The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! đ
anxiousnachos's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
1.75
Content warnings: sex, suicide, violence, blood and gore, confinement, kidnapping, murder, threats of rape, child death, injury detail
Thank you to Angry Robot for the physical ARC of this one in exchange for an honest review!Â
Iâve been struggling with how to write this review since I finished because Iâm hugely grateful to AR for sending me an ARC, especially because itâs so rare for me to get physical ARCs given where I live. Unfortunately as you can tell from my rating, this was not my cup of tea. This sounded like a really fun, enemies to lovers romantic fantasy which I was so on board with and I was so excited to see how the authorâs humour translated into a book. But I found the worldbuilding to be pretty nonexistent (please explain the existence of a mage who turns up to heal people whenever the plot needs it) or badly written and the pacing off. It takes more than a third of the book to get off the mountain and the journey becomes very monotonous. At times, it felt like a tool to tell Dawyson (and thus us, the reader) things about the world. The whole book is very much âworldbuild entirely from telling not showingâ which is the exact opposite of the books I tend to enjoy the most.
The above I can forgive as personal tastes, as I do think this could be something that might appeal to SJM fans? (Though note I say that having never read her books, but I imagine they could be something similar). And I know the heavy immersive worldbuilding I prefer is not for everyone! But more than the above, there were several moments that reallyâŚraised my hackles? The main love interest, Ryon, being an animalistic half beast Black man? đŹđŹđŹ This is a highly overused and problematic trope in media. Particularly given he is for much of the book, the only person of colour around - in fact on first read through, I thought he was the only one until page 284. When I went back to check I did notice a brief mention of another characterâs darker skin colour.Â
There were also several veryâŚTERFy lines around genitals and womanhood that I did not like? It was rather odd. One of these I could have excused as me just looking too deeply and feeling touchy as I read but there were multiple throughout the text and they just added up and left such a feeling of distaste in my mouth which is obviously not the feeling you want when reading. For some examples, implying that to reach womanhood you have to have a period. Or referring to âparts that make me girlish will never know your touch againâ as if our genitals make our gender. Of course all of these lines wouldnât even exist if Ryon didnât constantly infantilise Dawyson by calling her âgirlâ⌠They all come up in her responses to him calling her this.
So yeah, l wasnât a big fan of this unfortunately! But thank you again to Angry Robot for the ARC!Â
Oh God I thought I was finished but I just remembered they almost had sex after Dawyson just drowned and Ryon had to resuscitate her. WHAT.Â
Thank you to Angry Robot for the physical ARC of this one in exchange for an honest review!Â
Iâve been struggling with how to write this review since I finished because Iâm hugely grateful to AR for sending me an ARC, especially because itâs so rare for me to get physical ARCs given where I live. Unfortunately as you can tell from my rating, this was not my cup of tea. This sounded like a really fun, enemies to lovers romantic fantasy which I was so on board with and I was so excited to see how the authorâs humour translated into a book. But I found the worldbuilding to be pretty nonexistent (please explain the existence of a mage who turns up to heal people whenever the plot needs it) or badly written and the pacing off. It takes more than a third of the book to get off the mountain and the journey becomes very monotonous. At times, it felt like a tool to tell Dawyson (and thus us, the reader) things about the world. The whole book is very much âworldbuild entirely from telling not showingâ which is the exact opposite of the books I tend to enjoy the most.
The above I can forgive as personal tastes, as I do think this could be something that might appeal to SJM fans? (Though note I say that having never read her books, but I imagine they could be something similar). And I know the heavy immersive worldbuilding I prefer is not for everyone! But more than the above, there were several moments that reallyâŚraised my hackles? The main love interest, Ryon, being an animalistic half beast Black man? đŹđŹđŹ This is a highly overused and problematic trope in media. Particularly given he is for much of the book, the only person of colour around - in fact on first read through, I thought he was the only one until page 284. When I went back to check I did notice a brief mention of another characterâs darker skin colour.Â
There were also several veryâŚTERFy lines around genitals and womanhood that I did not like? It was rather odd. One of these I could have excused as me just looking too deeply and feeling touchy as I read but there were multiple throughout the text and they just added up and left such a feeling of distaste in my mouth which is obviously not the feeling you want when reading. For some examples, implying that to reach womanhood you have to have a period. Or referring to âparts that make me girlish will never know your touch againâ as if our genitals make our gender. Of course all of these lines wouldnât even exist if Ryon didnât constantly infantilise Dawyson by calling her âgirlâ⌠They all come up in her responses to him calling her this.
So yeah, l wasnât a big fan of this unfortunately! But thank you again to Angry Robot for the ARC!Â
Oh God I thought I was finished but I just remembered they almost had sex after Dawyson just drowned and Ryon had to resuscitate her. WHAT.Â
Graphic: Murder, Blood, Gore, Violence, and Suicide
Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Sexual assault and Rape
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