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nightstitch96's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Death, Torture, and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy
hrtlss_grl'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
4.0
Graphic: Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Vomit, Murder, and War
Minor: Animal death, Miscarriage, and Death of parent
robin1010'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? No
4.0
One of the biggest contentions in the reviews seems to be the writing/world building. The writing was honestly not that dense and reasonably easy to follow, especially compared to some other high fantasy books. The author didn't waffle too much, and anything she did linger on was more of a Chekov's gun situation. Bits of lore/world building or political intrigue were definitely densely packed though and needed a close reading to understand what was going on. If you're a particularly fastidious reader it can be helpful to have notes, but you'll manage fine without.
As I mentioned, the plot is a slow burn, but the slower pace suited the novel, and gave us appropriate time to get used to the characters, give us world building, and get a sense of the scale of place we're dealing with. It also gave the characters room to grow between major plot points so their victories felt more hard won.
The characters were overall very well developed and distinct. I definitely found myself partial to the protagonist, which is always nice, although i found the insistence on his naivete a little bit excessive. Seregil was also an interesting character, if a bit predictable in
Despite some nitpicky bits here and there, I did have a good time reading this book, and I will continue on with the sequels.
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death and Xenophobia
Minor: Miscarriage, Sexual content, and Sexual violence
booksthatburn'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
Much of the story is Seregil introducing Alec to people and places. The reader is constantly in Alec's position in terms of information, as Seregil is pretty cagey about most things. He has a lot of secrets and is good at keeping them. I like the group who eventually emerge as the main point-of-view characters in addition to Alec and Seregil.
A lot of the worldbuilding is in the form of stories exchanged on the road, and explanations to Alec as he's being introduced to new situations (usually but not only with Seregil doing the explaining). For as much as Alec is being bombarded with new people, places, and information, for the reader each individual explanation is very low stakes. You don't need to remember everything Seregil said in order to understand the general flow of the story. I love books driven by banter, exploration, and heists, so this was a perfect balance for me.
One little thing which was frustrating is that a pair of shady characters are described in terms of their large size and relative lack of intelligence in ways that seemed designed to make it clear that they weren't the masterminds of the nefarious acts they were involved in. Since few other characters were described in terms of body type, it stood out as unusual in addition to being fatphobic and ableist.
I didn't have much of a sense of where the story was headed until about halfway through. The story begins when Seregil and Alec, strangers to one another, are both imprisoned and Seregil breaks them both out. They begin by traveling in the general direction of Seregil's home, but along the way Seregil becomes ill and Alec has to get them the rest of the way while trying to keep Seregil alive. Once they arrive, Alec becomes immersed in Seregil's world of magic and cons as Seregil continues his education. The focus of the story is on the relationships between the characters, with any one activity feeling incidental much of the time. Along they way they start tryin to get to the bottom of a murderous political conspiracy which falsely implicates Seregil, trying to find the true perpetrators and clear Seregil's name.
I had a great time reading this and intend to continue with the series. Because of the slow pacing, a lot of my favorite things are mid- or late-book spoilers. The world and characters clearly have a lot more to offer and I'm excited to see where things will go from here.
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Sexism, Vomit, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Child death, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Excrement, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
areaderheart's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.25
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, and Torture
Moderate: Animal death, Suicide, and Xenophobia
Minor: Homophobia and Miscarriage
Need some time to decide on the rating, leaning between a 4.25 to 4.5 stars. I highly enjoyed my time reading this book, it was entertaining and I loved all the characters. Plus I'm def intrigued and excited to pick up the next book sometime soon.