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kylieqrada's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Cursing, Rape, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Child death, Gore, and Grief
kaydee_reads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The only scene I hated was
Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual harassment and War
carwen'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
4.75
Graphic: Torture
Moderate: Death
Minor: Drug use and Rape
_mayoush_'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
4.5
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Animal cruelty, Rape, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment
natcat's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
The flashbacks were a little confusing in that it wasn’t always clear when things were happening, but I did enjoy how they slowly unfolded the story of Falco and of the King and his Greatcoats. The secondary characters varied from too thinly characterized (oddly, Falco’s two companions/friends suffered most from this, I thought) to very entertaining (most of the less important secondary characters were actually very well-drawn in their brief page time).
I mostly enjoyed the series of adventures that Falco found himself in (aside from the slightly odd little interlude with Ethalia which didn't seem to have much of a point and raised far too many questions about consent for something that didn't go anywhere), but the last 10% or so of the book contained a lot of revelations that didn't really get a chance to settle, and felt weirdly paced in comparison to the rest of the book and very much like it was only interested in setting up the sequel, which I am definitely going to read!
Graphic: Death and Violence
Moderate: Torture
ok7a's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Suicide attempt
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual content
Minor: Rape
ellenareads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.5
Graphic: Death and Rape
Moderate: Cursing
Minor: Child death
book_and_dog's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, and Death of parent
emilybennett's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Death, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Child death, Grief, and Death of parent
ollieshark's review against another edition
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
*this review contains spoilers.*
falcio is kvothe and i'm disgruntled about it. aside from that, tho, i quite enjoyed traitor's blade.
there are several tropes i despise present in this novel, the most glaring of which is that the main character falcio is not motivated to do anything unless a woman is involved. his wife had to be violated and killed before falcio was incited to become a greatcoat, a woman murdering falcio's current employer is the inciting incident, a young girl by the name of his wife is what prompts the longest arc of the novel (in which falcio is alone in rijou and surrounded by enemies, trying to protect the girl), and the final, main antagonist who has set everything into motion is revealed to be a woman. i hate that. stop it, sebastian.
some sections of prose were infuriatingly mansplainy. a lot of those parts could have been completely cut out, as some of it was purely "weeelllll, i COULD do this, these are all my options, but i'm gonna do something else instead" or explaining how each offensive or defensive maneuver is broken down. i don't particularly care about each and every move falcio makes in a fight scene, just put the pointy end in the other guy and get on with it. if falcio pops out a "not all men" in any of the future books i will personally put all my reviews of this series down to the lowest ratings possible. he's already done it with "not all greatcoats."
there are times when i wanted to beat kvothe--I MEAN FALCIO'S head in. i can't tell if de castell wrote him to be cocky or just plain dumb, to be always jumping into fights or situations meant for (or better suited to) other people, such as kest's fight at the end of the novel. does he have an inflated ego or is he literally just convinced he Has To Be The One? his tone is condescending at times and at others too idealistic, and coming from a manly man with a tragic past like falcio, it just rubs me the wrong way. how did falcio end up leading the greatcoats?
but the humor was great and the banter between falcio, kest, and brasti was great. i also really loved all the women more than falcio, valiana, trin, the tailor, and aline. i even liked patriana and monster more than i liked falcio and was sad when monster didn't bite his head off. i was really pleased that aline actually yelled at falcio and talked back to him instead of being a defenseless little thirteen year old the whole time.
despite all my gripes with some of the choices de castell made regarding falcio and character motivations, i enjoyed traitor's blade enough that i want to continue the series in the future. it's probably the humor and relationships falcio has with kest and brasti that makes me want to keep reading. will i ever get around to it? maybe, but not before i've forgotten everything in this novel. but it'll happen one day.
Graphic: Death, Self harm, Sexism, and Suicide
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Rape, and Torture