Reviews with content warning for Child death - Godsgrave

More and more, this book started to feel like the author's nighttime fantasy.

Sure that existed in Nevernight, but it wasn't the only thing in Nevernight. I enjoyed the world-building and the themes more. But in this one, at least in my mind, it lost a lot of it's narrative purpose. It multiplied the problems of the first.

Kristoff doesn't write the queer couple like an actual couple, but a fetish. Nevernight had this problem too. In a brief scene where Mia kisses Ashlynn. Her love-interest responds with anger and. . . . nah just kidding. He talks about how hot it is because remember women loving women relationships only exist to please men. A woman can't be a threat to a hetero relationship. But this was pretty brief. His problem with writing women loving women relationships is so much worse in this one because he decided to bring it to the forefront. Mia doesn't even question if she's bi until MONTHS LITERAL MONTHS after she had a threesome with a woman. Like what?

Look the world really doesn't need any more terrible queer representation. If you can't write a queer character than just don't.

There were other problems. Character Development is not there.

I liked the writing-style and the tone but this one really crashed and burned.

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scribblesandsuch's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

Much like the first book, very much enjoyed the story, but the author's style is distracting and honestly? A little over familiar. Still very excited to read the next book in the series though

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lettigirl101's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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madison1's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This is a very different sort of book than what I’ve been reading lately. Most of my recent reads are deep and intense and full of Themes and Meaningful Motifs and are About Important Things – even Sir Terry Pratchett’s books have depth and insight between the witty quips – but this book has none of those. No depths, no themes, just a girl who goes rogue from her assassin church to pursue her own revenge and the people she kills along the way. It’s a piece of mindless fluff for people who like their fluff to be unstoppably violent.

That’s not to say it’s entirely simplistic. The plot does have a few twists and new revelations, but they’re mainly towards the end. This story is about blood – in the metaphorical sense with Mia trying to avenge her family, but also in the very literal sense. People are injured and die in bloody, gory ways, and usually because Mia got a blade or two into them.

Mia herself is getting more interesting as a character. Her single-minded dedication to murdering her family’s killers is starting to get in the way at times, and she has to make choices between the revenge she’s been working towards and the friends she’s starting to make. Plus she’s picked up a new unexpected ally who turns out to be a little bit more. Also, she’s female, small, and pretty, so no one expects her to be a good fighter, but she is very very good at violence, and I absolutely adore the trope of the underestimated person being The Best. Every single time Mia was in the arena was a bloody, violent treat.

This book is most definitely not perfect. There’s an unnecessary sex scene at the beginning (and a few more slightly less unnecessary but still unenjoyable sex scenes later on). Either I misread something or there’s a glaring plot hole in the climax (I was reading this as an audiobook at work, so it’s very possible I just misread something). Just like book one, it was very overwritten, but I didn’t mind nearly as much as an audiobook – the “bard telling about past events” idea works better narrated than read, I think. The world is a bit of a mess, with a few cool details (a city carved out of the bones of a dead giant, a world with three suns so it’s almost never night, people like Mia who can work with shadows) and the majority of the world painted with broad brushstrokes of jarringly different flavors – Ancient Greek predominated in this book because of the gladiator thing, but I also got some hints of Spanish and Arthurian England too. And of course, there are absolutely over-the-top gratuitous levels of violence. This series is hands-down the most violent thing I’ve ever read.

But it was very easy to catch up on the gist of what happened previously (a good thing since I read book one over a year ago), the characters are nuanced enough, and the plot kept me interested. This is not a book you’re supposed to think a lot about. Like I said, it’s fluff for people who prefer their fluff to be bloody and violent. I did enjoy it, and I’ll probably read book three – sometimes it’s nice to read a book that’s just enjoyable and doesn’t ask you to think too much.

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oliverreeds's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

i want to give this five stars because the writing is incredible, but i can't because of the sexualization of minors. these kids are sixteen and seventeen and are being written about in a very sexualized manner that is uncomfortable. there are sex scenes between minors and this book was definitely intended to be consumed by the older end of the young adult group.

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thelizzielibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Talk about a cliffhanger! We all know Jay Kristoff writes absolutely brilliant novels (if you don't know that, please come out from under your rock and join us), and this was another brilliant example. Too many things were so great, so here's a short list:
- The pacing! I hate books that bog me down in unnecessary explanations, and with the long timeline in this book, I expected to be frustrated with the pacing, but it was perfect.
- Those character arcs though. For real. I didn't know who was good or bad because everyone was morally grey, which is one of my favorite techniques in books, even when it drives me nuts.
- The narration of the book. Sometimes it was formed to trick the reader, and it was so subtle and well done!
- Obviously the world building is

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