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story_singer_101's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
The best way I can describe this book is that it’s what happens when you throw YA, dystopian, fantasy, a desert setting, and middle eastern mythology together in a blender. Was I expecting that combination of flavors? No. Was it a bad combination of flavors? Also, no. It was quite tasty all things considered (although the casual conversations around rape were a bit jarring—even if they did effectively describe the environment. Also double love-triangles aren’t normally my thing, but this one worked for some reason?). Will I continue reading the series? Yes. But now that I know what I’m getting myself into, it might take a bit before I’m ready for this particular genre combination again
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery and Xenophobia
Moderate: Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and Sexual harassment
fieldofsummer's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I can see why people like this book, the story pulled me in and I had to finish it as fast as I could, the voices were unique and well written, the world was well built. The reason I didn’t give it a higher rating is that the themes were so dark, and personally, the little bits of hope weren’t enough to balance it. Ill put more in the spoiler warning part, but it’s a lot. Don’t do what I did, do your research first. The pace was also quick to read but slow to progress. I probably won’t be finishing the series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and Abortion
I wasn’t prepared for the intensity of violence or the fact that it often involved children, and the amount of times rape was mentioned was insane.lada_bu_joreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- 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
4.25
The love troupe is a bit much. I have to remember that a lot of this is young adult, teenager, high hormones, and emotions. All that I can relate too much at my age. However it does drive me a bit insane that during the most traumatic time, emotions flare up. Other than that I like the "luck" that these characters are having. Because the main characters have to last through 3 books I knew they wouldn't die. But that doesn't stop the suspense of reading how they escape death. I am more curious now on how they will fix the future knowing a bit of the past. Sabaa Tahir is an amazing story teller though. I can see myself reading more of her work if it is paced like this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
sadhbhprice's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Medical content
Minor: Torture, Abortion, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
alyssathinkstoomuch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
This book read to me like someone was given a YA novel and told that they had to keep the plot the same but make it rated R. The simplicity of the worldbuilding (the nation called Scholar is the book one and the nation called Martial is the military one) and the plot (whoever wins these 4 trials is the new emperor because a prophecy said so) are at odds with the violence depicted (a child is beaten to death in the first few chapters, among other things-- check the triggers on this one).
The themes of fear, destiny vs choice, which boy to smooch, etc were all very standard YA fare, but the maturity level of the events did not read like YA. The main characters are 17 and 20, again straddling the line between YA and adult.
I was, overall, disappointed. This book got rave reviews, but I just couldn't lose myself in it. The main characters felt flat, and the interesting side characters (Cook and Helene) don't seem like they'll play much of a part in book 2. The romance is entirely founded on physical attraction, which is apparently enough to make 2 deeply traumatized characters trust each other with their lives.
Also, the names absolutely sent me into orbit. There's standard fantasy fare names like Keris, Mazen, Sana. There's some names that are in our world but aren't super common like Elias or Helene. Then there's Keenan, Marcus, and Zak, which are the most frat boy names I could imagine and completely took me out of the story.
The themes of fear, destiny vs choice, which boy to smooch, etc were all very standard YA fare, but the maturity level of the events did not read like YA. The main characters are 17 and 20, again straddling the line between YA and adult.
I was, overall, disappointed. This book got rave reviews, but I just couldn't lose myself in it. The main characters felt flat, and the interesting side characters (Cook and Helene) don't seem like they'll play much of a part in book 2. The romance is entirely founded on physical attraction, which is apparently enough to make 2 deeply traumatized characters trust each other with their lives.
Also, the names absolutely sent me into orbit. There's standard fantasy fare names like Keris, Mazen, Sana. There's some names that are in our world but aren't super common like Elias or Helene. Then there's Keenan, Marcus, and Zak, which are the most frat boy names I could imagine and completely took me out of the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
katrinarose's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
This was an unoriginal, poorly written book. To start, the world-building was extremely lacking with names that felt like placeholders the author forgot to change ("The Empire", "the Resistance", "Masks" for the bad guys who wear masks). There were "factions", which gave me 2010s YA dystopian vibes, in a bad way. These factions were just "Martials" (read: evil) vs "Scholars (read: good), plus some Tribesmen (?). The only history we get of the world they live in comes during a single conversation about 60-70% through the book. There were jinn and other fantastical creatures that barely got any page time and were hardly a threat at all. There was a random group of somewhat religion-coded immortal mind-readers that were evil Martial "bad guys" until they randomly decided for some moments that they wanted to help the "good guys". I could not figure out their purpose in this book at all.
I put "bad guys" and "good guys" in quotes because it was abundantly clear who is meant to be good and bad, there is no moral grayness here whatsoever. The bad guys are so incredibly bad that they weren't even scary, because I was rolling my eyes at their mustache-twirling, over the top antics. The author heavily relied on shock factor for her character development and world building. Why make a morally gray character when you can just have her beat a 10 year old to death (not a spoiler, it happens in the beginning)? Why make an complex political background when you can just have the entire story take place at a school that raises children to be murderers/torturers/rapists?
