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aromarrie's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
i strongly commend the authors for writing what i think are some of the most complicated cast of characters seen in a ya fantasy (very reminiscent of the characters from alex london's the skybound saga, which i would highly recommend if you loved this duology as much as i did). as a reader, jumping constantly between the horror & contempt for the actions of these characters and then this utter sympathy & understanding when they're facing the aftermath--it was a time. it was a time, watching how these characters mirrored the stories that each of their families have held with such high regard when it came to their fates, and then how the mirror just continued to fracture into pieces as these characters broke themselves down.
this sequel followed what feels like two different storylines that connect at the center--that center being the Champion's Pillar, which is the token of this bloody Tournament that's survived soley on the blood of its champtions. on one side, there were isobel & briony, two characters who i feel garnered the most conflicted feelings from me, because i genuinely loved them a lot in just how complicated they were. isobel at this point in the story is as if like a corpse walking, but not necessarily dead, and seeing her continue to battle her feelings between what she thinks is right and what isn't--it revealed a very harsh & messy picture of a champion who was the media's darling only about a year ago and now can't even recognize herself when catching her reflection. i can see the many people who might dislike her character, but even more, i could see readers who would absolutely adore her. in my case, i am just in awe of how the authors wrote her character arc--something that felt like was constantly gearing towards a corruption arc but at the same time, she was just so utterly human, it was startling. it was startling seeing all the blood & decay that seemed to follow her path, that her father believed was all part of what made a Macaslan succeed--and then also witnessing small moments of what she had before the Tournament, moments of soft colors & floral accents that reminded her of normal, of her mom. i genuinely liked all of it.
with briony, one word i can describe how i felt about her at times from both books in this duology is this: self-righteous. of all the characters in this story, all the villains who are honored in the series title, briony reads the most as the one who deems herself the hero, and yet so much of this story feels fractured when trying to see it through the eyes of such a morally superior role. like isobel, briony has garnered a lot of complicated feelings from me because her judgements always felt sharp when others didn't follow her vision of how the Tournament should end. she has moments of scorn where it was just difficult to fully trust her lead despite the endless well of optimism she possessed in a story that constantly ravaged itself in violence. in some ways, it felt comforting to follow her in that regard, to want to mirror that same hope & conviction that briony never failed to possess. but in others, sometimes the motivation lacked. with these complications, i found her own arc to be as dark as it was also still really interesting.
the media played a huge part in the last book, and it plays even more in this second one now that the town of Ilvernath has been given a chance to glimpse beyond the Blood Veil that was supposed to completely shield its champtions but then...didn't. it was compelling seeing how briony stepped up and used that to her gain, while also facing the repercussions of just how twisted a tale the media can spur up when the cards on the table are turned. because of this, we glimpse how even in all her convictions, briony thorburn does have her weak spots. and we get to see that a lot with another character--non-pov but still a central part of this story, finley blair. their relationship in the grand scheme of things wasn't really my most favorite element of this whole narrative, but i still appreciated it for what it was for these two teenagers who have this history between them beyond the Tournament, and so they constantly flickered between the determination to end this violent event while also questioning what kind of normal for them can come after. that's what both characters have to wrestle with, just as well as the uncertainty of what honor they're trying to restore, what holes are they attempting to fill for everything that happened in the past that led them up to this moment. the answer to that does come, and the events that unfold because of it are just one out of the two reasons why i boosted this story up to the five-star rating i do wholeheartedly believe it deserves from me.
the second reason why i gave this book a five-star was because of our resident Lowe chamption--Alistair Lowe; the pale boy who always liked playing the dragon in the stories he enacted with his oldest brother, and who in the shape of his family's twisted hands, became an even bigger monster as a result. this duology started with his pov, and so (small spoiler), it had to end with him.
out of all the characters, he's the one who embraced his role as the villain the most, and so wickedly, that he couldn't even recognize himself. i think that's what bonded him & isobel in the first book, them not necessarily seeing each other beyond that fractured crack inside themselves, but rather hopelessly wondering if they could reshape themselves back whole together as they were hiding in a cave, living in their own fantasy so to speak of a world without horrors. unfortunately, some fantasies are just never likely to come true and so this book explores both characters focused on different things that ultimately pulled them away from each other. with alistair, we get to see a different dynamic that he comes to share with our favorite underdog, gavin grieve, and also see more of his older brother, hendry, which admittedly made his & gavin's pov my favorite regarding how their side of the storyline went.
