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literarypenguin'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
We follow a cleric named Chih traveling the kingdom with their Hoopoe companion Almost Brilliant recording stories about the empress. They meet an older woman named Rabbit who recounts her adventures and travels with the empress and alongside the cleric we learn about the empress, her exile, and what she did after. I love stories where we learn alongside the characters what truly happened in the story and it was very exciting to read it this way!
Rabbit was a great character and just in her words, you could tell how much she valued her friendship with the empress and how much she truly meant to her. How she would have done anything for her and the empress in her own way would have done the same for her. Despite her strong friendship, she told the truth about the empress and people got to see her as a person instead of a historical figure.
This tells the story of a rebellion but doesn't show war or big battles, instead, it shows us what happens behind the scenes and the people that make a rebellion work. It shows people coming and going throughout the war and the impact they had no matter how short their time was. It was refreshing to see that side of a battle in a book.
This was such a good novella and I highly recommend reading this and can not wait to read the other two books in the series for myself!!
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Violence and War
Minor: Infertility
jmcampbell57'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
4.5
Graphic: Confinement
Moderate: Death, Infertility, Suicide, Murder, and Pregnancy
ijustreallyliketrees'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: Confinement and Grief
Moderate: Death, Suicide, Murder, Pregnancy, and War
Minor: Medical trauma
ghulsona's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Xenophobia, and War
Minor: Sexual content
larqspur'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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Confinement and Death
Moderate: Grief, Murder, Colonisation, and War
Minor: Infertility, Misogyny, Racism, and Pregnancy
puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Xenophobia, Grief, and Pregnancy
Minor: Suicide and War
mariakureads's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.0
Vo writes in such a way that I could see the world-building age created, imagine the characters, see the scenes depicted as Chih and Almost Brillant listen and commit to paper and memory that Rabbit shares of the Empress.
This was beautiful in its imagery, quick in it's storytelling, cruel in the twist that I wasn't expecting and couldn't have imagined within 100+ pages.
Moderate: Confinement and Death
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Grief, and War
Minor: Animal death, Sexual content, Suicide, Violence, Murder, and Pregnancy
lain_darko'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
5.0
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Grief, Murder, and War
Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Slavery, and Pregnancy
Minor: Suicide
horationelson's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Death, Murder, and Pregnancy
Minor: Confinement, Infertility, Violence, and War