Reviews with content warning for Death - The Shadow of What Was Lost

Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington

21 reviews

considerthelily's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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martinq's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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saltycoffee's review against another edition

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This book is a meal without taste. Incredible plot convenience mixed with characters so paper thin they're made of tissue paper made this story overwhelmingly flavorless.

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donatio's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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? No

3.75

I did love the heavy world-building, that there was not as much romance as in many other books and I agree with all the people who say that the females were better-crafted than the male ones.
Yet this book felt quite slow to me and as if nothing much happens. The time skips seemed to skip over important parts and it all seems quite "easy" as in the prota could always find a solution right away and there were many points when they could just TELL that someone was trustworthy, too often in my opinion. Furthermore I have not been able to really bond with the characters, their grief for example did not affect me.
You can tell that it is a debut and not up there with Samantha Shannon or V. E. Schwab but I am intrigued enough to read the next books.

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lectora21's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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shadereads's review against another edition

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I can't quite put a finger on what bugged me about this book, probably because there were multiple things that all added up to me not wanting to continue. For one, the book is massive, but the catalyst happened in the first 50 pages. That feels too quick. I would have liked a little more time getting to know the 'before' life before such drastic changes happened in their lives, and just get to know the characters in general and how the magic system worked.
For two, I didn't enjoy how the main female lead was being treated. She had her life basically taken away from her before she had a chance, and has seen nothing but trauma and death since the story started. There was a whole chapter that could have been taken out involving her, because it feels like it gave too much away too quickly, leaving little intrigue to get invested in, because we already know who is shady and who we shouldn't trust.
Overall, if this was trying to be like The Wheel of Time or Brandon Sanderson, I don't think it hit that mark for me. It's probably one of those books that's long for the sake of being long.

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