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xapoptosisx'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: Death, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infertility, Physical abuse, Blood, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Sexual content
elliott_the_clementine's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Child death, Death, Infertility, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Toxic relationship
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
- 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
2.5
Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War
Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Infertility, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Alcohol
Discrimination and derogatory terms between in-universe factions. Self-injury for magical purposes.kell_xavi's review against another edition
3.0
I must admit, none of immersive fantasy, revenge stories, or romance are a draw for me, so I can’t say these elements we’re successful. I do look for unique narratives and ideas though, and Varela has certainly created something I haven’t come across before. I was curious about the automai as a computer/robot analogue or as a live automaton, a doll come to life. They seem, more than anything, given the natural elements they need to live, to be sentient creatures created by magic. Their pillars, though, are created more like AI might be coded. They’re Pinocchio x an algorithm, I guess, meant to be perfect according to some (European Enlightenment) version of the strong, symmetrically beautiful, reasoned man. This idea, taken further with a power dynamic of servitude and control, mastery through abjection and cultural genocide, is a story told many times in history, in many voices and truths. It is also a twist on the clever machine, a story of humans playing god and being killed by their creation. It is a story of the Enlightenment, Modernism, and the Computer Age, distant from any mention of divinity, a battle of gilded things, intellects, and emotions.
It is here that the print gets smudged a bit. Why is this a love story, why does the relationship become what Varela wants to say? The descriptions of Crier and Ayla listening to each other breathing, feeling each other’s warmth, being stung and angry and worried and desperate and hateful of each other, thinking of each other and holding the other’s belongings… were not new. They were sluggish in the story, overwrought and tropish, slowing down the court intrigue, the uncovers of secrets, allies and enemies. The winding and conflicting passions bring the story back to Earth (or wherever they are), away from the brilliance spinning out from all directions. Crier’s jealousy and Ayla’s sense of betrayal, unrelated to their feeling for each other, are similarly sticky, repetitive, sentences to skip past until the plot comes back in.
The events of the plot are great! The threads pull apart and stitch together and fray so many times, and I loved the weaving. There’s folktale in the lines, there’s music and dancing, murder and memory, feathers and stones, apples and ocean, a compass and black dust. The symbolism is wonderful, spinning up a creeping Victorian dread, a liveliness, a rich and storied history to the world we enter. I wanted more. I wanted Ayla and Crier to sink in, rather than floating out into each other and away from each other, as though the setting were not a magnificent tale to be told.
Moderate: Xenophobia, Murder, and War
Minor: Infertility and Sexual content
nightshaderoots's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Infertility
hanz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, and Infertility
breadwitchery's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Death and War
Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Sexual content, and Death of parent
Minor: Infertility
sssssoup's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Cursing, Infertility, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and War
cemeterygay'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
4.0
I also loved that we got a Sapphic romance that wasn't solely focused on coming out. I also really enjoyed the writing style of this book and I found the ending cliffhanger to be quite effective. While quite a few twists were predictable, the reveals were still quite satisfying and it wasn't necessarily a let down that they weren't revolutionary.
I was very concerned that this was going to be a yet another book where a person in a position of privilege only begins to care about oppression because they think a person that is oppressed is cute, but that was not what this was. It is very clear from the onset that Crier has severe doubts about the treatment of humans and from the get go wants to help improve the lives of humans separate to her relationship with Ayla.
I really liked this book but I will say it's nothing that revolutionary. I would recommend this book but it's not like you have to read it.
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Infertility, Misogyny, Xenophobia, and Grief
Moderate: Cultural appropriation and War
Cultural Appropriation is of fictional cultures. Discussions of infertility refer to past figures and not main characters but is still discussed in depth.starccato's review against another edition
- 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
3.25
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Colonisation
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Confinement, Infertility, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol