Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Children of Blood and Bone: Goldener Zorn

For the first 200 pages, this was a 4-star read for me. The world is vast and interesting, the magic system is cool, and I loved the idea of an epic quest novel (take the artifacts to the Place and do the Ritual) that's not set in generic medieval European fantasyland. The characters’ conflicts felt realistic and while they could be a little impulsive it was understandable because they're teens.

Then I hit the halfway point and the plot ground to a halt to do this extremely generic reylo-style romance (complete with force bond and nonsensical insta love) and then just one stupid thing after another happened and all of the goodwill the first half had generated burned off immediately. There is an extremely graphic torture scene involving one of the female characters that is told through the lens of how the most boring male character in existence feels about it.

I also don't like books where the oppressed people are shown to be extremely dangerous, especially when the author is clearly linking their plight to real-world oppression, and this got worse in the second half.

I liked the plot twist at the end (though it was really unclear why that happened) but not enough to save the reading experience for me.

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oliverreeds's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

everything i wrote was deleted. i spent 15 minutes on this review. the short and skinny since i won’t be rewriting it: the characters are waffle-y

looking at you, inan and you zeili

i also just realized i’ve done ever spoiler up until this point wrong. the romances should have been gay looking at YOU zeili and amari bc the straight romances have. no. chemistry. at. all.
and lastly i was confused on a plot point which could have been my fault

the raid was only like ten years ago and that’s when magic went away when king whoever interrupted a ritual but this ritual only occurs every hundred years and it’s coming up agajn after only ten… maybe i misread though

anyways good book but should have been gayer

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scribblerrva's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

This was a great book from beginning to end. The only reason I didn’t give it the full 5 is because only 3 of the 4 central characters had their side of the story told. Other than that, it was a well-written and engaging read.

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battybookworm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was a book I've had on my shelves forever, and once I actually got over the hurdle of starting it, I could not put it down. This giant book came with me everywhere and it was very fun to read. I loved Zelie and Amari's chapters, and even Inan after a period. I think the author did the separation of their voices incredibly well and the characters' shifts and growth were developed and lovely to read.

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