Reviews with content warning for Violence - A Dark and Hollow Star – Nichts ist gefährlicher als ein Märchen

***SPOILERS AHEAD. DO NOT READ IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE BOOK.***

I heard this book was like a queer ACOTAR and that immediately intrigued me, and I’ve been wanting to read it for quite a while. Turns out it was everything I was hoping for and more. It definitely did feel a little like ACOTAR, but also a little bit of The Cruel Prince (from what I remember from that book). But God, I loved this book. I couldn’t put it down when I really got into it.

I will admit that at first I was confused about the whole fae/faerie/folk system and their magic and how all of the Courts and families worked, but that’s pretty typical of a fantasy book so it’s something I can look past. I immediately fell in love with Nausicaä and that love only continued to grow. She’s so snarky and I love that she’s so morally grey, but underneath the surface, you can tell she has a soft spot for the people she loves. I mean, she literally burnt down a boat for Tisiphone, she can love people. I also really liked Celadon at first (Arlo was kind of 50/50 at the beginning) but I couldn’t deny that this book had you already loving the characters as soon as they were introduced. And Aurelian and Vehan had such a compelling dynamic (PRINCE/BODYGUARD FORBIDDEN ROMANCE TROPE) from their first introduction and I shipped them probably instantly just from them describing each other. I’m usually not one for the friends-to-lovers trope but with them... yes. I could spend hours talking about how in love I am with Nausicaä and how amazing these characters are.

The only real complaint I would have with this book (hence the half star) is that it seemed a little slow in the beginning. There had to be a certain setup of events, like Hero meeting his Hunter and the Reaper in the cafe so Nos and Arlo could meet and Lethe being introduced with his past with Nos and everything. There was a lot of setup and the main squad didn’t even really meet until the latter half of the book. I would have loved to see more of them together. At the end in the lab, their dynamics (AURELIAN AND NOS ESPECIALLY) were so entertaining and I feel like it could have gone so much deeper. It just felt super long at the beginning only to pick up with the major conflict at the end.

However... the ROMANCES. There wasn’t a lot of it, but it still definitely was there. Arlo and Nausicaä had that tension from the beginning in the cafe, and then at the Faerie Ring with Nos being all protective, and then finally at the factory? With Nos being even MORE protective, and also THE KISS??? THE TITLE, THEIR KISS, AND AN ITALICIZED “oh.” ALL ON THE SAME PAGE. I love them so much. I’ve already checked for fanfics and there AREN’T any which should be a crime. And then Aurelian and Vehan. I mentioned it earlier: usually, friends-to-lovers isn’t my thing, but the way they’re so clearly in love with each other but if Vehan’s mom picks up on it Aurelian is going to die? If that happens in the next book I may combust.

Some of the other things I really liked were the way that gender and sexuality were presented. Vehan, Aurelian, and Nausicaä were all CANONICALLY AND EXPLICITLY STATED to be bisexual, gay, and lesbian respectively, and the author said Arlo is later going to come out as pansexual. All of the conversations about the deities and their pronouns and their gender fluidity were very straightforward too, and it was great to see they/them pronouns. Also the neopronouns (Vesper and xe/xem)! This was the first time I had ever seen neopronouns in a book and it was super cool! All of the pop culture references took a second to get used to (as is the case with urban fantasy) but all of the Pokemon and Dungeons & Dragons (I want that die so badly) and Lord of the Rings and SHE-RA references were great.

I think I’ve said all that I’ve wanted to say, but this was such a great book. Once you get sucked into it, you really can’t put it down and you fall in love with the characters (Nausicaä please marry me). It was all super cool and to be honest, I would rather read something like this than something like ACOTAR and The Cruel Prince (although I do want to reread those). Absolutely amazing, 10000/10. I CAN'T WAIT FOR A CRUEL AND FATED LIGHT THIS SUMMER.

Content Warnings

luckykosmos's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A fun urban fantasy romp, with a delightful cast. It does stand out, despite all the LGBTQ+ representation, the cast was still overwhelmingly white - hopefully this is something Shuttleworth is fixing in future entries.

I loved the approach of familiar plots with fresh characters and voices (more Nausicaa and Aurelian snark please? please.), with the introduction of a magic system not like anything I've seen before. It felt a little too convenient at times, with the understanding that this is something new to the characters, and the way it works will be built on in the future as well.

