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aravenclawlibraryx's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? Yes
4.0
tw: explosions, racism, gun violence, murder, blood
Time loop books are hard to review. This is my second book about time loops and I did like that book quite a bit. The book is Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver. Truly a spectacular book and I loved it so much. Anyway, because time loop books have a very limited setting, you're limited on what you can mention because you want to avoid spoilers. So forgive me if this review is a little vague. I’ll do my best.
I can at least talk about the main character without giving too much away. The main character, Anais, was an okay main character. I was on board with her for a good portion of the book. She was strong and brave. She acted in exactly the way I expected a teenager/young adult to act, with the occasional moments of being a whiny teenager, but it didn’t bother me. It was the end when I started to have a problem with her. She became incredibly whiny, like more than she had been because something happened. It really put me off.
Let’s talk about the plot. Time loop books certainly have the potential to get old and repetitive very quickly. That did not happen with this book. Every loop, while sometimes the same, was not boring to read. The way the chapters were done was cool. If some chapters had something different, it went to chapter two. If a loop restarted, it went back to chapter one. It helped me to keep track of what was going on and how many loops we had gone through.
There is one thing I did want to discuss involving a trigger warning. I did mention that there is blood and explosions. But I want to emphasize that there's a lot of blood and explosions. Since it’s a time loop book, the explosions happened pretty frequently and they were described pretty graphically. To me, it seemed almost too graphic for the young adult genre but I’m also old. So I really just want to emphasize the violence in this book so nobody is surprised or upset.
Overall, this was a good book and I did have quite a nice time reading it. The time loop genre is something that I’m really enjoying. Minus the main character disappointing me in the end, I thoroughly enjoyed my time with this time loop book. I highly recommend this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Bullying, Classism, Death, and Gore
purplehulk713's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
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? Yes
4.75
As lovely and twisted as it were inked with the blood of the fairies themselves. Zeba Shahnaz is a magician! Her prose was both tantalizing and uproarious, and her world-building and character development were exquisite. I mean, you got to hear things like
She curses under her breath at the break in her alliteration.
and
“I did not think I had to tell you to keep your whores out of my chambers. Perhaps I overestimated your ability to read between the lines.”
I did not see the villain coming, or the provenance of the curse, but they were both great! The two things that slightly disappointed me were that the magic systems were left somewhat ambiguous (or at least the earth magic practiced by the magicians of Ivarea) that I felt a little more clarity (especially during battle scenes) of the specifics of the theory would have been helpful (rather than simply the thought of directing intention—which is believable for a hearth magic, as Anaïs describes her blessing). The denouement just felt a little bit anticlimactic, but the more I consider it, it feels entirely on theme with the rest of the story. I just probably wouldn’t have worded the last few sentences the same way. But the characters were the best. I so grew to love Jacinthe Vieillard the more we get to know her over the course of this same night, and Leo as well. Shahnaz is so good at portraying the multi-faceted character of a personality as well as a set of issues, like a racial, gender, or socioeconomic hierarchy. Seeing Anaïs develop (and take on grayer tones), likewise, was captivating. She was the perfect driver of a story to discuss themes of taking chances, using your time wisely, wasting it, trying to undo it, running away from the inevitable (the chimes of midnight) and just trying to escape the fact that at this point in your life, you might not know what you want though you are expected to. All time is short, and Anaïs Aubanel has never before been one to seize the day (for herself, at least). But now she has too much time on her hands. At least until clock strikes twelve in a burst of blood and magic…
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mass/school shootings, Torture, Murder, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
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