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melissaslibraryy's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
4.75
Miss Chloe Gong has done it again! I loved this book from beginning to end and thought she did an amazing job for her first New Adult fantasy. I love how the games in the book remind me of The Hunger Games in terms of having a single Victor win after the rest of the players are dead and be rewarded with a ton of money that makes one think will get them out of poverty, but a better life will always be slightly out of reach. I had a feeling something was gonna happen at the end so when it did, i was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t happen in a way I expected it ☺️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Sexual content
ksilvio's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
jennipea382's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Genocide, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Kidnapping
sabrinz's review against another edition
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
After These Violent Delights I was intrigued by yet another Shakespear retelling.
The story and the mystery and lore of this neon-drenched world is more than fascinating, this book lost me a bit with how jumpy some of the story seemed to be. The tournamet Calla and Anton participate in is the main device to get them both closer to their respective goals and each other, but it seemed more like a story device to move things along rather than something that was really intigrated into the world.
Nevertheless, I was hooked by the world-building and glimpes of the characters we got along the way as well as some sneak peeks at things that may be relevant later on.
I am still not quite certain if I'm on board with how unhinged all the characters seem to be, but it was enjoyable to read and shake my head at them.
I will definitely read book 2 to see where this is going, esp. with that ending :)
The story and the mystery and lore of this neon-drenched world is more than fascinating, this book lost me a bit with how jumpy some of the story seemed to be. The tournamet Calla and Anton participate in is the main device to get them both closer to their respective goals and each other, but it seemed more like a story device to move things along rather than something that was really intigrated into the world.
Nevertheless, I was hooked by the world-building and glimpes of the characters we got along the way as well as some sneak peeks at things that may be relevant later on.
I am still not quite certain if I'm on board with how unhinged all the characters seem to be, but it was enjoyable to read and shake my head at them.
I will definitely read book 2 to see where this is going, esp. with that ending :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, and Classism
Moderate: Toxic friendship
Minor: Trafficking and Death of parent
trips's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was overall an enjoyable read from a purely entertainment standpoint. If I think about the world and magic system for more than a few minutes though, things start to fall apart really fast.
1) world building was alright but its pushed so often into the middle of scenes it gets really awkward and its easy to forget about what is even going on (this even happens in spicier scenes, it is very weird).
2) The body hopping/magic system of this world did not get enough explanation. The explanations about body invading was overall just quite strange, they seemed like Gong forgot to expand on how it works and was like "oh yeah I forgot to explain that, I'll do it here," in the weirdest spots throughout the book. I couldn't get behind it.
I do think its important coming into this book that it is inspired by Antony and Cleopatra, but it is certainly not a retelling. Anton and Calla are obsessive about each other and their relationship is pretty messy. That is about it in terms of similarities though.
Regardless of the above critiques, it is a pretty fun, easy read with some exciting twists. The last line of the book may leave you like :O! too hahaha
1) world building was alright but its pushed so often into the middle of scenes it gets really awkward and its easy to forget about what is even going on (this even happens in spicier scenes, it is very weird).
2) The body hopping/magic system of this world did not get enough explanation. The explanations about body invading was overall just quite strange, they seemed like Gong forgot to expand on how it works and was like "oh yeah I forgot to explain that, I'll do it here," in the weirdest spots throughout the book. I couldn't get behind it.
I do think its important coming into this book that it is inspired by Antony and Cleopatra, but it is certainly not a retelling. Anton and Calla are obsessive about each other and their relationship is pretty messy. That is about it in terms of similarities though.
Regardless of the above critiques, it is a pretty fun, easy read with some exciting twists. The last line of the book may leave you like :O! too hahaha
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Child death and Sexual content
Minor: Trafficking
anitaforthewin's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Honestly I don’t get the hate for this book. I read TVD and didn’t like it at all and this is a HUGE step up from it. It was exhilarating and dark and the last page had me shook. The MCs are definitely morally gray, the way they continue to put their own desires above the lives of other people. This first book is so action packed but given how it ends, I think book 2 should be very political and I’m interested in seeing that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Child death
renewed_reader's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Unfortunately, this book wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. There were entertaining parts but the pacing was quite off toward the end. I also think two key characters were underdeveloped.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Sexual content and Police brutality
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and War
charthegoose's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
I really enjoyed this book! It kept me hooked and I was excited to keep reading. I loved the world building and found the world Calla lives in to be a fascinating place. I also grew to love Calla Anton and August and I’m excited to see where their story goes next. I found that the plot would always continue in ways I wouldn’t expect which meant the plot twists were shocking and had me gasping out loud at times 😂 I’m not farmiar with the shakespear this books reimagines so I can’t comment on that area.
However I do feel some areas of the plot aren’t explained well or at all for example Calla isn’t actually “calla” and invaded the princess at age 8. The book explains at the start how her eye colour is unique to those with royal blood. However when people body jump their eye colour follows them so why didn’t Callas eye colour change when she jumped? I also felt some conclusions and loose ends were tied up quite quickly and seemed as if they came out of no where and weren’t explained very thoroughly. However I am aware there are 2 more books to come in the future so these may be explored there
Overall I really enjoyed this book and will be reading the next instalment. Everytime I picked this book up I was excited to keep reading :)
However I do feel some areas of the plot aren’t explained well or at all
Overall I really enjoyed this book and will be reading the next instalment. Everytime I picked this book up I was excited to keep reading :)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death and Kidnapping
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Medical content
bergha1998's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Wow that cliffhanger, I wasn’t prepared. I found the book’s pacing to be a bit slow at points, and I Really didn’t like August as a character. But Calla and Anton were very interesting. I’m excited to see where this series goes.
Fantasy, Magic System, Romance Subplot, 1 🔥
Fantasy, Magic System, Romance Subplot, 1 🔥
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
entropyseeker's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Am absolute banger of a book. It gave me everything I wanted for a fantasy novel AND I didn't have to read poorly written smut to get there. This story is drenched in the blood of kingkillers and every detail had me reading on. The romance felt tense and and written perfectly in tune with thenmain characters, the motives and backgrounds were clear and MADE SENSE While I expected every twist, it hit in such a satisfying way that I didn't mind. Can't wait to start the next book in the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism