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howdyellie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-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
4.0
It's not often I get sucked into a novel and read it all in one sitting. Natasha Ngan's writing is easy to follow, even when things get complicated politically and in the world building. HEED THE CONTENT WARNINGS
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Outing, and War
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Alcohol, and Colonisation
Minor: Death of parent
zozocutie's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Homophobia, Rape, and Lesbophobia
jegwishumon's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, and War
Minor: Child abuse and Rape
roorooreads's review
dark
emotional
sad
tense
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? No
5.0
Please check trigger warnings before reading this book. This was a challenging one but at the same time so good. It was definitely hard to read especially at some parts but the characters and plot are so well done. This definitely felt more like new adult than young adult because of the themes and content which is probably why I enjoyed it as much as I did.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, and Trafficking
Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Physical abuse, Blood, and Alcohol
anderpa's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- 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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
smellymiche's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Blood
katiechasingchapters's review against another edition
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence
amielreadsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- 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
I liked it, it just wasn’t outstanding. I felt like the romance was a bit underwhelming and underdeveloped. I did really like our main character Lei and our two secondary characters Wren and Ankoi. I’ll probably pick up the next two books but I’ll borrow them from my library rather than purchasing them
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Classism
Moderate: Biphobia, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty
mrs_doechii's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- 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? No
3.0
I didn't look into much on this book before diving in, just knew that it's fantasy sapphic novel with plot action and racial diversity (super important to me!!)
But its not a typical fantasy action novel with romance, it doesn't shy away from the gore on realities of the violence, both sexual and nonsexual, so it's very dark. It's a beautiful beautiful beautiful book and I love how this author writes. But its very dark so if you're looking for sapphic fantasy in a way to feel happy, this isn't it. But its def rep of course. Just be prepared before you read. I'm the type of person that needs to be in the right mindset to read certain things so I wasn't expecting it lol
So this is a beautifully written book. I felt it could be a little flowery at first but I think that's just because of the slower pace at the start of the story. Not that big a thing though it's still gorgeous as a work of art. Based on that I'd rate it 5 stars. I took away 2 because of my personal enjoyment as a reader.
For me, the very last page ruined the whole book for me. Ill describe it without spoilers, and then below that ill describe it with spoilwrs.
NO Spoiling: I dont mind bleak stories. In a weird way sometimes the rawness is nice for me to read esp when I feel I can relate to certain things. But there's a certain point where the bleakness feels just exasperating. It exceeds the point where you're crying and are like nooo this can't happen but still can't put the book down; after a certain point it even loses the impact because it's just keeps happening, like you just gotta roll your eyes. Have you ever read a book where it felt like morbidly bad things happening to the character was just for shock factor and you couldn't even care anymore it was just annoying? This book doesn't reach that point, but the last page got me close to there, and it ruined the whole thing for me lol. I feel like if I was reading this review I'd read the book just out of curiosity because how does a last page ruin things? But the best way I can describe it is that the trust built between the writer and reader felt betrayed. Like how it feels when the synopsis of the book is one thing, and the book is absolutely not that. Not the case here but that feeling of betrayal that makes you annoyed and takes you out the story is three same. Just trying to describe it to the best of my ability
ok WITH spoilers!!!
SPOILING!!!!! look away
so they're oppressed right, there's a coup forming to kill the current king bc of how fucked up things are, and we meet some of said characters between the awful shit that our protagonists goes through. all of this leads up to the killing of the King. the plan was to kill him quietly without revealing just how orchestrated it was to avoid war and win over court too. we come to care about some characters too, great job of making us love them.
the issue comes at when it happens.. so there's a whole backfire in the plan, the rebellion is exposed along with the many people in the high ranks, meaning the ppl in high ranks who betrayed the King can't win over court to make change in the kingdom. but in a really violent altercation with the king, who is a violent rapist (and we get that gore violent scene when it happens to protag by his hands) and enslaver and murderer, the protag kills him at least. in the fight she's helped by a side character who we grow to love very much, and said side character is killed by one of the closest soldiers to the king. a different side character who is also a soldier fights to hold of the kings guard so the protagonist and love interest can run
they barely escape and have to go into hiding, and they've lost so much of themselves and the people around them through this whole book leading up to this, but even through all these losses, the King is dead at LEAST. we end off with them escaping and thr future is uncertain.
then the last page, we cut to the perspective of the kings soldier. loved character number 2 is dead and the king is actually alive, and survived the stabbing. that's the last page of the book. it ends
so after hundreds of pages of miserable event after miserable event, we end with: the rebellion being found out and the ones not captured / killed forced into hiding, and the king is just fine. so literally nothing has progressed at all. and this is on top of loved characters dying. mid book okay, but the end of the book, when we were leading up to one single win, it was just loss after loss, gut punch after gut punch, it just felt like I had to roll my eyes and I didn't even feel like reading book 2. it felt like there was no point anymore
and in hindsight, if that last page was even just the first page of book 2, or not included at all and it was a twist the readers figured out later into book 2, then I would've felt differently. same events, but it wouldn't have taken away from the book at least. but it just felt like there was no positive point even a little for the reader, it crossed the line of just loss after loss that I didn't even feel sad or depressed or gasped at the twist, I just.... was annoyed. as a reader it would have been better to not end off like that. we're also essentially left to only the main character and love interest, as we're stripped away from the entirety of the lovable cast. there's hints of a new group to love when they escape to the other rebels but because we don't know them it didn't feel like anything to me. and as someone who cares about characters I just couldn't care enough to continue anymore. especially when again, it feels like, as a reader, we're at square one... or square negative one since the rebels are exposed
this was hard to explain, but leading up to all of this, I was enjoying the book, even through the lowest of lows, but that last page just made me as a reader feel like there was no point to the story I guess. this is my personal preference obviously. if you like that miserable feeling when reading then you'll love it ig.
objectively the writing of the book is 5 stars, but the choice of that last page managed to ruin the experience completely so I was forced to give it a 3. I feel bad and like I'm such an asshole saying this because this is someone's work, I could feel the care and emotion put info it of course, but... yeah.
