hshoue's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, and Murder
penofpossibilities's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Classism, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Miscarriage, Abortion, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Murder, Suicide, and Torture
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Genocide, Infertility, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Vomit
lokes's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- 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? It's complicated
1.25
This was… well, is was something.
The worldbuilding was a bit sloppy, but interesting, but plot and characters? Icky. Like, really bad.
Not only did it have tropes such as forced marriage and hints of pedophilia (as soon as the guy was always called a “man with his big hands; like a father; etc” and the woman described as “girl with small hands; being generally very young and clueless and in need of constant help”) I had a bad feeling and boy wasn’t I wrong.
I don’t know why so many people like a book which is filled with sexism, weird stereotypes, classism, racism and basically everything you don’t want to read about when it is normalized (or rather being glorified, because you just couldn’t catch a break when reading. It just kept coming)
I do feel like I need to apologize to the person I am now that I read this book because it wasn’t pleasant and I feel like I need to unlearn all of the very harmful stuff I just read about.
The writing style’s not bad though, I could have liked it without the weird content.
The worldbuilding was a bit sloppy, but interesting, but plot and characters? Icky. Like, really bad.
Not only did it have tropes such as forced marriage and hints of pedophilia (as soon as the guy was always called a “man with his big hands; like a father; etc” and the woman described as “girl with small hands; being generally very young and clueless and in need of constant help”) I had a bad feeling and boy wasn’t I wrong.
I don’t know why so many people like a book which is filled with sexism, weird stereotypes, classism, racism and basically everything you don’t want to read about when it is normalized (or rather being glorified, because you just couldn’t catch a break when reading. It just kept coming)
I do feel like I need to apologize to the person I am now that I read this book because it wasn’t pleasant and I feel like I need to unlearn all of the very harmful stuff I just read about.
The writing style’s not bad though, I could have liked it without the weird content.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Incest, Miscarriage, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, and Violence
Moderate: Drug use, Blood, Child abuse, Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Death of parent, and Confinement
snickahz's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Emotional abuse
Moderate: Torture, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Police brutality
Minor: Incest and Sexual harassment
thoughtsontomes's review against another edition
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This was just fine. The world building is cool but I’m not particularly drawn to the characters or romance. The narrator of the audiobook did a great job. I’m not interested enough to continue probably but if I do I’ll continue with the audio.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture and Bullying
Moderate: Suicide
bialves's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Slavery, Violence, Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Alcohol, Classism, Hate crime, and Miscarriage
tmcphetridge4's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
It took me almost 3 years to finish this book. It was quite a lengthy one and I kept returning it to the library with very little progress. I finally decided that enough was enough and that I should finish it off. The book was molasses slow. It has a pretty interesting magic system with lots of political and societal intrigue, but it was very tense with hatred between characters. Nearly downright torturous. That being said, I am intrigued to read the second book. I know the novels only get lengthier, but I want to know how much further the protagonist gets in the den of wolves. Or should I say dragons? The one thing that is really dragging me down is the somewhat incestuous relationship between the aunt and her family spirit. How does that even work?
Content Warnings
Moderate: Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Pregnancy
Minor: Incest
Not entirely sure if the -incest- tag is correct, cause it is an ancient family spirit? But it feels like incest.annikareads_'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Death, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Torture
empathreads's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
It's an easy read and the world building is also easy to follow, from the prologue till the next chapters, how the metaphors are used is essential and pleasing when it evokes a play to create the figment world. This is really more plot driven and if you're looking for romance it's basically just a sublot since Book One focuses on introducing how the system functions and the characters which serve a purpose throughout the story. I'm excited to read the second book and want to see more of Gail and Mother Hildegarde, even some of Ophelia's siblings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Pregnancy, Torture, and Violence
anitaxlit's review against another edition
adventurous
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I'm so sad to say that this book was definitely not for me, and I'm so disappointed because I wanted to love it!
On the first hundred pages I thought it was bad, but that perhaps it was simply due to poor translation work. By page 200 I concluded that sadly, both the translation and the writing were poor. The translation reads stunted and awkward on every page. The writing was bad because of... everything else.
First off, it was sexist. Slut-shaming abounds. Women are treated like shit. There is one comment — completely out of the blue, with no reason whatsoever — about a miscarriage that I found triggering even if the topic isn't normally triggering for me. I found the book generally insensitive toward women.
I've seen other reviews mention this and I must repeat it myself: the author gives each character a defining trait and mentions it every chance she gets. The fact that Ophelia, the MC, is clumsy and sickly is repeated non-stop thorughout the book. Whenever Thorn is mentioned, there is a remark on how tall he is. With Berenilde, it's her golden curls and beauty. With Rosaline, the horse's teeth. With Gail, the black hair. With Fox, the red moustache. These things are mentioned every single time one of the characters does something.
They are also completely devoid of any personality, sense or emotion. Berenilde was so confusing, I really couldn't understand her. Archibald was the most consistent of all? I think?
Ophelia has no emotional reactions to the horrible things that happen to her, and there's a lot of those! She encounters things which should be a complete cultural shock and barely reacts. Also, she can "read" objects to know things about their previous owners and travel through mirrors (which is so, so cool!!), but she never takes any advantage of that. I totally forgot about the mirror thing for like a hundred pages, and the saga is called The Mirror Visitor!
And the "romance"... Thorn says he's getting used to her and immediately Ophelia deduces that he's in love with her.
Girl what.
You need to sit down.
You need to take several seats.
And this is not simply the character being naive, the author seems to be pointing us in that direction! How can I believe he loves her when they haven't had any meaningful interactions at all?
What's most frustrating is that this had the potential to be great! The premise is amazing! The world it presents is cool! The plot is intriguing and it has one (1) twist that I liked! But the execution was done poorly, and it took away from the enjoyment I might have found in these things. So yeah, I'm sad about this.
On the first hundred pages I thought it was bad, but that perhaps it was simply due to poor translation work. By page 200 I concluded that sadly, both the translation and the writing were poor. The translation reads stunted and awkward on every page. The writing was bad because of... everything else.
First off, it was sexist. Slut-shaming abounds. Women are treated like shit. There is one comment — completely out of the blue, with no reason whatsoever — about a miscarriage that I found triggering even if the topic isn't normally triggering for me. I found the book generally insensitive toward women.
I've seen other reviews mention this and I must repeat it myself: the author gives each character a defining trait and mentions it every chance she gets. The fact that Ophelia, the MC, is clumsy and sickly is repeated non-stop thorughout the book. Whenever Thorn is mentioned, there is a remark on how tall he is. With Berenilde, it's her golden curls and beauty. With Rosaline, the horse's teeth. With Gail, the black hair. With Fox, the red moustache. These things are mentioned every single time one of the characters does something.
They are also completely devoid of any personality, sense or emotion. Berenilde was so confusing, I really couldn't understand her. Archibald was the most consistent of all? I think?
Ophelia has no emotional reactions to the horrible things that happen to her, and there's a lot of those! She encounters things which should be a complete cultural shock and barely reacts. Also, she can "read" objects to know things about their previous owners and travel through mirrors (which is so, so cool!!), but she never takes any advantage of that. I totally forgot about the mirror thing for like a hundred pages, and the saga is called The Mirror Visitor!
And the "romance"... Thorn says he's getting used to her and immediately Ophelia deduces that he's in love with her.
Girl what.
You need to sit down.
You need to take several seats.
And this is not simply the character being naive, the author seems to be pointing us in that direction! How can I believe he loves her when they haven't had any meaningful interactions at all?
What's most frustrating is that this had the potential to be great! The premise is amazing! The world it presents is cool! The plot is intriguing and it has one (1) twist that I liked! But the execution was done poorly, and it took away from the enjoyment I might have found in these things. So yeah, I'm sad about this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Torture
Moderate: Miscarriage and Sexism