while isobel & briony hoped to end the Tournament's curse once and for all, alistair & gavin felt differently as both boys just couldn't foresee any of that happening after it living for so many centuries. so thus one storyline played the hero while the other embraced their villainy, and for that, it felt like watching a game of ping-pong where my eyes constantly had to shift back and forth reading their povs, having to witness how starkly of a difference these characters' goals were to each other, it was absurdly laughable.
in this story, alistair plays our perfect villain--but he's also the most clumsy & reckless teenage boy that there is. even just feeling so utterly baffled at such a paradox, it also proved deadly because in all his clumsiness, alistair wears his heart on his sleeve way too often. he's a boy who has been raised hearing terrifying stories in the dark and having them come to life as a lesson from his own family, and so as a result, he's weaponized that insidious magic to protect someone who is his heart--his brother, hendry, seemingly come back from the dead. without hendry, alistair believes that he has nothing, and that he is nothing without him, and so he will cross huge lines to make sure there's no reality that lives where his brother does not. the Reaper's Curse, however, one that slowly kills him with every curse he throws in someone's way, is one of his biggest conflicts on that path. and even when its pale whiteness doesn't crawl further over his skin, alistair lowe is a mess of a boy who constantly hurts himself in all his anger & fear & grief, and he doesn't know what he could be beyond the monster people paint him as. seeing how he's proven wrong, how hendry and gavin (of all characters!!) are the ones to pull him away from letting the darkness completely take over him--it was very tense. but also heartwarming as hell because it made for soft & vulnerable moments that i hadn't been expecting whatsoever. thinking back to all the little clues that are hidden in the first book, however, it couldn't have felt more right from the beginning.
gavin was someone who i just absolutely adored in the first book, and for very simple reasons--he was the underdog. he was a champion who came from a family who were considered the living dead because in all the curses that inhabit this story, the curse of the Grieve family is the most pitiful of all. in all that pity, past Grieve champions have been slain with no grace whatsoever, seen as the sacrificial lambs of all the families because they're deemed the weakest. the symbolism of the relics & landmarks that are such pivotal figures for all the champions and their families' histories play a very big role in this whole Tournament and seeing how both symbols were connected and thus the cause of each of their destructions was very impactful. even more when it came to the symbols that represented the Grieve family--the Shoes and the Cottage; a story that gavin was never given the opportunity to know about because again, a Grieve chamption is seen as a dead man walking, and gavin was no different when it came to his family.
the Grieve family are left resigned in their own failure to be seen in the spotlight, the Cottage a symbol that represents safety to the Grieve champions who need it as all the others stand at a slaughter, a warmth that lights itself up as a beacon but for gavin, really just mirrors his family's worst atrocity- seeing how far they've belittled themselves to the point of self-destruction and kept quiet when their supposed loved ones were pushed to the grave. gavin has proven himself to be very clever, very ruthless, and determined in so many ways--watching as he continued to keep surviving and making what seemed like the most reckless decisions for his own survival...it was the complete opposite of the previous champtions, left resigned in their fates. but it's not just that, it's not so simple as to say that "oh so gavin must be different", no that's not what it is. everything that makes him who he is, all the choices and mistakes he's made, all of it has been a way to desperately garner control in a Tournament that to the media is a spectacle and the champions a quest for power--but for his family, it has always been seen as a death sentence. if he wasn't going to be dying so easily, he was going to die fighting, and he comes close to it at various times, whether it's at the other characters' own hands or by his own, it's a near-death incident that happens a lot, but he always makes it out. as much of a relief as that is, it's also just so fucking sad, because gavin is fighting to prove everyone wrong, but like briony & finley are having trouble with, what could possibly be there for him on the other side? especially when his own family have already laid him to rest in their minds? what kind of fucked up tale can you spin from that?
i think in all of that, that's what made his character so incredible to me, and he was just so much more in this sequel. i absolutely loved seeing how the relationship between him & alistair unfolded, something unexpected (as i said earlier), and how both threads of their doomed fates connected them together to make a much more powerful duo that was not to be reckoned with. and even the other characters have brought it up, so it's practically a fact. what both alistair & gavin had to struggle most that made their own characters feel complicated was that they were practically the image of "killed or be killed"--with alistair being the one expected to deal the killing blow while gavin was at his mercy.
The Grieves had raised Gavin to die. The Lowes had raised Alistair to kill.
Both of them deserved a better story.
and in all the strange ways that fate ties the knot, we do see a glimpse of that story.
there's other very formidable characters in this sequel that i was excited for, one including a very sly cursemaker who is given a character development that was just one of the many things i couldn't have expected in this duology, and yet i personally loved the end results all the same. i loved all the magic; i thought it was really interesting how much more the author paid attention to the damage that such powerful magick is capable of, rather than the common magick that's spread around the world. this story isn't just about violence-- there's surprising warmth & brutal sacrifice, scenes that left me kind of stunned to be honest. there were other characters like hendry lowe who were the cause for some of that warmth--someone who's already dead and yet pulses with his own light that isn't just blood red. his character was one of the few who brought me on the verge of tears in this story, if i have to admit, and as sad as it was, i'm really thankful for what the authors did by bringing him back (even if it was only brief) because we got to understand alistair in all his grief even more; we got to see him interact with gavin and learn about all this hopes & desires that have been left for dead but had always existed, and so that still made them really important.
this duology felt so perfect for me, and having the ultimate drive of the overall story be its characters and not just the plot made for a brilliant narrative that got its chords a little twisted at times but i was still completely captivated at our most action-heavy scenes and emotional moments. at the time that i'm typing all this, i can see myself having trouble being able to move on away from this world knowing that we've reached its conclusion. i'll definitely be rereading this sequel in the near future, just to get to hear from these characters again, and i hope a lot of other people feel the same.
this was a story about kids; kids who are capable of so much darkness and who can't seem to find their way out of it, but they do get to have their moments. and so sometimes i found myself laughing because of their humor in what's an overall bleak situation, and smiling at seeing them with their defenses down without fear of repercussion, even if it was brief. all our pov characters struggle so much in this sequel, but i connected with them a lot, and i love how the authors made me feel because of that. so that's cool.
this sequel followed what feels like two different storylines that connect at the center--that center being the Champion's Pillar, which is the token of this bloody Tournament that's survived soley on the blood of its champtions. on one side, there were isobel & briony, two characters who i feel garnered the most conflicted feelings from me, because i genuinely loved them a lot in just how complicated they were. isobel at this point in the story is as if like a corpse walking, but not necessarily dead, and seeing her continue to battle her feelings between what she thinks is right and what isn't--it revealed a very harsh & messy picture of a champion who was the media's darling only about a year ago and now can't even recognize herself when catching her reflection. i can see the many people who might dislike her character, but even more, i could see readers who would absolutely adore her. in my case, i am just in awe of how the authors wrote her character arc--something that felt like was constantly gearing towards a corruption arc but at the same time, she was just so utterly human, it was startling. it was startling seeing all the blood & decay that seemed to follow her path, that her father believed was all part of what made a Macaslan succeed--and then also witnessing small moments of what she had before the Tournament, moments of soft colors & floral accents that reminded her of normal, of her mom. i genuinely liked all of it.
with briony, one word i can describe how i felt about her at times from both books in this duology is this: self-righteous. of all the characters in this story, all the villains who are honored in the series title, briony reads the most as the one who deems herself the hero, and yet so much of this story feels fractured when trying to see it through the eyes of such a morally superior role. like isobel, briony has garnered a lot of complicated feelings from me because her judgements always felt sharp when others didn't follow her vision of how the Tournament should end. she has moments of scorn where it was just difficult to fully trust her lead despite the endless well of optimism she possessed in a story that constantly ravaged itself in violence. in some ways, it felt comforting to follow her in that regard, to want to mirror that same hope & conviction that briony never failed to possess. but in others, sometimes the motivation lacked. with these complications, i found her own arc to be as dark as it was also still really interesting.
