elwirax's review
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Rep- POC, lesbian mc, bisexual mc, gay mc, Black mc
"My father would say avoiding a problem is adding interest to a loan you cannot afford."
Heists, prison breaks, LGBT+ and POC main characters? Seems like everything I'd enjoy and while I wasn't fully dissapointed, I admit my expectations were a little too high ( such as they are with any book remotely similar to Six of Crows, unfortunately). I've grown a lot more picky with my reading and this one didn't really hit the mark for me.
Camille and Ada where the most fleshed out characters as they are the alternating narrators throughout the book. I didn't find Camille all that likeable and questioned why Ada gave up so much to be with her and why other characters kept confessing their romantic feelings for her. While I appreciated the LGBTQ+ rep, I feel like Camille fell into the " cheating bisexual" stereotype which was distasteful. However, in some way, I think this made her complex as she reflected the imperfect nature of humans. Fortunately, I liked Ada more but as a whole neither of the two were particularly memorable.
Guillaume (the deserter) and Al (the aristocrat in hiding) were interesting characters but they did not recieve as much development as Camille and Ada which is a shame because I particularly came to like Al's banter and the moments of fun he provided through some darker areas in the book.
Olympe was another character who felt underdeveloped despite being the main focus. Hopefully their characterisation is better developed in the next books.
An issue I had with Dangerous Remedy was that some of the wording was too modern for the time period ( I'm pretty sure there was a mention of a taxi at one point...in 1700s France).The setting wasn't established as well as it could have which disconnected me from the historical element of this book. The French Revolution is already a time period rarely explored in YA which is what initially intrigued to read this book but the world building felt flat.
Overall, Dangerous Remedy had an interesting premise with political intrigue and a great group of characters. It was a solid read especially for a debut, I liked the writing and I think Dunn has great potential.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Addiction and Confinement
arminam's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Death
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, and Alcoholism
Minor: Homophobia
maisierosereads's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Violence
azrah786's review
4.0
UPDATE - 09/06/21
CW: violence, gore, execution, death, human experimentation, substance abuse
I enjoyed this a lot more on the reread so I'm rounding my rating up to 4 Stars :)
--
**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
Set during the French revolution, Dangerous Remedy follows the Battalion des Mortes - a daring group of youths led by a Revolutionary's daughter, who "cheat death" by rescuing people from the guillotine.
One particular rescue finds them in the company of a girl with very strange and dark powers and as both sides of the revolution hunt her down, the group have to decide whether or not to fight for her safety or their own.
From the opening scene of this story I was hooked and immediately fell in love with each member of this rag tag team of misfits. Their already well developed camaraderie and banter reminded me of that of the squad from The Gilded Wolves, thus I immediately warmed to this found family. I loved how they were determined to do the right thing but something would always accidentally go wrong.
As well as the various platonic relationships I really loved the romance between Ada and Camille. I did have a problem with the love triangle aspect though. In hindsight it did help in the development of the characters but it became very obvious to me that the drama surrounding it was prolonged as it was needed for the plot. I was just slightly frustrated and constantly wishing for Camille to come clean about her feelings and situation earlier than she did.
Dunn’s writing style was easy to follow and I feel like she did really well at setting the atmosphere of Revolutionary France. I went into the story not expecting the Frankenstein-esque theme at all but I absolutely loved that the fantasy/paranormal elements were linked to science.
As with many YA stories I have been reading over the last few years involving a group of characters going on risky missions, I do feel the story would be much more believable if the characters were aged up a bit and not caged within the parameters of the YA genre.
Nevertheless, this was a wonderful debut and I look forward to seeing where the story goes in the sequel.
Final Rating – 3.75/5 Stars
CW: violence, gore, execution, death, human experimentation, substance abuse
I enjoyed this a lot more on the reread so I'm rounding my rating up to 4 Stars :)
--
**I was provided with an ARC through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review**
Set during the French revolution, Dangerous Remedy follows the Battalion des Mortes - a daring group of youths led by a Revolutionary's daughter, who "cheat death" by rescuing people from the guillotine.
One particular rescue finds them in the company of a girl with very strange and dark powers and as both sides of the revolution hunt her down, the group have to decide whether or not to fight for her safety or their own.
From the opening scene of this story I was hooked and immediately fell in love with each member of this rag tag team of misfits. Their already well developed camaraderie and banter reminded me of that of the squad from The Gilded Wolves, thus I immediately warmed to this found family. I loved how they were determined to do the right thing but something would always accidentally go wrong.
As well as the various platonic relationships I really loved the romance between Ada and Camille. I did have a problem with the love triangle aspect though. In hindsight it did help in the development of the characters but it became very obvious to me that the drama surrounding it was prolonged as it was needed for the plot. I was just slightly frustrated and constantly wishing for Camille to come clean about her feelings and situation earlier than she did.
Dunn’s writing style was easy to follow and I feel like she did really well at setting the atmosphere of Revolutionary France. I went into the story not expecting the Frankenstein-esque theme at all but I absolutely loved that the fantasy/paranormal elements were linked to science.
As with many YA stories I have been reading over the last few years involving a group of characters going on risky missions, I do feel the story would be much more believable if the characters were aged up a bit and not caged within the parameters of the YA genre.
Nevertheless, this was a wonderful debut and I look forward to seeing where the story goes in the sequel.
Final Rating – 3.75/5 Stars
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gore, and Violence
the_literarylinguist's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Torture, Homophobia, and Violence
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