Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - The Night and Its Moon

Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Night and Its Moon by Piper C.J.

32 reviews

court_reads_it_all's review against another edition

The first red flag in the book is the constant description of Amaris' white skin as pure and beautiful, while Nox, the only POC character, is the only one to be whipped. Additionally, Amaris romanticizes life as a farmer or noble man's wife, while Nox tries to protect her friend during a traumatic event. The writing style attempts to mimic Tolkien or C.S. Lewis but falls short, resulting in the book dragging on with chapters dedicated to mundane tasks. Overall, the book is disappointing and only receives one star despite being a gift and on my to-be-read list.

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frizzbiscuit's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.5

Plot had me hooked, addictive read, but the constant fetishisation of POCs is really uncomfortable to read.

Every single line talking about how delectable Nox is also talks about her dark caramel skin. Amaris is similarly compared to a snowflake and her pale skin is always talked about when they talk about how beautiful she is, I get that it's SUPPOSED to be a contrast thing, but yeah, the narrative talks about them VERY differently.

The sexual violence is also not my cup of tea. I did look up content warnings first and there is a very clear disclaimer in the beginning of the book, so I was prepared. Some of those scenes were clearly written to showcase the horror of it, but the way Nox "reclaims" her power doesn't really hit the mark for me.

The number of typos and just like horrendously wrong sentences was also super distracting while reading, but that probably makes sense for a self-published book.

Overall though, I enjoyed the story and was rooting for characters.

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pocketcrow's review against another edition

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challenging slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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nicolemarieisme's review against another edition

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dark emotional slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Over half of this book felt as if nothing was happening so it made it very hard to follow the characters. It also felt as if characters were experiencing trauma just for dramas sake.

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nayruofhyrule's review against another edition

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Honestly didn’t realize the synopsis on the back of the book before I started out of curiosity from the cover art; that was my mistake. I didn’t particularly care for (I.e. hated) the storyline, but tried to see if I was simply overreacting. I wasn’t, and additionally, this book would really benefit from an editor or proofreader. I usually find errors amusing, like a little Easter egg! But there were so many that could have been fixed with even the smart helper on any kind of word or Google doc, that it was almost like it was intentional. Somewhere in her author’s blurb she mentions that she writes fantasy “really, really fast” and it shows. Fast does not mean good. Once it became unbearable for me I almost considered continuing reading just to document mistakes for fun. It takes you out of the story entirely when every 2-3 pages are huge glaring errors, and absolutely nonsensical sentences that I think are supposed to sound profound but really just leave you confused and kind of distracted for a while. A book shouldn’t leave you so busy pondering how these many mistakes made it to print that you have to shake yourself back into paying attention. Overall, I wasted months trying to force myself through this book and managed to scrape through a little over 150 pages before it hit me that truly I would never get this time back, and attempting to read this book was just taking me away from reading other books I would actually enjoy. Overall, 1/10, would not recommend.

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rberdan's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

There were definitely elements of the book I liked. Amaris and Nox in the orphanage had a lovely bond. Given how slowly the plot moved we probably could have spent even more time with them there. The relationship between Odrin and Amaris would have been nice to see more of as well.

As much as I tend to be pulled to strong FMCs and was here for the bisexual representation, I have to say I was actually more interested in character development among the

dark fae and the reevers

.

I found myself skimming a lot. I was of course uncomfortable with the various forms of child abuse that took place at the top of the book, and I think it would have been interesting to get into more of the healing that the characters went through. It seemed almost like it was just a thing that happened, and many of the tension points felt a bit more adolescent.

I was also uncomfortable with some of the dynamics between Nox as a racialized character vs Amaris as the whitest of white characters.

Not only did Nox sacrifice herself for Amaris’s safety, but Nox was also consistently pining for Amaris and on a mission to get back to her whereas Amaris had no such yen to serve Nox. While I understand that Amaris would know less of Nox’s fate than vice versa, the power imbalance is still palpable. The dynamic is further underscored by Nox’s story serving under the darkness of Millicent’s operation in a profession that is often demonized while Amaris serves a cause that is positioned as more noble.

All to say I think there were some good ingredients and I did appreciate some of the lore, even if there are critiques around its familiarly. As I’m writing my first book right now I have utmost appreciation for anyone who writes and especially self publishes. I also know how invaluable editing feedback will be because I know I can’t see outside my own focal points. I am curious about where the story goes so may read on, but I have some other reads that I’m a bit more eager to get into right now.

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sapphic_in_the_stacks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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? Yes

3.75

I did not have super high hopes for this book, but it really surprised me. While I can admit that the writing was not the most polished (there were some typos and the same dramatic phrasing reused multiple times throughout the book), the story was compelling and I enjoyed the read.

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grets_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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? It's complicated

4.0

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iforgotilivedhere's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

I had fun with this. It’s not necessarily the most original fantasy book I’ve read but I still rather enjoyed it. I liked the characters for the most part. I see what Piper CJ is doing with this. SJM did the same with Throne of Glass which is start out slow and unoriginal and then EXPAND. I didn’t see the plot twist with Moirai coming and I didn’t see some of the other twists that Amaris had. I really want to see where this romance is gonna go because there’s so much potential!

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em_psolka's review against another edition

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adventurous

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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