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its_just_peachy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexism, and Blood
Minor: Miscarriage
melissa_l_mcabee's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Classism
whitneyfoster's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Death, Violence, and Blood
sleightofdance's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Murder
Minor: Torture and Blood
vj_thompson's review against another edition
Graphic: Alcohol
Moderate: Bullying, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy
Minor: Sexual content and Blood
maregred's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
Graphic: Infidelity and Murder
Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Violence, and Classism
Minor: Death, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Blood, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and War
piperclover's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
About halfway through I was starting to think maybe this should have been classified as horror because it was getting into super dark creepy fantasy and I think maybe it is on the edge of horror fantasy. I finished this while on a walk and I literally sat there with my mouth open on the sidewalk because the ending came out of nowhere and was so absolutely perfect for how wild the story was.
This feels like a mixture of a House of Salt and Sorrow by Erin A. Craig and An Enchantment of Ravens by Margaret Roberson but also reminded me of The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater a bit.
I have never been a person that has ever enjoyed a single book where the main character is not at least 75% good but I fell hard for it in this book. Natasha is not a good person but she is a fantastic character. I was rooting for her wrongs every time even while I was gasping with my eyes bugged out of my head. Natasha is so aware of evil and wrongdoing and manipulation but she does the exact same things with very little compunction. In turn, Clara is seen as this vapid empty headed doll but she actually has depth that made for an interesting dichotomy between the two of them as twins who were seemingly raised in the same circumstances but turned out world's different.
I'm a sucker for fantasy books that somehow weave their own storyline into real life events to explain real history. Here it's done so fantastically with Russia in the early 1900s. If you are more knowledgeable about Russian history than you might catch on to this quicker than I did but it took me until the end of the book to realize that we were reading about a fantastical version of the Russian Red Terror. If you know the names of the key players of this event you'll definitely catch on quickly but I still found myself gaping at the end of the book because it was so well woven together and so interestingly told.
The ending sort of sucker-punched me and I didn't see it coming.
The only thing I cannot think of that bothered me a little bit was that I wish we had gotten more of a explanation for how Fritz ended up the way he did. And the story and then we have mentions of him being "disturbed" and "childlike" but we never actually get an explanation for what happened and what caused him to be like this. Its obviously caused by magic and it's relating to Orlov's creations but why was he impacted so deeply and no one else was?
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Physical abuse
Not sure if genocide is the right word but I feel like it encompasses the sheer evil and the scale at which this mass murder is happening.kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
devynreadsnovels's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Alcoholism, Bullying, Incest, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
aliteraryescape's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Blood