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cassie7e's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Gore, Blood, Murder, and Classism
Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Alcohol
kiwij96'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
4.0
Criticisms aside, the story was full of twists and turns and more deaths that a season of Grey's Anatomy. The worldbuilding was full of description and even had its own calendar system. The characters were fantastically written, both good and bad characters. They brought me joy, anger, and heartbreak at times. Locke is an interesting character to me because as someone who is supposed to be the brains of the operation, he sure does make a whole bunch of mistakes and then continues acting like he is the cleverest being known to man.
I am unsure if I will continue the trilogy as this one felt like it could be a standalone, but we shall see.
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Vomit, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Animal death and Classism
lanid's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, Police brutality, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Slavery, Xenophobia, and Trafficking
mgraceoliver's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
madamenovelist'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? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Police brutality, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
apotheosis's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Cursing, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Blood, and Vomit
Minor: Ableism, Genocide, Rape, Slavery, and Trafficking
There is a lot of swearing in this book and is one of the more prominent complaints about it (I enjoy it but your mileage may vary).seanml's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism
Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, Excrement, and Abandonment
kaziaroo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Things I liked:
- the characters and their relationships were likeable and interesting, and the side characters were fun
- it was entertaining to read and the ending was satisfying. It would be fine as a stand-alone read – I haven't yet decided whether to read the sequel
- the setting was very rich and felt like a real place – I loved the Falselight and the Elderglass structures. The religious and social settings were also interesting.
What I didn't like:
- Unfortunately my Kindle edition didn't come with a map but I think paper editions do. A map would have made the characters' movements easier to follow.
- There's a lot of swearing – obviously this is personal preference and I did get used to it after a while.
- a lot of the dialogue felt very modern (and American) and at odds with the historical, Italian-inspired setting. Hearing members of the nobility coming out with phrases like "surely you must be kidding" was jarring and took me right out of the story. Characters of different social backgrounds also all seemed to talk in the same way.
- the pacing was all over the place. One moment there's a flurry of action and the next there's thirty pages of trying to swindle some stuffy bankers out of their clothes. I found the first half pretty boring and the second half only just made up for it. The narrative style is very episodic, almost more suited to a magazine or TV show than a novel.
- the main villain is very mysterious, but actually so much so that I found it harder to take him seriously. When we do find out more about him, it's in an info-dump right near the end of the book.
- although I praised the setting, I did find the book a bit too descriptive. I didn't really care what specific food the characters were eating or what it looked like, or the precise sectors of the city the characters walked through from A to B. Maybe if I'd had a map... The narrator also name-drops a lot, and my edition didn't have a glossary either. There are a lot of names of gods, locations, months/days, etc and I ended up skimming over whole sentences that were just a string of unfamiliar names that had no bearing on the rest of the book.
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Fatphobia, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Minor: Drug abuse, Sexism, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Abandonment
grayscale08's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexism, Medical content, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Fatphobia, Excrement, Vomit, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol
ok7a'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
4.5
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Cursing and Classism
Minor: Death of parent