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sweetchocolatez'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
4.5
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Genocide, Slavery, Torture, Blood, and Toxic friendship
Minor: Sexual content, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol
pacifickat'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
In truth, I was a bit baffled by Inan's chapters, as he repeatedly experienced horrific realizations regarding his family's past and the corruption of the monarchy, and yet (for the most part) continued on their side in spite of feeling sick about it. He is truly a slow-turning vehicle, and it felt unbelievable to see him continue to believe in his corrupt institution. A bit on the nose in today's political climate? Perhaps.
And Amari, my favorite character through the bulk of this story, arguing for a future with peace for all Orïshans, had an enormous, disappointing twist. I'm not sure the author did enough to develop Amari to then make her murder of civilians a believable course of action, but she did sprinkle in Amari's (violently abusive) father's voice in Amari's head throughout the book as she becomes increasingly desperate to succeed. It's a clever use of POV to capture internal monologue that I am unsure will translate well into movie form should they decide to do a live action version of this series. Ultimately, she learns that peace at any price is too high a cost to pay. The author makes it sound like Amari could have a path back to grace following this murderous episode, but that will be a difficult pill for some readers to swallow after she massacred an entire village (even if the author copped out of it by conveniently resurrecting everyone...but this is YA after all).
Ultimately, it turns out that Roën, the mercenary side-character without a POV chapter of his own, displayed the most character development of anyone. He pulls a Severus Snape, going from a grey area of working for both sides for personal gain to finding a reason to fight for something better, a transformation nearly entirely driven by his love for Zélie. While I remain skeptical that two highly-volatile characters who have been primarily fueled by rage and pain can make for a successful long term relationship (perhaps one of the Healers can invent cognitive therapy), their story still felt like one of the few satisfying elements of the entire book.
So, in the end, it turns out war, genocide, structural racism, and governmental overthrow are messy. Everyone involved has mixed motivations and violence is a near a guarantee. Are vengeance-fueled teens frustrating and a little scary? Yes. Can idealism turn dark? For sure. Are child warriors disturbing? Absolutely. All in all, this is a book with complicated plot and subject matter that meanders so much I wasn't sure how the author would wrap it all up. An abrupt, cliff-hanger, twist ending may not be what we, the faithful readers, disserved after hanging on through this entire book. But what did we expect? I guess we'll have to wait for the third and final installment to see if we get any real resolution to what has been a wild ride of a series.
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Sexual content, Slavery, and Vomit
This book contains child soldiers.kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
kys831's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Slavery, Xenophobia, Murder, and War
crystalbeth's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The story of this series itself, I love.
This book, was wild and not in a great way but I did like it and will keep reading !
I like how we got more lore about the Maji and information about the magic.
I liked finding out what happened after the end of book 1.
Much to the argument of others, I still love Zélie as a character, shes flawed, emotional, irrational but so caring and gives her all to save people even when she could die.
The plot between inbetween the start and end 15%.. where?
This book was character driven, which isn't a bad thing except book 1 was plot driven and some character interactions were pointless.
The pacing was worse than the first book which made some parts boring.
Also I hate HATE like every other character. Amira and Inan made me mad enough to want to throw the book. Not a fan of Roën either and he's been giving me sus vibes for ages.
Minor: Slavery
sea_sea'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
3.75
There is also a lesbian background couple <3 I am definitely looking forward to the third book. Hopefully their story ends well! >~<
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
shine_books1'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
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Death of parent
toffishay's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Minor: Slavery
lj_parkinson'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
3.5
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder