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marleywrites's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Animal death, Torture, and Murder
Moderate: Blood
Minor: Infidelity
booksthatburn's review against another edition
Moderate: Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Minor: Infidelity and Torture
therainbowshelf'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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Homophobia, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Dysphoria, and Classism
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: War
Poisoning, death of siblingcams_all_booked'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
5.0
Graphic: Death, Torture, and Murder
Moderate: Homophobia, Blood, and Death of parent
Minor: Transphobia, Grief, and Pregnancy
olivialandryxo's review against another edition
I’ll definitely be reading more from Capetta in the future, because some of their books sound incredible. I’m hoping this was just a weird one-off situation, and that I like their other work more.
Representation
- genderfluid protagonist and love interest
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Torture, and Blood
Torture - brief scene where the protagonist witnesses someone flaying the skin off someone else’s hands before she puts a stop to it. Child abuse - brief references to experiences she and her brother had with an older sibling prior to the story.rosejoy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, and Abandonment
Minor: Torture, Blood, Grief, and Dysphoria
alyssa_s10's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Genocide, Homophobia, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Lesbophobia
malloryfitz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: Pregnancy and Lesbophobia
lizreadssurprisinglyoften's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
I really liked Capetta's writing style and how detailed the world was. The romance had a lot of potential, but it relied way too much on physical stuff (I saw one reviewer describe it as 'insta-lust' rather than insta-love, and I think that's fitting) which I'm just too tired and ace for.
My other main concern was with the non-binary representation. I've seen several reviewers praise it for 'destroying the gender binary', but it doesn't really? It felt like the main characters were only genderfluid because they had the magical capability to transition to 'male' and 'female' bodies whenever they wanted to. There was no exploration of how they'd identify if they couldn't do that, no exploration of any gender that isn't binary, a weird subtext assumption that the only way you can be male or female is if your body looks like the cis ideal, and no discussion of pronouns beyond one short, unsatisfactory paragraph at the start of the book (you could make the argument that it's a historical fantasy and thus they wouldn't know about neutral language, but in my opinion, if you can invent a magic system, you can invent a way to include they/them pronouns.) I know the author is non-binary, and if this is how she represents her experience, then she's free to do so, but as a genderflux non-binary person it really didn't click with me. I hate to over-critique representation, and I'm glad that non-binary characters are becoming more acceptable in mainstream fantasy, but I don't think I'd recommend this book.
Moderate: Sexual content and Blood
Minor: Homophobia
My mind feels too cluttered to really process books right now, so I'm not sure why I keep reading them at this pace. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that this book seemed to go by too quickly for me to connect. I really liked Capetta's writing style and how detailed the world was. The romance had a lot of potential, but it relied way too much on physical stuff (I saw one reviewer describe it as 'insta-lust' rather than insta-love, and I think that's fitting) which I'm just too tired and ace for. My other main concern was with the non-binary representation. I've seen several reviewers praise it for 'destroying the gender binary', but it doesn't really? It felt like the main characters were only genderfluid because they had the magical capability to transition to 'male' and 'female' bodies whenever they wanted to. There was no exploration of how they'd identify if they couldn't do that, no exploration of any gender that isn't binary, a weird subtext assumption that the only way you can be male or female is if your body looks like the cis ideal, and no discussion of pronouns beyond one short, unsatisfactory paragraph at the start of the book (you could make the argument that it's a historical fantasy and thus they wouldn't know about neutral language, but in my opinion, if you can invent a magic system, you can invent a way to include they/them pronouns.) I know the author is non-binary, and if this is how she represents her experience, then she's free to do so, but as a genderflux non-binary person it really didn't click with me. I hate to over-critique representation, and I'm glad that non-binary characters are becoming more acceptable in mainstream fantasy, but I don't think I'd recommend this book.