hdwoodyard's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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
5.0
brennalynne's review against another edition
2.0
I never really technically finished this so this rating isn't super accurate. I got 100 pages from the ending and it was returned to the library and at this point I won't be going back to it... it was okay. It wasn't good, it wasn't bad. I just skimmed through to the ending at my library. Its fine. I have nothing against this book really.
_nika_'s review against another edition
I didn’t really feel the characters or the plot, it’s all a little confusing and not picking up a pace. I don’t really know if it’s just the wrong time for this or if it’s genuinely the writing that’s putting me off
alicethejokerofspades's review against another edition
This book blows. Hard. The characters are cheesy and not compelling at all. One thinks swearing like a pirate makes her a badass (I swear like a pirate and even this was too much for me), and the other one isn't like other girls. There's no way she could be a hero, she was Arlo. Just Arlo. The amount of pop culture references made me just about rip my hair out. "Like, chill out Gandolf" 🙄
bookishcarli's review against another edition
2.0
Finished!! It started slow but picked up and I LOVED the end!! Still deciding on how to rate it though, because the Arlo and Nausicaa chapters are amazing and I love them so so much but the aeurelian and vehan chapaters weren’t really that good until the last 150 pages or so— it felt mostly filler and info dumping before then, and I had a little bit of a hard time differentiating between them at the start, they felt like carbon copies of each other!! The hero chapters were confusing because they felt like HUGE info dumps and nothing else, but I’m glad I had them because otherwise there would have been no foreshadowing at all for the ending. But I loved the arlo and nausicaa chapters so much!!
aniya_'s review
adventurous
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Meine wahrscheinlich größte Enttäuschung dieses Jahr.
Das coole Cover lockt ebenso wie das Versprechen von queeren Protagonist*innen und dieses wird zumindest gehalten. Tatsächlich ist das sogar das Beste am Buch und zeigt einmal mehr, wie wichtig Own-Voice-Autor*innen sind.
Leider mochte ich den anstrengenden Schreibstil nicht. Zu viele wechselnde Perspektiven helfen da leider auch nicht, ganz im Gegenteil. Die sorgen dann eher dafür, dass ich immer wieder rausgerissen werde und mit keinem Charakter so richtig warm werde.
Am schlimmsten waren aber die seitenlangen, trockenen Erklärungen. Das Buch ist einfach ein riesen Info-Dump, die Story bleibt dagegen völlig auf der Strecke. Und da erfährt man schon so viel über Wesen und Magie und hat dann trotzdem das Gefühl, dass da Vorwissen nötig gewesen wäre. Fast bis zum Schluss werden neue Konzepte eingeführt, die dann ewig erklärt werden müssen. Ich habe mich irgendwann nur noch gequält und musste mich zum Lesen zwingen, aber so soll es ja nicht sein.
Ich vergebe einen zweiten Stern für die wirklich gute und natürliche LGBT Rep, ansonsten konnte mich das Buch leider nicht überzeugen. Super schade, ich war bereit es zu lieben.
jbird7's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- 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? Yes
4.0
sapphic_book_dragon's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
jillybean357's review against another edition
4.0
This book was a lot of things.
Parts of it were completely fantastic, and parts of it were questionable and quite unfantastic. I found myself getting frustrated with the lack of depth and motive behind certain characters; I wish that every single main character got the kind of depth and development that Arlo did. I also wish the romances and character relationships got a bit more development. In retrospect, the plot seemed slow and fairly monotone for the first half of the book and consequently rushed in the second half. However, these criticisms aside, I ADORE this book.
(I know that list of critiques may seem like a lot but it most of these aren’t a big deal when you are reading for the first time. Those flaws rather make the difference between rereading the book and not).
We need more books like this. Normalize diversity in all genres of fiction. Personally, I feel there should not be a genre reserved for books that represent LGBTQ+ identities, instead there should be LGBTQ+ representation in every genre. I often underestimate how powerful it is to see somebody you can identify with in the media you consume, especially when there is so much controversy around who you love.
If you can get past the slow plot in the beginning, the plot holes, and the seemingly half baked characters, I would highly recommend this book. We need more casual representation of all identities. This book did so many things right that it is worth it to look past it’s flaws. I have a feeling if I reread this book my opinion of it would go down considerably, but that is an issue for another day.
Parts of it were completely fantastic, and parts of it were questionable and quite unfantastic. I found myself getting frustrated with the lack of depth and motive behind certain characters; I wish that every single main character got the kind of depth and development that Arlo did. I also wish the romances and character relationships got a bit more development. In retrospect, the plot seemed slow and fairly monotone for the first half of the book and consequently rushed in the second half. However, these criticisms aside, I ADORE this book.
(I know that list of critiques may seem like a lot but it most of these aren’t a big deal when you are reading for the first time. Those flaws rather make the difference between rereading the book and not).
We need more books like this. Normalize diversity in all genres of fiction. Personally, I feel there should not be a genre reserved for books that represent LGBTQ+ identities, instead there should be LGBTQ+ representation in every genre. I often underestimate how powerful it is to see somebody you can identify with in the media you consume, especially when there is so much controversy around who you love.
If you can get past the slow plot in the beginning, the plot holes, and the seemingly half baked characters, I would highly recommend this book. We need more casual representation of all identities. This book did so many things right that it is worth it to look past it’s flaws. I have a feeling if I reread this book my opinion of it would go down considerably, but that is an issue for another day.
alienaras's review against another edition
5.0
Solid 4.5. Loved the characters, the dynamics and everything.