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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
wizardfire08'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
4.0
Graphic: Blood, Violence, War, Transphobia, and Misogyny
Moderate: Deadnaming, Religious bigotry, and Racism
queerreaderchaos's review against another edition
4.0
Graphic: Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Murder, Misogyny, Racism, Death, Homophobia, Grief, and Child abuse
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 thesacredgriefsociety'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
3.5
this was a darker book than i initially expected it to be but good nonetheless. the characters grow (some for the worse) and a few twists/surprises leave you wondering what the hell could happen next.
Graphic: Transphobia and Grief
Moderate: Misogyny and Racism
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
sfdogmom's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Hate crime, Gaslighting, Racism, Outing, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, and Transphobia
Minor: Kidnapping
janeywaneyb'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
1.5
I think there is meant to be a feminist liberal feel to this book but it comes across as preachy and almost uneducated like reading the lefty version of the Daily Mail. I get what the author is trying to do and there is a good try at discussing the social issues especially around transphobia, which is handled well, but having so many issues trying to have space in a book made it clunky and awkward.
There are paragraphs of moaning self-reflection from every character as they obsess over then men in their lives, their childhoods and the "greater good". The references to the 90's pop culture also wears thin. I stuck with it as the actual story was good and when they start being kick-ass witches I was all for it. I don't think I'll be heading for the next book any time soon.
Graphic: Racism and Transphobia
Moderate: Misogyny
scrubsandbooks'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
With the topic being transphobia, this book may not be for everyone. I know for a fact that TERFs and their supporters would hate it, but generally speaking, the transphobia is heavy handed and I had to take some breaks in between to punch a pillow and have some cookies and soothing music before I went back into it. I was thoroughly invested though and know I will complete the entire trilogy the moment it all comes out.
Graphic: Violence, Transphobia, and Death
Moderate: Misogyny, War, and Sexual content
Minor: Racism
vgk's review against another edition
2.0
Graphic: Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cannibalism, and Lesbophobia