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clarabooksit's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Trafficking, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Drug use, Gun violence, Sexism, Terminal illness, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Suicide
ephalent's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Child abuse
arminam's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Slavery, and Medical content
Minor: Kidnapping and Death of parent
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
There are two main characters, Amaya (known early on as Silverfish), and Cayo (son of a nobleman who wronged her). Amaya is working with a man named Boon, who helped her find a fortune and offered it for her use as long as she helped him with his aims. Cayo is a recovering gambler who is trying to get back in his father's good graces after losing a large portion of the family fortune to games of chance.
Amaya and Cayo's sections have distinct narrative voices and it was pretty easy to track what was going on. There are some well-laid surprises in the structure of the chapters, especially for someone like myself who has read The Count of Monte Cristo (or someone who has seen one of the movie versions).
The repeated missteps as Cayo and the Countess kept assuming things about each other's actions worked well and made a lot of sense in context. They never built enough to be extremely stressful for me when reading, but they were a completely understandable level of small but well-intentioned miscommunications which would result from these characters getting to know each other when they haven't yet put all their cards on the table.
The worldbuilding is pretty good, it feels like there's a lot of political ground laid that will pay off in the sequel. At times the asides discussing politics with other countries felt a bit distracting because they mostly didn't go anywhere until the very end. None of the characters (so far) were at a level to affect international politics, and while their actions gradually built so it might be possible in RAVAGE THE DARK, it made it harder to know what details mattered to the main plot. I like the handling of the quarantine and plague, there's an excellent payoff for it, as well as ongoing impacts to the main characters.
This was good overall and I'm looking forward to reading RAVAGE THE DARK. I'm happy to read a retelling which had room to surprise me with its plot, using the bones of one of my favorite books in a new way.
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Ableism
brookey8888's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol
nmcannon's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Mental illness, and Blood
Minor: Terminal illness
olivialandryxo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Edit, the next day: I lowered my rating from 4 stars to 3.5 stars because it felt more fitting.
Representation
- biracial demisexual protagonist
- bisexual protagonist
- side characters of color
- queer side characters (includes asexual, trans, and sapphic rep)
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, and Murder
caidyn's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
CW: slavery, violence, death, murder, drugging, alcohol use, and deception
So, I got an ARC of this. Decided I wasn't that into it and put it aside. Then Owlcrate chose this book for January and I decided to give it another try!
Overall, it was a good start to a series. The characters were interesting. The plot had a good clip to it. There was a good amount of twists and turns. The ending was satisfying; no huge cliffhanger but it was open for more to the story.
But... It was just lacking for me. I didn't love it. I liked it. I never got that attached to the characters and I found the romance between Cayo and Amaya very forced. Plus, the story felt like there were almost too many twists for my liking and that made me get a little bored by the end.
So, it was a fine book that I enjoyed reading, but I don't know if I can see myself picking up the next book.
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Slavery, and Murder