the media played a huge part in the last book, and it plays even more in this second one now that the town of Ilvernath has been given a chance to glimpse beyond the Blood Veil that was supposed to completely shield its champtions but then...didn't. it was compelling seeing how briony stepped up and used that to her gain, while also facing the repercussions of just how twisted a tale the media can spur up when the cards on the table are turned. because of this, we glimpse how even in all her convictions, briony thorburn does have her weak spots. and we get to see that a lot with another character--non-pov but still a central part of this story, finley blair. their relationship in the grand scheme of things wasn't really my most favorite element of this whole narrative, but i still appreciated it for what it was for these two teenagers who have this history between them beyond the Tournament, and so they constantly flickered between the determination to end this violent event while also questioning what kind of normal for them can come after. that's what both characters have to wrestle with, just as well as the uncertainty of what honor they're trying to restore, what holes are they attempting to fill for everything that happened in the past that led them up to this moment. the answer to that does come, and the events that unfold because of it are just one out of the two reasons why i boosted this story up to the five-star rating i do wholeheartedly believe it deserves from me.
the second reason why i gave this book a five-star was because of our resident Lowe chamption--Alistair Lowe; the pale boy who always liked playing the dragon in the stories he enacted with his oldest brother, and who in the shape of his family's twisted hands, became an even bigger monster as a result. this duology started with his pov, and so (small spoiler), it had to end with him.
out of all the characters, he's the one who embraced his role as the villain the most, and so wickedly, that he couldn't even recognize himself. i think that's what bonded him & isobel in the first book, them not necessarily seeing each other beyond that fractured crack inside themselves, but rather hopelessly wondering if they could reshape themselves back whole together as they were hiding in a cave, living in their own fantasy so to speak of a world without horrors. unfortunately, some fantasies are just never likely to come true and so this book explores both characters focused on different things that ultimately pulled them away from each other. with alistair, we get to see a different dynamic that he comes to share with our favorite underdog, gavin grieve, and also see more of his older brother, hendry, which admittedly made his & gavin's pov my favorite regarding how their side of the storyline went.
while isobel & briony hoped to end the Tournament's curse once and for all, alistair & gavin felt differently as both boys just couldn't foresee any of that happening after it living for so many centuries. so thus one storyline played the hero while the other embraced their villainy, and for that, it felt like watching a game of ping-pong where my eyes constantly had to shift back and forth reading their povs, having to witness how starkly of a difference these characters' goals were to each other, it was absurdly laughable.
in this story, alistair plays our perfect villain--but he's also the most clumsy & reckless teenage boy that there is. even just feeling so utterly baffled at such a paradox, it also proved deadly because in all his clumsiness, alistair wears his heart on his sleeve way too often. he's a boy who has been raised hearing terrifying stories in the dark and having them come to life as a lesson from his own family, and so as a result, he's weaponized that insidious magic to protect someone who is his heart--his brother, hendry, seemingly come back from the dead. without hendry, alistair believes that he has nothing, and that he is nothing without him, and so he will cross huge lines to make sure there's no reality that lives where his brother does not. the Reaper's Curse, however, one that slowly kills him with every curse he throws in someone's way, is one of his biggest conflicts on that path. and even when its pale whiteness doesn't crawl further over his skin, alistair lowe is a mess of a boy who constantly hurts himself in all his anger & fear & grief, and he doesn't know what he could be beyond the monster people paint him as. seeing how he's proven wrong, how hendry and gavin (of all characters!!) are the ones to pull him away from letting the darkness completely take over him--it was very tense. but also heartwarming as hell because it made for soft & vulnerable moments that i hadn't been expecting whatsoever. thinking back to all the little clues that are hidden in the first book, however, it couldn't have felt more right from the beginning.
gavin was someone who i just absolutely adored in the first book, and for very simple reasons--he was the underdog. he was a champion who came from a family who were considered the living dead because in all the curses that inhabit this story, the curse of the Grieve family is the most pitiful of all. in all that pity, past Grieve champions have been slain with no grace whatsoever, seen as the sacrificial lambs of all the families because they're deemed the weakest. the symbolism of the relics & landmarks that are such pivotal figures for all the champions and their families' histories play a very big role in this whole Tournament and seeing how both symbols were connected and thus the cause of each of their destructions was very impactful. even more when it came to the symbols that represented the Grieve family--the Shoes and the Cottage; a story that gavin was never given the opportunity to know about because again, a Grieve chamption is seen as a dead man walking, and gavin was no different when it came to his family.
