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caitlinkm's review against another edition
emotional
funny
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Death, Violence, Vomit, and Classism
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
its_thekla's review against another edition
adventurous
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
2.5
This story starts out derivative and dull. It takes nearly half the book for something to actually happen, and even after that so much could be trimmed down. The incessant use of "male" vs "girl" drove me absolutely bonkers. "Female" was smattered around to refer to the women in the story, but my goodness, every man was "that male" or "the male". Every time. It was almost exhausting as how much the characters either spent vomiting, or thinking about vomiting.
I am usually a sucker for the story-withing-a-story thing. This one didn't quite work for me. I'm not saying I didn't like it, I just thought it's inclusion was poorly executed.
The setting was fine, the characters were ok, their development interesting but this was absolutely not a story for me. At one point, Asha refers to herself as an "activist". But girl: you're the queen and throughout the duration of the story all she did was use her martyr complex to fall back on all her choices? No ma'am. You can't be an "activist" when you spend all day cooped up in your palace reading or exploring instead of trying to make a difference for the people you tried to convince us you cared so much about in the slums.
Just so much wasted potential and I will gladly skip the rest of this authors books.
I am usually a sucker for the story-withing-a-story thing. This one didn't quite work for me. I'm not saying I didn't like it, I just thought it's inclusion was poorly executed.
The setting was fine, the characters were ok, their development interesting but this was absolutely not a story for me. At one point, Asha refers to herself as an "activist". But girl: you're the queen and throughout the duration of the story all she did was use her martyr complex to fall back on all her choices? No ma'am. You can't be an "activist" when you spend all day cooped up in your palace reading or exploring instead of trying to make a difference for the people you tried to convince us you cared so much about in the slums.
Just so much wasted potential and I will gladly skip the rest of this authors books.
Graphic: Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Xenophobia
Minor: Ableism, Infertility, and Infidelity
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