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megelizabeth's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
"Outside, the wind howls on, uncaring of humans and the dramas they act out. It will blow across this land long after all of us are dust. After Dunbriga is dust. And other lives call this place home."
I really enjoyed this book overall. Not being much of a fantasy reader, it took me a minute to get into and I did find some parts either to drag a bit or go slightly over my head, but the powerful and devastating explorations of siblinghood and historical truth and societal advancement and change really pulled me through and I ended up both invested and ultimately devastated. The writing is absolutely gorgeous and the balance between meticulous historical detail on the one hand and invention and characterisation on the other is perfectly struck. There's a lot going on and at times I did feel as if it was really trying to be two stories when it could have worked as one, but ultimately it did all come together and I felt satisfied (if also heartbroken) by how things turned out.
I really enjoyed this book overall. Not being much of a fantasy reader, it took me a minute to get into and I did find some parts either to drag a bit or go slightly over my head, but the powerful and devastating explorations of siblinghood and historical truth and societal advancement and change really pulled me through and I ended up both invested and ultimately devastated. The writing is absolutely gorgeous and the balance between meticulous historical detail on the one hand and invention and characterisation on the other is perfectly struck. There's a lot going on and at times I did feel as if it was really trying to be two stories when it could have worked as one, but ultimately it did all come together and I felt satisfied (if also heartbroken) by how things turned out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement and Pregnancy
Minor: Child abuse and Rape
lorraine19's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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
4.5
Despite the plot moving slow at first, the multiple layers of story keeps it interesting. There's the Christian church dominating a pagan community, war with Saxons looming, and the personal stories with each of the siblings. I found the parallels between these elements fascinating.
If you know The Twa Sisters ballad, most of the plot likely won't be a surprise for you. If you are like me and went in blind, you'll probably find certain points predictable and others completely shocking. Character development is there - some for better and some for worst. The most moving - and arguably he main character of this multiple POV story - to me is the middle child Keyne. Their development and story of self discovery and empowerment is absolutely beautiful.
As someone that is a fan of multiple POV books, I felt like it was almost unnecessary here. However, I do feel like it did result in some points being more effective. I'm left with conflicted feelings about the ending (specifically regarding Riva) but I think that's up to the individual reader.
Overall, interesting read - especially if you are into paganism, European history, or magic.
If you know The Twa Sisters ballad, most of the plot likely won't be a surprise for you. If you are like me and went in blind, you'll probably find certain points predictable and others completely shocking. Character development is there - some for better and some for worst. The most moving - and arguably he main character of this multiple POV story - to me is the middle child Keyne. Their development and story of self discovery and empowerment is absolutely beautiful.
As someone that is a fan of multiple POV books, I felt like it was almost unnecessary here. However, I do feel like it did result in some points being more effective. I'm left with conflicted feelings about the ending (specifically regarding Riva) but I think that's up to the individual reader.
Overall, interesting read - especially if you are into paganism, European history, or magic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Colonisation
Moderate: Ableism, Bullying, Deadnaming, Death, Sexual content, and Pregnancy
Minor: Slavery
theeo's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
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? It's complicated
4.0
Sistersong is tragic and beautiful. I went into this book unfamiliar of the Twa Sisters ballad but this didn’t take away from the experience at all.
Some of the characters’ motivations had me rolling my eyes a little, mostly Sinne and Riva, but their flaws were also interesting at times. Also really enjoyed the trans rep and the portrayal of magic!
Some of the characters’ motivations had me rolling my eyes a little, mostly Sinne and Riva, but their flaws were also interesting at times. Also really enjoyed the trans rep and the portrayal of magic!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism, Transphobia, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Blood, Dysphoria, and War
thewillowwood's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
this was so sad man…like damn.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Murder
agooding's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Blood
Moderate: Transphobia, Vomit, and Pregnancy
Minor: Deadnaming
fifix's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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? Yes
5.0
This was the most enjoyable retelling I have ever read, I absorbed it like it gave me life. It was a perfect blend of a folk story retelling, magic, and historical setting.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Deadnaming
kaleidoscope_heart's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
maeverose's review against another edition
medium-paced
3.0
TL;DR: Has similar themes to the winternight trilogy (old religion vs christianity, war, evil priest, similar tho different time period and setting). If you liked that, maybe you would like this. Though for me, I loved that and was ultimately bored for most of this book. It just didn’t hook me, and it didn’t help that I only really cared for one pov.
That being Keyne’s. As a genderqueer person I’m always interested in books with trans rep, and even though I don’t believe this is own voices I thought it was done really well. There is misgendering and transphobia from certain characters throughout, but it’s not a trans trauma story, and there are many characters who accept his identity (tho it does take them a minute to catch on), and his transness isn’t his whole character. It is a bit binary though, feeding into stereotypes of what a man should be, but given the time period it makes sense? So idk. Overall decent rep. (Loved chapter 23)
I didn’t care for Riva’s pov because it was primarily focused on the romance, which I didn’t like, and I didn’t like Sinne’s pov because of the jealousy plotline between her and Riva. I did appreciate that the author didn’t go full on ‘I’m gonna steal your man’ with that plotline but it still annoyed me. Especially because this is trying to be a feminist book but the two women’s povs we get are so tied to this one man and their feelings for him and their new dislike of each other because of it.
I’m also both disabled and disfigured (though in different ways than Riva or Os), and I found the rep in this book was neutral overall. Not offensive but not exactly empowering either. Anytime Reva’s scars were mentioned it was often in a negative context, but we were shown through Riva’s pov her struggles with it and how much it hurt when people did say negative things about it, and there were characters who didn’t treat her any differently because of it. Os’s mutism was handled the same I would say. I did like to see Sinne learn to communicate with him, and I thought their friendship was really sweet. I would just like to see a disfigured/disabled character be confident in their body rather than focusing solely on the negatives of it. My scoliosis has negatives; pain and physical limitations, but I also genuinely like how my body looks, and that seems to be a hard concept for some people to grasp.
That being Keyne’s. As a genderqueer person I’m always interested in books with trans rep, and even though I don’t believe this is own voices I thought it was done really well. There is misgendering and transphobia from certain characters throughout, but it’s not a trans trauma story, and there are many characters who accept his identity (tho it does take them a minute to catch on), and his transness isn’t his whole character. It is a bit binary though, feeding into stereotypes of what a man should be, but given the time period it makes sense? So idk. Overall decent rep. (Loved chapter 23)
I didn’t care for Riva’s pov because it was primarily focused on the romance, which I didn’t like, and I didn’t like Sinne’s pov because of the jealousy plotline between her and Riva. I did appreciate that the author didn’t go full on ‘I’m gonna steal your man’ with that plotline but it still annoyed me. Especially because this is trying to be a feminist book but the two women’s povs we get are so tied to this one man and their feelings for him and their new dislike of each other because of it.
I’m also both disabled and disfigured (though in different ways than Riva or Os), and I found the rep in this book was neutral overall. Not offensive but not exactly empowering either. Anytime Reva’s scars were mentioned it was often in a negative context, but we were shown through Riva’s pov her struggles with it and how much it hurt when people did say negative things about it, and there were characters who didn’t treat her any differently because of it. Os’s mutism was handled the same I would say. I did like to see Sinne learn to communicate with him, and I thought their friendship was really sweet. I would just like to see a disfigured/disabled character be confident in their body rather than focusing solely on the negatives of it. My scoliosis has negatives; pain and physical limitations, but I also genuinely like how my body looks, and that seems to be a hard concept for some people to grasp.
As for the story, it didn’t feel like a lot happened even though things were happening. It felt slow to me. It focused more on character development and their thoughts and feelings than it did plot, which normally I like but because I only cared for Keyne and a few side characters it didn’t work for me this time.
The ending… Riva and Cynric’s ending. On one hand I liked that it was so unexpected and atypical for most stories like this, on the other hand… he was never redeemed in any way. And he lied to her, the whole time planning on killing her father and her people, then nearly succeeded at that… so he doesn’t deserve a happy ending at all, and I don’t get why she still loved him through all that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Sexual content, Vomit, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and Classism
Minor: Rape and Excrement
The worst of the gore is in chapter 40, but it’s moderate here and there throughout the book.alexsartifacts's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and War
rain_bellin's review against another edition
dark
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
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? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Transphobia, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and War