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elijah_leaf's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
don't let the reviews lead you askew, other than the book being extremely gorey, i disagree with most of they have said upon my first read - i'd recommend it to anyone who enjoys this genre (and is okay with the warnings, which i strongly suggest you check if you could be effected by anything, but if not then don't spoil it for yourself!). i feel as if i need to defend it, it didn't have me gripping onto each page as i cried on the edge of my seat, but it's a pretty good book, hence the stars.
the average is low for what it is, reading through many either didn't like the genre (which is no fault of the book) or got bored because of the slower pacing, and therefore didn't actually read the book; i don't think it's as horrendous as people describe it to be since it's a pretty average sized book, if it were 1,000 pages i'd be inclined to agree but if you can get yourself invested in the characters it's a smooth read!
another criticism is that people think that the characters are flat or shallow, while i think my tolerance to worse characters is probably larger than other people's, i was still able to enjoy them. it's a short crime novel, they don't have much time to flesh out and develop a range of characters but they aren't completely 2D, they have their own traumas and are easy to tell apart! it's not explicitly said but you can pull apart the way they work, impossible for such shallow characters as they describe. there was a lack of diversity in the way that most of the characters were male and, as far as i can remember, there was only one character who was described to be dark-skinned; but there is a canonly queer character (though i wouldn't exactly say it was the best representation...) and the female character is named and has a portion of the book dedicated to her in her POV!
i saw a review say that it was targeted at the male-gaze but as an afab, i think they've took that term and ran with it. in my eyes the male gaze would be sexualising the female cast (going out of their way to describe their breasts, ect.), and just baking misogynist ideas into the text - that was not this book. the book is set in 1793 sweden, a classist and misogynistic time period, it's only period accurate to have the girl to go through the troubles of the time. she is never described to enjoy it, or be wholly submissive to it - she plays the role of a girl of the time, she knows her place in society and dreads what comes with it.
that aside, i enjoyed it! i'm not much of a gore person myself, always hated the people who flexed that they didn't flinch at the sight to it, but it was written so well that i could feel my heart in my chest! the two mains (cecil winge and mickel cardell) didn't pull on any classic golden tropes for their characters or dynamic but i still found them lovable as a pair; i'm shocked that most people didn't like them as much as i did?
overall, i'm very glad i read it! i'll probably pass it around to as many people as i can, in hopes that i can reference it in conversation ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
the average is low for what it is, reading through many either didn't like the genre (which is no fault of the book) or got bored because of the slower pacing, and therefore didn't actually read the book; i don't think it's as horrendous as people describe it to be since it's a pretty average sized book, if it were 1,000 pages i'd be inclined to agree but if you can get yourself invested in the characters it's a smooth read!
another criticism is that people think that the characters are flat or shallow, while i think my tolerance to worse characters is probably larger than other people's, i was still able to enjoy them. it's a short crime novel, they don't have much time to flesh out and develop a range of characters but they aren't completely 2D, they have their own traumas and are easy to tell apart! it's not explicitly said but you can pull apart the way they work, impossible for such shallow characters as they describe. there was a lack of diversity in the way that most of the characters were male and, as far as i can remember, there was only one character who was described to be dark-skinned; but there is a canonly queer character (though i wouldn't exactly say it was the best representation...) and the female character is named and has a portion of the book dedicated to her in her POV!
i saw a review say that it was targeted at the male-gaze but as an afab, i think they've took that term and ran with it. in my eyes the male gaze would be sexualising the female cast (going out of their way to describe their breasts, ect.), and just baking misogynist ideas into the text - that was not this book. the book is set in 1793 sweden, a classist and misogynistic time period, it's only period accurate to have the girl to go through the troubles of the time. she is never described to enjoy it, or be wholly submissive to it - she plays the role of a girl of the time, she knows her place in society and dreads what comes with it.
that aside, i enjoyed it! i'm not much of a gore person myself, always hated the people who flexed that they didn't flinch at the sight to it, but it was written so well that i could feel my heart in my chest! the two mains (cecil winge and mickel cardell) didn't pull on any classic golden tropes for their characters or dynamic but i still found them lovable as a pair; i'm shocked that most people didn't like them as much as i did?
overall, i'm very glad i read it! i'll probably pass it around to as many people as i can, in hopes that i can reference it in conversation ðŸ˜ðŸ˜
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape, Blood, Death of parent, and War
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Child death
the book itself is very gorey, i'm not going to tag these as spoilers in case people need them but there is description of public execution, amputation and a scene where one of the characters crawls through an enclosed area with a corpse. there's also some references / a short description of eating faecal matter.