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jhbandcats'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? Yes
4.0
The author does a great job at showing the different personalities, not so easy when there are a lot of characters. The women are no longer close like in childhood; there’s friction between the power-hungry head of England’s coven, the mild witch who pretends to be a simple housewife, the Black lesbian who started her own LGBTQ-friendly coven, and the veterinarian consumed with grief at the loss of her fiancé during the witch war eight years ago. There are spouses and lovers and children and parents and, new to the group, a trans orphan who’s terrified and lashing out in fear. The story is told from four points of view and the voices are distinct.
I read reviews where the readers felt the race and gender issues overshadowed the story. I thought the author raised really important points relevant to current racism, homophobia, and transphobia. The transphobia was heavy-handed but it seemed realistic given what I read online.
I liked it enough where I’m about to start the second in the series. I want to see what happens to these people.
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, Racism, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism
itsy719'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
4.5
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, Sexism, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Body shaming, Homophobia, and Vomit
shae_purcell'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
3.75
A word of warning: Don't go into this expecting a tidy ending. It ends on a huge cliffhanger. I was ready to start the second book until I was halfway through that last chapter. Now I'm really irritated and thinking about taking a break. I'm sure as an author you want readers to be so excited for the next book that they'll run out and pick up a copy immediately. This ending didn't make me excited for the next book. It makes me dread reading it, even though I still kind of want to hang out with the characters a bit more. I may pick it up eventually but I'll feel sour about it.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Transphobia, Blood, Medical content, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Misogyny, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Racism, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Islamophobia, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
There is a lot of intentional misgendering in the chapters told from thecumminsn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
While there is very positive transgender, and LGBT in general, representation here, there is also rampant transphobia that I could see being very triggering to some. Also, the overuse of swearing and pop culture references took away from my immersion as well. For a book that has different characters that it switches perspectives between, I sometimes found myself having a hard time remembering who was who, with no very large differences in tone from one character to the next. Other than the antagonist, of course. The fact that she was evil was about the most obvious thing in the whole book.
I guess what disappointed me is that there wasn’t quite enough Fantasy to balance out the in-your-face politics that were constantly surfacing. I was more interested in the lore of the world, but the story seemed to stumble over itself to try and include as much political-correctness as possible that some of the characters didn’t even feel like genuine characters and more like just stereotypes being included for the sake of it, which was sad to read. Some of the language used, particularly internet-type wording and references, will likely not age well either.
I forced myself to finish this one. I was invested enough to want to do it, but I don’t know that I’ll be reaching for the sequel right away, if it all. In the end, I felt underwhelmed.
Graphic: Cursing, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Body horror and Alcohol
Minor: Medical content, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
emmajh91's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Transphobia, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Hate crime, Infidelity, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail
blewballoon'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
3.0
Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Transphobia
Moderate: Child abuse, Racism, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Drug use, Sexual assault, and War
blacksphinx's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
(I am also very tired of books that go "covid happened but we used magic to make it go away" ugh! And blaming the anti-vax movement on warlocks is so distasteful.)
Graphic: Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Outing
Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Medical content, Car accident, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Classism
Minor: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Abortion, Murder, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic
TW: transphobic, misogynistic, and ableist slurs. Internalized misogyny. Mention of drowning.rivercat0338'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? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Blood, Car accident, and Alcohol
Cliffhanger endingkatcass's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Death and Transphobia
Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Car accident, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death
readwithria'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? Yes
4.0
I really enjoyed this book, and the characters took the cake. The POV characters, their children and wards, their partners, and all of the side characters felt so fleshed out and real. Their relationships were so fun to read about, even the bad ones.
I will say that it wasn’t until well into the book that I felt like I understood how the magic system worked. The delineation between the different types of witches and what they can do, plus the elemental aspect of witchery, made for a lot of information that I still don’t fully grasp.
I’m very excited to read The Shadow Cabinet! 4 stars.
Graphic: Cursing, Transphobia, Violence, Murder, Outing, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Animal death, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Alcohol, and War
Minor: Fire/Fire injury