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kaiyakaiyo's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
3.75 rounded up for GR!
it took me a bit to get into this book, but it’s extremely sweet, and very much gives Sophie Hatter vibes. miuko is funny, relatable, and realistically flawed; there were points where I facepalmed at her choices, and I liked that! I was also reminded of over the garden wall a bit? loved that too
I found that some of the “episodes” in muikos journey felt overlong or even unnecessary; the plot is very neatly made, but some of the threads felt like they didn’t need to be there. I also think that the made-up language was… cool at first, but ultimately became tiring and distracted me from the actual story. i really didn’t like how often the author defined a word in the text itself; most of them were easy to pick up via context clues, or didn’t matter enough to need explanation. i think this author had a lot of fun making this language, and it’s excellent, but it bogged down the writing for me. If the explanations had been saved for an authors note or even a silmarillion-esque set of tales to explain the in-universe etymology, I would’ve loved it! extra sentences in a paragraph just to explain the meaning of one word not so much.
all in all, a fun time!
it took me a bit to get into this book, but it’s extremely sweet, and very much gives Sophie Hatter vibes. miuko is funny, relatable, and realistically flawed; there were points where I facepalmed at her choices, and I liked that! I was also reminded of over the garden wall a bit? loved that too
I found that some of the “episodes” in muikos journey felt overlong or even unnecessary; the plot is very neatly made, but some of the threads felt like they didn’t need to be there. I also think that the made-up language was… cool at first, but ultimately became tiring and distracted me from the actual story. i really didn’t like how often the author defined a word in the text itself; most of them were easy to pick up via context clues, or didn’t matter enough to need explanation. i think this author had a lot of fun making this language, and it’s excellent, but it bogged down the writing for me. If the explanations had been saved for an authors note or even a silmarillion-esque set of tales to explain the in-universe etymology, I would’ve loved it! extra sentences in a paragraph just to explain the meaning of one word not so much.
all in all, a fun time!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual harassment, and War
puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Injury/Injury detail
spookily's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-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? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and War
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism
booksthatburn's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
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? No
5.0
A THOUSAND STEPS INTO NIGHT features a girl who begins turning into a demon, abruptly unmooring her from the misogynistic confines of her ordinary life.
I enjoyed Miuko's rapport with the bird spirit, their friendship provided a lot of levity in otherwise stressful moments. The various spirits and demons felt a bit numerous sometimes (especially when I have trouble keeping track of character names), but this felt very accommodating of my inability to keep track of them and I didn't get lost.
The worldbuilding is wonderful, Miuko sometimes pauses to explain something, but it's always right when it's needed. This is generally free of anything resembling infodumps, as the explanations are a natural part of Miuko processing what's happening around her. I enjoyed the audiobook immensely, the narrator did an excellent job and really helped the story flow.
One of my favorite things about this is how it's a story about identity, empowerment, and the difference between an aspect of identity being bad versus it being someone else's excuse to be exploitative or cruel. This is explicitly bound up in how the book approaches gender, but that general idea applies to other aspects as well. Miuko is a cis character (as best as I can tell) who explores her gender presentation a bit with various necessary disguises, and is driven at first to make things safer and better for girls. There's a recurring bit where someone asks what she is and when she says she's a girl they retort that (because she's slowly turning into a demon) she can't be a girl, she must be something else. Early on she thinks there used to be non-cis people but maybe not any more, and when she finds out that the people in power making being trans or third gender difficult socially didn't make them go away, she adjusts her goals to make sure her solution is better for everyone.
The plot flowed and circled back to previously encountered characters in a way that made it easy to follow. I love the kind of reveal midway through the book as to why the plot kicked off in the first place. I don't want to spoil it, but the second half explains why a bunch of things in the first half even happened, and it works very well. I love the ending, it fits the world and the characters and really lets things feel settled.
I enjoyed Miuko's rapport with the bird spirit, their friendship provided a lot of levity in otherwise stressful moments. The various spirits and demons felt a bit numerous sometimes (especially when I have trouble keeping track of character names), but this felt very accommodating of my inability to keep track of them and I didn't get lost.
The worldbuilding is wonderful, Miuko sometimes pauses to explain something, but it's always right when it's needed. This is generally free of anything resembling infodumps, as the explanations are a natural part of Miuko processing what's happening around her. I enjoyed the audiobook immensely, the narrator did an excellent job and really helped the story flow.
One of my favorite things about this is how it's a story about identity, empowerment, and the difference between an aspect of identity being bad versus it being someone else's excuse to be exploitative or cruel. This is explicitly bound up in how the book approaches gender, but that general idea applies to other aspects as well. Miuko is a cis character (as best as I can tell) who explores her gender presentation a bit with various necessary disguises, and is driven at first to make things safer and better for girls. There's a recurring bit where someone asks what she is and when she says she's a girl they retort that (because she's slowly turning into a demon) she can't be a girl, she must be something else. Early on she thinks there used to be non-cis people but maybe not any more, and when she finds out that the people in power making being trans or third gender difficult socially didn't make them go away, she adjusts her goals to make sure her solution is better for everyone.
The plot flowed and circled back to previously encountered characters in a way that made it easy to follow. I love the kind of reveal midway through the book as to why the plot kicked off in the first place. I don't want to spoil it, but the second half explains why a bunch of things in the first half even happened, and it works very well. I love the ending, it fits the world and the characters and really lets things feel settled.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Classism
Minor: Animal death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury