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kassidyreads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, and Alcohol
bree_h_reads's review against another edition
There are aspects of this book that I can see really appealing to more patient reader. Unfortunately, I am not that reader.
I think the base of the world and how it functions is really interesting. I also really enjoy stories where a non-powered character has to pretend to have these powers. It’s a fun concept!
Unfortunately I just found the MC insufferable. While I mostly liked the complexity of the character, where he would be rude and prickly but as obviously a good person, there was one aspect where I drew the line. His relationship with his ex. To me it seemed as if they’d been apart for some time, but the MC was still obsessing over him and felt entitled to the ex’s affections. While I understand that the way things ended was shitty on the ex’s part and think the MC is valid for being upset about that aspect, everything else about it drove me up the wall. I had to call it quits when the MC got made at the ex for thinking of and wanting to say goodbye to his fiancée instead of the MC in a deadly situation. I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy the book when the MC left such a sour taste in my mouth.
I do hope that others fan find their enjoyment in the other aspects of the story! It just didn’t do it for me.
I think the base of the world and how it functions is really interesting. I also really enjoy stories where a non-powered character has to pretend to have these powers. It’s a fun concept!
Unfortunately I just found the MC insufferable. While I mostly liked the complexity of the character, where he would be rude and prickly but as obviously a good person, there was one aspect where I drew the line. His relationship with his ex. To me it seemed as if they’d been apart for some time, but the MC was still obsessing over him and felt entitled to the ex’s affections. While I understand that the way things ended was shitty on the ex’s part and think the MC is valid for being upset about that aspect, everything else about it drove me up the wall. I had to call it quits when the MC got made at the ex for thinking of and wanting to say goodbye to his fiancée instead of the MC in a deadly situation. I knew I wasn’t going to enjoy the book when the MC left such a sour taste in my mouth.
I do hope that others fan find their enjoyment in the other aspects of the story! It just didn’t do it for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Grief
Moderate: Confinement, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship
sunshinemoth's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
slow-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? It's complicated
2.75
I find it difficult sometimes to differentiate between "bad" or "flawed" writing choices and writing choices I simply don't like, but seeing as I rate my reads on enjoyment rather than objective quality, I'll be quite honest.
For a debut novel, this was not bad. It kept me engaged, consistently twisting my assumptions of what was really going on down to the final chapters. (Excitingly, SPOILERS:I was partially right in two of my guesses. One of which being that either Eudora, Ravi, or both were alive and in on the murders. The other guess being an alternative to the first; that Cordelia was the murderer, because a "seemingly innocent" frail girl gone mad with grief is an easy call from 300 pages away.)
However, I have some complaints. One of which being that Ganymedes left me disappointed as a protagonist. I have a strong penchant for "misfit asshole" characters, but as protagonists you also have to either have them grow or at least have their flaws pointed out in the story. Dee's insistence that he was the only one who understood Ravi and being convinced that his attitude toward him was a lie after having not seen him for five years especially irked me, and even worsethat the story proved him right . He was entertaining at first, but the story became so distracted with the mystery that it forgot to give Dee time to reflect on himself. The most we got were a few moments of him thinking "I guess I don't know this person who I've only spoken to a handful of times in my life as well as I thought I did.", which, yeah, no shit. I empathize with Dee, as anybody who has been made to feel like a lowly outsider would, but ultimately he was mostly just self-centred and was mostly humanized through the six-year-old that was glued to his side for most of the story who he nearly got killed anyway to literally go commit suicide .
I promise I'm not normally a cynical reader, but I think it's fair to be put off by every other character spilling their guts to him or telling him that he was a good person when the story spent its first fifth establishing how much they were supposed to hate and distrust him.
Lastly, and this is really more of a personal issue than a writing one (maybe), but the reveal ofWyatt having been Ravi all along was not the triumph I think it was supposed to land as. I spent hundreds of pages falling in love with Wyatt as a character, being happy that Dee stopped clinging to the childhood love he thought he knew, only for him to have been dead all along, with Ravi having lied to Dee, and to the audience the whole time. It devastated me. I was given zero time to mourn the boy who never existed as I was essentially told "oh well, it was Ravi the whole time so the emotions were still real!" as if that was supposed to fix the dissonance between the characters of Ravi and Wyatt in my head. And the fact that I was supposed to forgive Ravi in the last stretch of the book for having been in on the devastation that the plot was centered around felt like an extra slap in the face. Barely any thought was even given to the real Wyatt, only how he died.
Anyways, I know that I've complained a lot in this review, but overall it was a compelling read! The dialogue was well written and the conflict well-paced, if not slow to start. I am a locked tomb fan, and this story has quite a few similarities to it (so many so that I started keeping tally of all the comparisons I could make in my head), so overall I found it entertaining enough to finish in just a few sittings. Unfortunately, the devil is in the details, and the details are where this story falters most, outside of its core murder mystery plot.
(P.S. I want a prequel novella about Leofric and Lysander.)
For a debut novel, this was not bad. It kept me engaged, consistently twisting my assumptions of what was really going on down to the final chapters. (Excitingly, SPOILERS:
However, I have some complaints. One of which being that Ganymedes left me disappointed as a protagonist. I have a strong penchant for "misfit asshole" characters, but as protagonists you also have to either have them grow or at least have their flaws pointed out in the story. Dee's insistence that he was the only one who understood Ravi and being convinced that his attitude toward him was a lie after having not seen him for five years especially irked me, and even worse
I promise I'm not normally a cynical reader, but I think it's fair to be put off by every other character spilling their guts to him or telling him that he was a good person when the story spent its first fifth establishing how much they were supposed to hate and distrust him.
Lastly, and this is really more of a personal issue than a writing one (maybe), but the reveal of
Anyways, I know that I've complained a lot in this review, but overall it was a compelling read! The dialogue was well written and the conflict well-paced, if not slow to start. I am a locked tomb fan, and this story has quite a few similarities to it (so many so that I started keeping tally of all the comparisons I could make in my head), so overall I found it entertaining enough to finish in just a few sittings. Unfortunately, the devil is in the details, and the details are where this story falters most, outside of its core murder mystery plot.
(P.S. I want a prequel novella about Leofric and Lysander.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Terminal illness, Excrement, Vomit, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Genocide, Infidelity, Sexual content, and War
sarahna's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism