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anastasiadreaming's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
fuitfortuna's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
I really liked the world building, it was interesting and I could tell that the author was really knowledgeable about the folklore that inspired the world and the magic system was intriguing.
My problems lie everywhere else. While Reid certainly is talented I often found some of the writing repetitive, the author would find a phrase she liked and rinse it multiple times within 5 pages and at times i found it very difficult to power through - i actually put the book down for almost two months when i reached the halfway point because i had no motivation to continue.
And that’s not even to mention how this almost felt like a YA masquerading as an adult? Evike is supposed to be 25 but spends most of the book acting like she’s 16. I have no real basis for this but there were multiple times where the vibes were just incredibly YA.
The pacing was also a large issue for me the first half of the book almost moved too slow and the second half moved way too fast.
I also have some conflicted thoughts on the romance. I’d heard it was more of an enemies-to-lovers type of deal and to not expect it to be the main focus of the story. And while they were certainly enemies at the very start by virtue of their backgrounds, the romance actually felt very insta-love to me,
Overall I was quite disappointed as I expected to like this a lot more than I actually did, perhaps I just built it up too much in my head. However I did still enjoy most of the book and would read some of the authors other works.
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Racism, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War
bri_fabiano'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
4.75
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Torture, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Sexual content and War
adonis_march's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Torture, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Confinement, Fatphobia, and Kidnapping
This is a book very much about the horrific history and acts of Christian zealotry that caused both pagan and Jewish communities to be wiped out, and echoes the centuries of fear and grief that the Jewish community has had to endure since.r_a_bell's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
bookishchef'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
3.25
There's an obvious macguffin (the Turul barely has a function gtfo) but there's also enjoyable plot twists and turns.
The love story was predictable but enjoyable.
The sexual tension and build up is nice and slow but then gets resolved quite suddenly and unrealistically.
Mostly I really liked the worldbuilding. Even though I'm still not completely clear on all the countries and their motivations, the world building really shines when it comes to religions and ethnic groups. In this story alone there are 3 fleshed out religions. They're all original in their own way even if some of their inspirations are quite obvious (The Yehuli faith seems like a mix of Judaism and Islam to me, and the Patritian faith has elements of Catholicism).
However the character work is a bit so-so. It took me a while to warm up to Évike because she is a bit of a cliche when it comes to fantasy protagonists. Same goes for Gaspar. Almost all the other characters in this story are irrelevant. None of them get really outspoken personalities. Tuula and Szabin are interesting in theory, but only get about an alinea each dedicated to their personalities and general characteristics. Katalin doesn't get any personality traits beyond 'bitch' until the last 10% of the book. It's a bit of a shame.
There's also some plot contrivances that kind of annoyed me. For example:
The characters also seem to fast travel in the later chapters. In the early chapters of the book it is emphasized again and again that the environment is rough and locations are far away. This seems realistic and the traveling by itself takes weeks. Later in the book the characters seem to travel between those same locations in a matter of days or even hours because the pacing demands it. Like, I understand why the author wrote it this way, but it did pull me out of the story a bit.
Over all, it's a very flawed book but I did enjoy it.
Graphic: Self harm, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, Sexual content, Torture, and Murder
Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Vomit, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War
darkefyres's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Hate crime, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Genocide, Misogyny, Sexual content, Death of parent, and Murder
Minor: War
claudiamacpherson'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: Self harm
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Hate crime, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War
16rcampbell's review against another edition
I also felt absolutely no chemistry between the main character and the supposed love interest. Accents are used purely for aesthetic purposes instead of and indication of pronunciation and it didn't look good and just confused me as I read.
Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment
ridesthesun's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I'm not sure why, perhaps it was just bad timing, but the book overall failed to really grab me. I *wanted* to enjoy it, but I found myself checking "how much longer is this audiobook" too many times. Idk if it was the pacing or what, but it felt a lot like nothing was happening while simultaneously lots of things were happening? Not sure how. Like it felt like it was dragging while simultaneously feeling under-developed.
Anyways, I would say definitely give this one a try; the concept was brilliant, the weaving of mythology was really cool, Evike and Gaspar were lovely. Also recommend the audiobook, getting the pronunciations for everything was a huge bonus.
*does deal a *lot* with anti-Semitism, and is strongly reminiscent of pogroms and pre-WWII eastern europe. The Jewish community is written beautifully and with great care, but if that's a sensitive topic for you I would avoid this one.
Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Blood, Antisemitism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Colonisation