the Grieve family are left resigned in their own failure to be seen in the spotlight, the Cottage a symbol that represents safety to the Grieve champions who need it as all the others stand at a slaughter, a warmth that lights itself up as a beacon but for gavin, really just mirrors his family's worst atrocity- seeing how far they've belittled themselves to the point of self-destruction and kept quiet when their supposed loved ones were pushed to the grave. gavin has proven himself to be very clever, very ruthless, and determined in so many ways--watching as he continued to keep surviving and making what seemed like the most reckless decisions for his own survival...it was the complete opposite of the previous champtions, left resigned in their fates. but it's not just that, it's not so simple as to say that "oh so gavin must be different", no that's not what it is. everything that makes him who he is, all the choices and mistakes he's made, all of it has been a way to desperately garner control in a Tournament that to the media is a spectacle and the champions a quest for power--but for his family, it has always been seen as a death sentence. if he wasn't going to be dying so easily, he was going to die fighting, and he comes close to it at various times, whether it's at the other characters' own hands or by his own, it's a near-death incident that happens a lot, but he always makes it out. as much of a relief as that is, it's also just so fucking sad, because gavin is fighting to prove everyone wrong, but like briony & finley are having trouble with, what could possibly be there for him on the other side? especially when his own family have already laid him to rest in their minds? what kind of fucked up tale can you spin from that?
i think in all of that, that's what made his character so incredible to me, and he was just so much more in this sequel. i absolutely loved seeing how the relationship between him & alistair unfolded, something unexpected (as i said earlier), and how both threads of their doomed fates connected them together to make a much more powerful duo that was not to be reckoned with. and even the other characters have brought it up, so it's practically a fact. what both alistair & gavin had to struggle most that made their own characters feel complicated was that they were practically the image of "killed or be killed"--with alistair being the one expected to deal the killing blow while gavin was at his mercy.
The Grieves had raised Gavin to die. The Lowes had raised Alistair to kill.
Both of them deserved a better story.
and in all the strange ways that fate ties the knot, we do see a glimpse of that story.
there's other very formidable characters in this sequel that i was excited for, one including a very sly cursemaker who is given a character development that was just one of the many things i couldn't have expected in this duology, and yet i personally loved the end results all the same. i loved all the magic; i thought it was really interesting how much more the author paid attention to the damage that such powerful magick is capable of, rather than the common magick that's spread around the world. this story isn't just about violence-- there's surprising warmth & brutal sacrifice, scenes that left me kind of stunned to be honest. there were other characters like hendry lowe who were the cause for some of that warmth--someone who's already dead and yet pulses with his own light that isn't just blood red. his character was one of the few who brought me on the verge of tears in this story, if i have to admit, and as sad as it was, i'm really thankful for what the authors did by bringing him back (even if it was only brief) because we got to understand alistair in all his grief even more; we got to see him interact with gavin and learn about all this hopes & desires that have been left for dead but had always existed, and so that still made them really important.
this duology felt so perfect for me, and having the ultimate drive of the overall story be its characters and not just the plot made for a brilliant narrative that got its chords a little twisted at times but i was still completely captivated at our most action-heavy scenes and emotional moments. at the time that i'm typing all this, i can see myself having trouble being able to move on away from this world knowing that we've reached its conclusion. i'll definitely be rereading this sequel in the near future, just to get to hear from these characters again, and i hope a lot of other people feel the same.
this was a story about kids; kids who are capable of so much darkness and who can't seem to find their way out of it, but they do get to have their moments. and so sometimes i found myself laughing because of their humor in what's an overall bleak situation, and smiling at seeing them with their defenses down without fear of repercussion, even if it was brief. all our pov characters struggle so much in this sequel, but i connected with them a lot, and i love how the authors made me feel because of that. so that's cool.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
marareading's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
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? Yes
4.0
received this book as an audio version from NetGalley as an arc. Buckle up! Wow! This stunning duology really ended with a bang. I was not expecting this. The audio is phenomenal first of all. My favorite character from book one was Alistair, and the way that these characters developed in book two took my breath away. I am still shocked.
It was definitely lengthy, but I enjoyed every second of it. I wish the end had more elaboration for the conclusion so that we had more details as to where things landed for the world. I don't want to give spoilers though. The trials were amazing, and the way things played out with the tournament and all of the relics was so unexpected. I loved it! Highly recommend this Duology!
It was definitely lengthy, but I enjoyed every second of it. I wish the end had more elaboration for the conclusion so that we had more details as to where things landed for the world. I don't want to give spoilers though. The trials were amazing, and the way things played out with the tournament and all of the relics was so unexpected. I loved it! Highly recommend this Duology!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury