Lina: “Why don’t you try smiling for a change?”
D: “I was born like this.” (31%)

"This was a showdown between things that had the shape of men, but weren’t men." (80%)

Positives

I still found this volume entertaining, like I found the first volume. We see more of D’s emotions in this volume. However, this one is much darker in general content and themes.

In terms of world-building, I do appreciate learning more about the Nobility, even though the topic of genetic manipulation inevitably has eugenics following very, very closely in its shadow.

Negatives

While I felt like the treatment of female characters somewhat balanced itself in the first volume (at least for an older text), the treatment of female characters in this volume is worse. There is some relevant violence that happens to the main heroine (certainly not all of it though) and most of the female side characters are either monster bait or sex objects.

In terms of plot, it’s much more confusing in this volume because there are a lot of antagonistic characters but many of them are described incredibly vaguely which makes it hard to keep track of 1) if the reader has met this antagonist before, 2) which antagonists are doing which things, and 3) which antagonists are working together.

sageunique26's review against another edition

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4.0

I thought this was a good book. Not as good as the first. But definitely a good book!

horriblehumain's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-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

3.0

amy_reading_23's review against another edition

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Horrible treatment of the female character and very graphic uncomfortable r*pe scenes that felt unessecary and were badly handled.

Content Warnings

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