All in all, there's potential for this series to be a shelf mainstay if Shuttleworth keeps up the quality!

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miabellawymer's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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hannahwhiteyy's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

This was a really good book! Written by a queer author, the book showcased a beautiful diversity of gender, sexuality and race. It was slow-paced in the beginning, which I didn’t love - hence the 4 stars. By the middle and end, I was truly engaged and genuinely related to each of the main characters. Worth the hype, but be careful of the content warnings!

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biancas_library's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Let's start with what I loved about this book: I loved loved LOVED how inclusive this book was! The inclusivity was shown in a very subtle way (pointing out that braille was an option, a character having different pronouns than he/she, just to name two examples). This really shows how easy it can be for authors to be more inclusive in their works.
Next to that, I also really loved how realistic the book was! Not only was the faerie world directly interwoven with the human world (whereas most of the time it is either a world completely different than ours or the faerie world is accessible through a portal), the characters also used stuff like human technology and referenced human culture (Dungeons & Dragons, Mario Party etc) quite a bit. My favorite and most realistic line though was Arlo having to pee in the middle of the showdown! That would so be me!

Now apart from that I have to say the book fell a little bit flat for me. A lot of it was really dragged out and could have been much shorter. A huge part of that were the chunks of world building that were dropped on the reader every once in a while. The world just kept getting bigger and bigger. Personally, I also didn't really feel like the characters were given much individuality, especially with Aurelian and Vehan (this could also be because we got way less chapters from their point of view; I actually wished there had been more equal distribution since most of the book was told from Arlo's perspective). Because of that I didn't quite make a connection with the characters.
Lastly, I wasn't the biggest fan of the whole storyline with the die Arlo was given; it felt a bit like a computer game?
However, the epilogue made me excited to see how the story continues. I really hope, the author gives the characters more depths in the sequel!

Content Warnings

jenny_librarian's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? No

3.0

I was in a slump when I started reading this. The sheer amount of infodumps and worldbuilding nearly put me off altogether. But I pushed through and I kept reading, and it never really got any better.

Part of it is probably due to this book being a debut. Big chunks could have easily been edited out and some sentences would have had much more punch if they’d been shortened to erase some of the purple prose. It’s not bad, but it’s distracting and a bit clunky.

I was slowly familiarizing myself with the character (although I still can barely tell Vehan from Aurelian), and then the whole D&D and seven sins things were dropped in and it was just too much. The whole faerie world was already big enough without including the sins in it. And the whole role play thing with the dice was too much. If you want to make a game type book, then make a game type book. Don’t just drop a role play element in the middle of a novel that had nothing to do with it until then.

I really wanted to enjoy this book (gay fairies in Canada, I mean come on!) but it fell flat for me. I don’t care enough about the characters to continue with the sequel, and the dice thing is just too weird for me anyways.

Content Warnings

yvonne_cl's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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fthepatriarchy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

this book 😭😭 its 100% one of my new favourites. i had really high expectations for it and it definitely met them. arlo’s so fucking pure gn

when she asked for a bathroom in the laboratory bc of the slushies she drank 😭 my heart. me too arlo. me too.

also shes the most relatable mc i’ve seen, like yes not all heroes are gladly noble and endlessly brave. she’s strong as hell tho i wanna hug her.

nausicaä’s character development GAH i love her so bad?? n she looks so pretty on the front cover …

HER AND ARLO’S KISS this is so unfair i needed to know what happened after they kissed. i feel robbed of a scene where arlo’s lying on her w nos stroking her hair. i want. so badly.

VEHAN my baby </3

THAT ONE SCENE w the psychic or wtv where he was spewing his true feelings 😭 like oh my god come here let me hug you.

his mum’s such an asshole oh my god can i please adopt him. please.🥺

the mutual pining between vehan and

aurelian

near enough killed me. like pLEASE i need them to be able to be together in the next book. feeling so mfing bad for aurelian.

ALSO the amount of represntation … the nonbinary deity oh my god and nausicaä correcting people when they misgendered them 😭 AND THE HUNTER THAT USES NEOPRONOUNS. this is the first book ive come across w a character that uses neos and let me just say i fucking screamed.

im so so so excited for the next book omg 2022 can’t come fast enough </3

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