite enough to keep me interested and engaged.
I have a ton of things I want to say, but considering that the entire back cover plot wraps up 5% of the way through the book, saying much more is probably a spoiler. The beginning was very rough, but after that I enjoyed it thoroughly. I didn't know there was a sequel going in, and I don't even know what it's going to be about, but I love Csorwe, I enjoy her love interest, I thoroughly enjoy exploring all the weird and wonderful and eerie places that exist in this world, and I bet I will enjoy book two.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, and Blood
Moderate: Body horror and Child death
therainbowshelf's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is the kind of book that made me ask "what was the point of everything else, then?" more than once. It is a pretty epic story, and I enjoyed having queer characters simply exist without their queerness being a major point of contention. This book wasn't for me (I thought for sure it would be!), but it's an excellent read
๐ The gist ๐: When a mysterious stranger rescues Csorwe from a sacrificial death, she devotes her new life to his murky quest.
๐Representation๐ wlw mc, mlm sc
๐ For readers looking for ๐: epic fantasy, multiple worlds, morally ambiguous and ancient gods, LGBTQ characters, magic, assassins
๐ The gist ๐: When a mysterious stranger rescues Csorwe from a sacrificial death, she devotes her new life to his murky quest.
๐Representation๐ wlw mc, mlm sc
๐ For readers looking for ๐: epic fantasy, multiple worlds, morally ambiguous and ancient gods, LGBTQ characters, magic, assassins
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Gaslighting
Moderate: Torture and Xenophobia
Sacrifice, religious cult