cameronmh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book ruined me emotionally. It really has it all, when it comes to trauma and damaged characters. Catholic guilt? Check. Alcoholism? Check. Abusive family? Check. Complicated past, where the main character thinks they ruined their own life and everything is their fault? Check. Definitely read the CWs if you have any content you’re sensitive to. This is definitely the last book I’m reading without checking the list… it’s very good, though.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Dementia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexism, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Grief, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Mental illness and Incest
There is a LOT of elder abuse, and it’s BAD abuse, andSpoiler
one of the elderly people who suffers this abuse also is victim to a pretty horrific “accidental” deathwizardingwisteria's review against another edition
adventurous
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I had a lot of feelings about this book. I struggled to get through the first few chapters because of how depressing they are. I recognize that they were written that way to justify Tess taking to the road. It was raw pain and suffering and it hurt to read. After she leaves home the story picked up. The adventure kicked in.
I found it difficult to keep track of the characters, particularly in the first half of the book. Lot of people fufilling lots of different roles and the list of characters in the back of the book doesn't help because they all only have a few words to describe them and they don't describe them very well.
I really started to enjoy the narrative in the second half. About half way through the book I reached a point where I didn't want to put it down. But even then there were sections that really lulled. The pacing was inconsistent and it was obvious while I was waiting for those action moments.
I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style. I found that it was taken way too seriously when nothing was happening in the narrative.
It was an entertaining read towards the end, but largely depressing.
I found it difficult to keep track of the characters, particularly in the first half of the book. Lot of people fufilling lots of different roles and the list of characters in the back of the book doesn't help because they all only have a few words to describe them and they don't describe them very well.
I really started to enjoy the narrative in the second half. About half way through the book I reached a point where I didn't want to put it down. But even then there were sections that really lulled. The pacing was inconsistent and it was obvious while I was waiting for those action moments.
I wasn't a huge fan of the writing style. I found that it was taken way too seriously when nothing was happening in the narrative.
It was an entertaining read towards the end, but largely depressing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, and Child death
Moderate: Gore and Blood
madamenovelist's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Child death, and Child abuse
elle_dee's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Abortion, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship
bisexualwentworth's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
I have a lot of complicated feelings about this book. I’m going to attempt to untangle them in this review.
I reread Seraphina and Shadow Scale a couple months ago, and I very much felt like they held up. I still really enjoyed and appreciated them and recommended them both to people. So I was very excited when I learned that Rachel Hartman had written another book in the same universe.
Tess is very different from Seraphina, but you really need to have read those books to understand what’s going on in this one. Part of that is because none of the worldbuilding gets explained here, and part of it is because most of the enjoyment I got from this book came from references to the other two.
It’s not that I thought this book was bad. It was very ambitious. It was messy and even clumsy at times in its handling of certain topics. Tess was a deeply frustrating main character.
But there were a lot of things I liked, so let’s start there.
I loved the confirmation that Seraphina is definitely in a relationship with both Kiggs and Glisselda and everyone knows but people just kind of ignore it. That was fun.
The linguistics nerd in me loved all the stuff about contradictory case in Quootla. That was a super cool worldbuilding detail and evidence of all the work Rachel Hartman put into crafting this universe.
I liked how episodic this book was. There were a lot of self-contained little adventures, and whenever I didn’t like one, Tess would soon move on to something else.
I really enjoyed the beginning of the book. I liked how Tess’s relationship with Jeanne was established, as well as her relationships with both of her parents. Duchess Marga’s introduction was perfect. I was obsessed with her from the first sentence.
And Tess was relatable in that deeply flawed way that characters sometimes are.
I was reading passages out loud to my roommate, and we were having a great time with it all.
And then the book ruined it.
The specific scene where I realized that the rest of the book was going to be a slog and wasn’t going to deliver any of the things I wanted was when Tess and Pathka spent about three pages messily explaining quigutl gender. Why was this necessary? Why was it so messy? Why was it SO LONG? We may never know.
I think this book was trying to get at some really interesting things about misogyny and double standards and internalized misogyny in particular. Tess’s early flaws, like the fatphobia and the slut-shaming, are there to give her a lot of room to grow over the course of her adventures. I just don’t really think she did.
Pathka was a frustrating character in all the wrong ways. I’m still not sure I understand the whole World Serpent thing. I did try, but it felt weirdly underdeveloped for something that took up so much of the book.
Why did Tess, a minor at the time, have to be in a sexual relationship with a man ten years older than her who had previously had a thing for her sister? I was actually okay with his character in general, including with the treatment of his disability, but their relationship was very yikes. He could have been younger or she could have already been eighteen or they could have just not had a sexual aspect to their relationship, and the overall result would have been the same. So what was the reason for that?
Unfortunately, that was one of the better sections of the book after the beginning (Tess’s brief mining job was also fun).
Honestly, I didn’t dislike this book. I’m just confused about the directions it took. I had issues with certain decisions it made. And I don’t think it really accomplished its goals. I’ll be reading the sequel soon, and there’s really a lot riding on my hopeful enjoyment of it because if it’s bad, it’ll probably ruin this whole universe for me, but if it’s good, it could redeem this whole mess at least somewhat.
Additional content warnings for childbirth, religious trauma, underage sex, drowning, misgendering, and general fantasy bigotry.
Additional content warnings for childbirth, religious trauma, underage sex, drowning, misgendering, and general fantasy bigotry.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Misogyny, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia
Minor: Blood
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