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jazdono's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
The story seemed to have promise—an overbearing government driven by an obsession of controlling the country’s “culture” and education could have led to some amazing societal commentary—and the whole time, I was excited to see what exact commentary was being made. Instead, it felt like the author was afraid to commit to a “moral of the story”, and at the end, this book was just a love story with vague world building and a clumsy attempt at discussing sexism, homophobia, and classism. At one point, I even had to pause to look up whether this was a Christian/ religious book (ie, propaganda) that I had accidentally selected, but then later in the book, it felt distinctly anti-religion.
The other subplots, especially “The Rat”, were painfully boring and underdeveloped, and the ending was especially disappointing, leaving everything feeling unresolved. It feels like the author had no idea where any of the plot was going aside from the love story, and this book wasn’t even a romance.
Graphic: Sexism and Suicide
Moderate: Death of parent and Classism
Minor: Homophobia
bellarosereichart's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Blood
asourceoffiction's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Suicide and Violence
klemistry's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Kidnapping
almond's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Suicide
melliest's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Suicide
Moderate: Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Alcoholism
risaleel's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Suicide, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Sexism, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Mental illness, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism
danicakvcs's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, and Murder
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Blood, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Alcoholism, Body horror, and Death of parent
lateromantic's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Colonisation
added a trigger warning for antisemitism because the persecution ofclaudiashelf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
❝ These are the times that scare her the most, the beginnings and endings: this is when the world is most unpredictable. ❞
Although it took me two weeks to finish this book, I still going to admit that I truly enjoyed reading this book. This sounds cliché but I’ll probably pick Bridget Collins’ book shortly.
Well— there are so many characters in this book, and even though there are many POVs from different characters, made it quite complicated and tricky to connect with any of the characters in this book, particularly. Because of that, I think one of the characters is not executed well. Not only were many characters that are hard to follow but I also thought this book was so slow, it just took me a long moment to get anywhere even tho I love how this book was so descriptive in every detail which I enjoyed. I believe, for some people this going to be a “boring” book but for those who love to read illustrative books with historical and dark academia as the main genre, this one is pretty fascinating and mesmerising.
Graphic: Suicide