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tmw1122'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
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Child death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
niknakreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Death of parent
Minor: Child death, Physical abuse, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
bea_reads_books's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Addiction and Child abuse
Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Grief, Gaslighting, and War
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, and Blood
eileenp59's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Death of parent, Abandonment, War, and Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Colonisation
Minor: Biphobia, Body shaming, Child death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Slavery, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Stalking
m_________'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? Yes
4.0
I really enjoyed this book and am certainly looking forward to continuing the series. I liked how Fitz's role as an assassin isn't quite what I've seen from other fantasy assassins, he's trained to be a lot more political and subtle. The book definitely has some hard hitting themes about loneliness, trauma, and living with trauma and I am also intrigued by certain side characters, and I already really love Fitz, of course.
Major CW for animal deaths.
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, and Abandonment
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infertility, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The worldbuilding is layered, with things explained as Fitz is told them, supplemented by insights from his older self. This leads to a gradually filled-in impression of a complex setting where details are conveyed as they are necessary, and even more is implied through the narrative. This style lends clarity. He discusses both how he felt at the time, as a child and then a teenager, and what he thinks about those events now that he’s an adult. This becomes especially important during sections such as his time under Galen, as the dissonance intensifies between events as they happened and how he was being conditioned to perceive them. There are several moments where something he does as he’s telling the story is juxtaposed with some assertion made by his younger self, showing how something must have changed in the meantime (presumably to be covered somewhere in the trilogy).
One of my favorite things is his complex relationship with Burrich. How they are to and with each other changes throughout the story. Even when it's changing for the worse, it makes sense, and it's nice to see Fitz's growing understanding of Burrich as a person with his own internal world separate from Fitz. How Fitz views Burrich is often a great proxy for how Fitz is growing and changing, flavored by the dissonance between how Fitz is and how Burrich wants him to be.
There’s a lot of care in the narration, partly due to the balance between Fitz’s memories and his older self’s reactions to and commentaries on the memories, and partly due to what I can best describe as a lack of voyeuristic interest. One of the background plots involves raiders pillaging the coast, and, other than a few scenes where Fitz has to directly fight someone as a result of the raids, there are few descriptions of the kind of violence which accompanies such raids. Said violence is canonically happening, and Fitz frequently discusses the effects he’s observing on the people and the Kingdom which stem from the raids, but in a way that makes sense for his character. This is just one example of how the narration gives the impression of the complexity (and sometimes violence) of Fitz’s world, but does not unnaturally bend his character to direct the story towards it, nor does it shy away when appropriate.
A great start to the series, I'm ready to read the next one.
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Medical content
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
Minor: Miscarriage and Rape