grace_yin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Violence, Murder, Confinement, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Medical content, Physical abuse, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Self harm, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Domestic abuse
readabilitea's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
The primary problem for me was how unnecessarily repetitive the writing was. I felt like I was being treated as stupid and as if my hand needed holding all the time, as though without the constant recapping, the stating the obvious, and the incessant reminders of "Don't let her die. We are coming." I would have forgot everything I had read up until that point.
I also felt this handholding and the telling rather showing aspect of the writing was a problem when it came to some of the sensitive issues handled in the book.
Spoiler
when Kiva reveals her self-harm to Jaren, and when he reveals his mother's addiction to Kiva, what followed was a lecture encompassing the beginning, middle, and end of a trauma storyline and it left me feeling really icky, as if the author wasn't actually engaging with the topic but using the trauma to add some history to her characters, justified by ending on a spelling out of what to do should you ever encounter these issues in real life.This book is full of YA fantasy tropes and I see why people like it, after all that's exactly why I picked it up: I wanted an easy, action-packed read that would be difficult to put down. Ultimately though this backfired because I was left with so many questions that regularly took me out of the reading experience. If the prison is regularly overpopulated, why would you just accept kids coming in with the parents? The guards clearly don't mind being cruel so why would you not just forcefully separate children and their arrested parents before getting to the prison? Why are the trials impossible without magic and not just very very difficult?
Spoiler
How did Kiva just forget that a stomach bug was what caused her father's death?A slightly more minor point of annoyance was that the pacing was off. It starts off promisingly but slumps majorly in the middle section, which is even more baffling considering the whole appeal of a Trial format is the suspense and danger that propels a story forward. Instead of this, we spend pages upon pages conducting pointless scientific experiments?? And then it picks up at again towards the ending, finishing on a lot of drama and 'revelations' which felt contrived and fell flat.
Overall, I was pretty disappointed in this book and even the desire for plot resolution isn't enough to make me want to read the rest of the series.
Graphic: Violence and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Self harm, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Drug abuse and Addiction
guessgreenleaf's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Misogyny, Grief, Death, Confinement, Blood, and Death of parent
Minor: Self harm, Domestic abuse, and Addiction
sarah_ellen_bbgr's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
3.0
Graphic: Addiction, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, and Hate crime
Moderate: Self harm and War
sunniva174's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Blood, and Torture
Moderate: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Sexism, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Child death
lightn1ngb0lt'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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, War, Addiction, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Death, Death of parent, and Blood
kerropiz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Bullying, Death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse
Minor: Self harm
captainghafa's review against another edition
3.75
Graphic: Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Self harm, Addiction, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, War, and Domestic abuse
emmyb's review against another edition
3.0
The story quickly sucked me in and was very engaging throughout the first 100 or so pages, but I started to get bored and speed read the second half of this book. If the trials aspect of this book appealed to you most, prepare to be disappointed. They were extremely anticlimactic, required no actual effort or skill from Kiva, and she only survived them because one person directly helped her all four times (I'd hardly call this a spoiler--it's the first book in a series, the main character was always going to make it out alive).
The four trials were incredibly lackluster:
Spoiler
trial 1: a really long, impossible jump at a tall height. The prince saves her by breaking her fall.trial 2: survive for 10 minutes without burning alive inside a crematorium. The princess gives her a magical necklace that keeps her from burning.
trial 3: tied to the bottom of a water pit for 15 minutes. surprise! Jaren has magic and saves her.
trial 4: escape a tunnel maze. Jaren gets thrown in with her as punishment and uses his magic to literally just show them the path out.
A lot of this book felt very flimsy. Even though life in the prison is harsh for the prisoners, they have a LOT of freedom--they're allowed to roam around the grounds however they please, are never subjected to pat-downs or security searches of any kind. There were never many guards around, and when they were present, the inmates weren't handcuffed or bound in any way. It also felt way too convenient that this infamous traitor queen was so casually placed in the infirmary with only a few healers and one guard at a time on watch. With her importance and high number of enemies she's said to have, why didn't anyone try to break in and harm her? Kiva was also always conveniently saved or favored by powerful people without much reason.
With all this being said, the reveals at the ending shocked me, and the cliffhanger was good enough to make me interested in giving book 2 a try.
Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Torture
Minor: Drug abuse, Addiction, Rape, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Death
jessannderson's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Blood, Death, and Child death
Moderate: Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Medical trauma