All the characters are extremely flat, which made it annoying to be in their heads because they only had 1-2 topics of thought each. And we had the pleasure of having not one but TWO unbelievable love triangles, one for each main character we were stuck with! There was absolutely no grounds for their interest in each other besides some eye contact (with the exception of one side of one love triangle).
I haven't even gotten to the plot yet, but there's not much to say besides it was predictable and boring. Then again, it's hard to have a good plot with no world-building or character development to build on. The main plot was meant to be about Laia spying in the school and Elias going through trials to become emperor, but the trials were all pretty short and unsurprising, and Laia's spying attempts left much to be desired.
I imagine the remaining books will expand on the love triangles and the world will expand too. I went into this book planning on reading the entire series, but for my sanity, I will not be continuing. I gave it 2 instead of 1 stars just because it was readable and that's a somewhat redeemable quality. Also, as annoying as Laia was, it was nice to have a heroine in YA fantasy who was not a bad-ass, fearless assassin from the jump. If I had read this 10 years ago I probably would have eaten it up.
I put "bad guys" and "good guys" in quotes because it was abundantly clear who is meant to be good and bad, there is no moral grayness here whatsoever. The bad guys are so incredibly bad that they weren't even scary, because I was rolling my eyes at their mustache-twirling, over the top antics. The author heavily relied on shock factor for her character development and world building. Why make a morally gray character when you can just have her beat a 10 year old to death (not a spoiler, it happens in the beginning)? Why make an complex political background when you can just have the entire story take place at a school that raises children to be murderers/torturers/rapists?
All the characters are extremely flat, which made it annoying to be in their heads because they only had 1-2 topics of thought each. And we had the pleasure of having not one but TWO unbelievable love triangles, one for each main character we were stuck with! There was absolutely no grounds for their interest in each other besides some eye contact (with the exception of one side of one love triangle).
I haven't even gotten to the plot yet, but there's not much to say besides it was predictable and boring. Then again, it's hard to have a good plot with no world-building or character development to build on. The main plot was meant to be about Laia spying in the school and Elias going through trials to become emperor, but the trials were all pretty short and unsurprising, and Laia's spying attempts left much to be desired.
I imagine the remaining books will expand on the love triangles and the world will expand too. I went into this book planning on reading the entire series, but for my sanity, I will not be continuing. I gave it 2 instead of 1 stars just because it was readable and that's a somewhat redeemable quality. Also, as annoying as Laia was, it was nice to have a heroine in YA fantasy who was not a bad-ass, fearless assassin from the jump. If I had read this 10 years ago I probably would have eaten it up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Sexism, and Death of parent
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abortion, and Pregnancy
meganders22's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Grief, and Sexual harassment
greys_aaa's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
shananigans's review against another edition
My biggest issues with this book is how Tahir uses rape and sexual assault as a device for how "dark" the world is. It was an inescapable reasoning at every turn. It felt unnecessary.
I tried to stick it out, but finally with Helen, I decided I couldn't. The story starts out fairly strong with a rotating POV and it's easy to get sucked into at least one of their stories. The pace of the plot for Laia is as slow as molasses, and there was little to no build up as a reader to bond with Laia's desperation to be like and/or save her family. It was a lot of creepy sexualization, which to me, felt a bit out of place for the lore of the world. I'd expected more violence from how wicked cool the Masks are described to be... But instead got creepy rapists and violators of women. On the other side, we're given this hella cool Mask woman, Helen, who is pretty solid up until halfway through the story. Then her strength is torn down by jealousy. Extremely unfortunate. Someone in her position, logically in this verse, would not be as petty as jealousy over a boy. The Commandant is the only one who felt she fit into this sadistic violent world; she's a badass antagonist. It's a real shame because I wanted to finish it, but it felt that at every turn of the story a poor literary device was used to change course.
I tried to stick it out, but finally with Helen, I decided I couldn't. The story starts out fairly strong with a rotating POV and it's easy to get sucked into at least one of their stories. The pace of the plot for Laia is as slow as molasses, and there was little to no build up as a reader to bond with Laia's desperation to be like and/or save her family. It was a lot of creepy sexualization, which to me, felt a bit out of place for the lore of the world. I'd expected more violence from how wicked cool the Masks are described to be... But instead got creepy rapists and violators of women. On the other side, we're given this hella cool Mask woman, Helen, who is pretty solid up until halfway through the story. Then her strength is torn down by jealousy. Extremely unfortunate. Someone in her position, logically in this verse, would not be as petty as jealousy over a boy. The Commandant is the only one who felt she fit into this sadistic violent world; she's a badass antagonist. It's a real shame because I wanted to finish it, but it felt that at every turn of the story a poor literary device was used to change course.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse and Sexual assault
luckykosmos's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Late to these books, but I appreciate how Tahir doesn't shy away from the brutal reality of this society while making it exciting for a YA audience to dive in.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault