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danajoy's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Transphobia
Moderate: Death, War, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Infidelity, and Grief
itsy719'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Child abuse, Outing, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Sexism, Violence, Car accident, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Forced institutionalization, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Homophobia, Vomit, and Body shaming
shae_purcell'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
A word of warning: Don't go into this expecting a tidy ending. It ends on a huge cliffhanger. I was ready to start the second book until I was halfway through that last chapter. Now I'm really irritated and thinking about taking a break. I'm sure as an author you want readers to be so excited for the next book that they'll run out and pick up a copy immediately. This ending didn't make me excited for the next book. It makes me dread reading it, even though I still kind of want to hang out with the characters a bit more. I may pick it up eventually but I'll feel sour about it.
Graphic: Confinement, Medical content, Death, Child abuse, Sexual content, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Outing, Transphobia, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Animal death
Moderate: Murder, Misogyny, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Lesbophobia, Eating disorder, Incest, Islamophobia, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Classism, Homophobia, Self harm, Drug use, Alcohol, Colonisation, Torture, Racism, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, and War
There is a lot of intentional misgendering in the chapters told from theemilywrayburn's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Murder, and Transphobia
Moderate: Death and War
Minor: Animal death and Sexual content
cumminsn'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
3.0
While there is very positive transgender, and LGBT in general, representation here, there is also rampant transphobia that I could see being very triggering to some. Also, the overuse of swearing and pop culture references took away from my immersion as well. For a book that has different characters that it switches perspectives between, I sometimes found myself having a hard time remembering who was who, with no very large differences in tone from one character to the next. Other than the antagonist, of course. The fact that she was evil was about the most obvious thing in the whole book.
I guess what disappointed me is that there wasn’t quite enough Fantasy to balance out the in-your-face politics that were constantly surfacing. I was more interested in the lore of the world, but the story seemed to stumble over itself to try and include as much political-correctness as possible that some of the characters didn’t even feel like genuine characters and more like just stereotypes being included for the sake of it, which was sad to read. Some of the language used, particularly internet-type wording and references, will likely not age well either.
I forced myself to finish this one. I was invested enough to want to do it, but I don’t know that I’ll be reaching for the sequel right away, if it all. In the end, I felt underwhelmed.
Graphic: Hate crime, Blood, Car accident, Transphobia, Cursing, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexism, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Alcohol and Body horror
Minor: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gaslighting, Medical content, and Outing
emmajh91's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Grief, Transphobia, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Violence, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Hate crime, Car accident, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Dysphoria, Confinement, Alcohol, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, War, and Toxic friendship
sulaasg'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
4.5
The development of each character from their first introduction to where the end the books feel believable.
Thank god I came to this book after the second had already been released, otherwise I'd be furious at the wait.
I know some people have found the book politically 'in your face' but I actually enjoyed that about this book. It's feminist, and about female empowerment from an international standpoint and it made the book all the more enjoyable and empowering for me.
Graphic: Transphobia, Death, and Sexism
Moderate: Domestic abuse, War, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, and Child abuse
There are several chapters written from the point of view of a TERF. This is unpleasant reading, but crucial to the story. It's worth reminding yourself the book is written by a trans woman.blewballoon'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? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Transphobia, Death, and Animal death
Moderate: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Grief, and Racism
Minor: Drug use, War, and Sexual assault
readingqueerly'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
4.75
The characters were incredible. I love an ensemble cast, and this was done so well. I could feel these women. I was yelling and crying and cheering and booing at them.
A truly magical (ha!) story about sisterhood, betrayal, and beliefs with surprisingly great rants on white feminism, racism, intersectional identities, queerness, etc. Basically, this whole book has a great message of what it means to be a woman, but how women (especially those with privilege) have a very rigid idea on this; and how the system upholds this rigid idea since it benefits them under the guide of tradition. It includes, of course, a lot of representation for WOC, LGBTQ+ people, and disabled people.
I cannot wait to read the second one. I might actually go buy it asap because holy shit this was good.
Graphic: Transphobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Sexual content and Domestic abuse
wallflovver'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
i loved these characters, bar one of course. i really enjoyed them together and seeing their sisterly bond.
the magic system was also so interesting to get into! i liked the lore that made this magic it's own thing, and the reliance on nature was a lovely aspect that gets any magic system points from me!
this did feel like a very direct response to joanne revealing herself as a terf, and i revelled in that! very very enjoyable to me!
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Blood, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Transphobia
Minor: Car accident, Child abuse, Alcohol, and Bullying