But its not a typical fantasy action novel with romance, it doesn't shy away from the gore on realities of the violence, both sexual and nonsexual, so it's very dark. It's a beautiful beautiful beautiful book and I love how this author writes. But its very dark so if you're looking for sapphic fantasy in a way to feel happy, this isn't it. But its def rep of course. Just be prepared before you read. I'm the type of person that needs to be in the right mindset to read certain things so I wasn't expecting it lol
So this is a beautifully written book. I felt it could be a little flowery at first but I think that's just because of the slower pace at the start of the story. Not that big a thing though it's still gorgeous as a work of art. Based on that I'd rate it 5 stars. I took away 2 because of my personal enjoyment as a reader.
For me, the very last page ruined the whole book for me. Ill describe it without spoilers, and then below that ill describe it with spoilwrs.
NO Spoiling: I dont mind bleak stories. In a weird way sometimes the rawness is nice for me to read esp when I feel I can relate to certain things. But there's a certain point where the bleakness feels just exasperating. It exceeds the point where you're crying and are like nooo this can't happen but still can't put the book down; after a certain point it even loses the impact because it's just keeps happening, like you just gotta roll your eyes. Have you ever read a book where it felt like morbidly bad things happening to the character was just for shock factor and you couldn't even care anymore it was just annoying? This book doesn't reach that point, but the last page got me close to there, and it ruined the whole thing for me lol. I feel like if I was reading this review I'd read the book just out of curiosity because how does a last page ruin things? But the best way I can describe it is that the trust built between the writer and reader felt betrayed. Like how it feels when the synopsis of the book is one thing, and the book is absolutely not that. Not the case here but that feeling of betrayal that makes you annoyed and takes you out the story is three same. Just trying to describe it to the best of my ability
ok WITH spoilers!!!
SPOILING!!!!! look away
so they're oppressed right, there's a coup forming to kill the current king bc of how fucked up things are, and we meet some of said characters between the awful shit that our protagonists goes through. all of this leads up to the killing of the King. the plan was to kill him quietly without revealing just how orchestrated it was to avoid war and win over court too. we come to care about some characters too, great job of making us love them.
the issue comes at when it happens.. so there's a whole backfire in the plan, the rebellion is exposed along with the many people in the high ranks, meaning the ppl in high ranks who betrayed the King can't win over court to make change in the kingdom. but in a really violent altercation with the king, who is a violent rapist (and we get that gore violent scene when it happens to protag by his hands) and enslaver and murderer, the protag kills him at least. in the fight she's helped by a side character who we grow to love very much, and said side character is killed by one of the closest soldiers to the king. a different side character who is also a soldier fights to hold of the kings guard so the protagonist and love interest can run
they barely escape and have to go into hiding, and they've lost so much of themselves and the people around them through this whole book leading up to this, but even through all these losses, the King is dead at LEAST. we end off with them escaping and thr future is uncertain.
then the last page, we cut to the perspective of the kings soldier. loved character number 2 is dead and the king is actually alive, and survived the stabbing. that's the last page of the book. it ends
so after hundreds of pages of miserable event after miserable event, we end with: the rebellion being found out and the ones not captured / killed forced into hiding, and the king is just fine. so literally nothing has progressed at all. and this is on top of loved characters dying. mid book okay, but the end of the book, when we were leading up to one single win, it was just loss after loss, gut punch after gut punch, it just felt like I had to roll my eyes and I didn't even feel like reading book 2. it felt like there was no point anymore
and in hindsight, if that last page was even just the first page of book 2, or not included at all and it was a twist the readers figured out later into book 2, then I would've felt differently. same events, but it wouldn't have taken away from the book at least. but it just felt like there was no positive point even a little for the reader, it crossed the line of just loss after loss that I didn't even feel sad or depressed or gasped at the twist, I just.... was annoyed. as a reader it would have been better to not end off like that. we're also essentially left to only the main character and love interest, as we're stripped away from the entirety of the lovable cast. there's hints of a new group to love when they escape to the other rebels but because we don't know them it didn't feel like anything to me. and as someone who cares about characters I just couldn't care enough to continue anymore. especially when again, it feels like, as a reader, we're at square one... or square negative one since the rebels are exposed
this was hard to explain, but leading up to all of this, I was enjoying the book, even through the lowest of lows, but that last page just made me as a reader feel like there was no point to the story I guess. this is my personal preference obviously. if you like that miserable feeling when reading then you'll love it ig.
objectively the writing of the book is 5 stars, but the choice of that last page managed to ruin the experience completely so I was forced to give it a 3. I feel bad and like I'm such an asshole saying this because this is someone's work, I could feel the care and emotion put info it of course, but... yeah.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
crashedandburned's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, and Violence