Reviews with content warning for Violence - Elysium Girls

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Elysium Girls by Kate Pentecost

8 reviews

lolajh's review

adventurous hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

FOUND FUCKING FAMILY!!!! Wow this trope was done so beautifully, and so many lesbians, so many cool backstories, so many traumatised kids having to try and survive in the middle of the desert. But before that, it’s just a witch and a magician trying the save the fate of a town in this same desert whilst there’s a spread of a terminal virus going around. This witch and magician end up being

kicked out into the desert

which is where they meet their found family, a gang of kids just like them. The fate of the town and everyone outside of it rests upon these kids, and the whole mystery of the plot being explored was quite cool and I feel really satisfied with the ending. There are also two wlw relationships that were both so lovely, and one straight relationship as well that wasn’t the worst the straights can get I guess.

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melaniereadsbooks's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I don't know why I took so long to write this review? Now I only remember vibes, but I really enjoyed this book! It's super tense and mysterious and I loved all the different elements woven together throughout. I instantly went and bought the author's other book, so I clearly loved it.

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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

5.0

This was so much fun!!

Elysium Girls is a Dust Bowl inspired fantasy of a town that's trapped in a game between life and death deities. The inhabitants of Elysium are pitted against the supernatural to judge humanity. The end of the ten years is coming up soon when the town will be judged. But things aren't going smoothly for Elysium. A small mistake could lead the town to ruin while various illnesses are running rampant through the population.

This book focuses on two main characters: Sal, a girl who is plagued with false visions of rain, and Asa, a demon sent from the Life deity in order to win the game. When Sal is picked as Madame Morevna's successor, she thinks she's finally had the chance to prove she's a leader. Asa is granted entrance to Elysium with supplies for the town. But when these two clash in a duel meant to show Sal is the superior witch, both of them are exiled from the town. They find a group of girls headed by one of the only other Elysium exiles, a witch named Olivia Rosales.

Y'all I didn't think I was going to love this one as much as I did. I knew I would enjoy it, but damn I fell so hard for these characters. I loved both Sal and Asa, their dual POVs worked so well for this story. Both of them have a small romantic subplot, Asa's being more prominent, but overall the focus of this book is friendship, solidarity and winning the unwinnable game of Life and Death.

The cast of characters are diverse and relatable. My favorite side character who is focused on is Lucy. She doesn't get as much page time as Sal or Asa, but her scenes were important. Lucy is a Black lesbian and even in Elysium where things like race, gender or sexuality matter less, Lucy still feels ostracized. She also does a great job of pointing out how this society is supposed to be feminist and matriarchal, but the same limitations on women still exist and enforce gender roles. Lucy acts as a nurse when a strange plague breaks out in Elysium. I cannot tell you how much courage, strength and compassion Lucy has. I loved her so much.

I absolutely loved the girl gang in the desert vibes. Plus the fact that it's a coven of witches makes it even better. I loved this group so much. Sal becomes stronger for joining them and I loved watching her grow and become more confident. I do wish we got to see more of Sal and Lucy together, because I loved them so much. I am going to take the open ending as they do get together when they're ready, but I wouldn't be mad if this had happened on page.

Overall, this is a new favorite. I'm definitely going to be screaming about this one for now on.

Rep: white sapphic female MC, Black lesbian female side character, lesbian female side character, Mexican female side character, Comanche female side character.

CWs: Blood, death, death of parent (past mention), grief, murder, misogyny, racism, sexism, sexual harassment, terminal illness (plague type sickness), violence, xenophobia. Moderate: Colonisation, genocide, kidnapping (mentions of boarding schools Native children were sent to), cannibalism, medical content. Minor: Forced institutionalization, confinement, child abuse.

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strange_little_ranger's review

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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lilymouse's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

Lovely! Pentecost managed to build such heartwrenching and well-rounded characters in such a short time line, and every moment spent with them was exhilarating!

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sarah984's review

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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? It's complicated

4.0

This book takes place in a small dust bowl era town which is pulled out of time and forced into a game of Life and Death. If at the end of ten years they have built a just society Life wins, but if not Death will claim the townspeople for herself.

The majority of the story takes place as the town is approaching the ten-year mark, so there's a time pressure that keeps things exciting. The founding of the town and appointment of the leader who is in charge during the book is glossed over a bit, but it did also happen when the main point of view character was an elementary school aged child so it's understandable. There is also a magical element to the story that I wasn't expecting, where some of the humans have magical powers. It took a while to get used to but overall I liked it.

There are quite a few characters, considering that they are isolated outside time for the duration of the game. Most of the characters are interesting and the interplay between them is fun, but they do end up relying on stereotypes or a single character trait a bit much for my liking. There is a daemon character sent to influence the game and he is likable but also so stupid that I wanted to scream sometimes.

There's some very mild romance, a bit of found family feelings, some pretty wild plot twists and a few fun fight scenes. A few things wound up sort of getting glossed over in the rush at the end, but overall I enjoyed the story and characters. The message about free will and what a just society actually is was a good one.

One thing that bugged me though was the format. The main character’s point of view was written in first person, but every other character who had point of view was written in third person. It would switch between them in the middle of a chapter which could be jarring. I think I would have preferred either all third person or first person with their own chapters.

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the_chaotic_witch's review

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

0.75

This cover is beautiful, isn't it? It was the first thing that pulled Me towards this book. Then the premise. A Game between the Goddesses of Life and Death where your everyday life is the playboard. A reality that has been removed from the world you knew, leaving you to fend for yourselves in a deadly desert with strange creatures and an army of dark soldiers to decide your fate. A lovable crew of girls who stand up for what they believe in, who make a living for themselves in this deadly world of theirs. A friendship forged by survival, injustice, and companionship. A sapphic relationship. Mechanical horses.

What more could you ask of a book?

Well, apparently, it was too much to ask because it was all for nothing. But let's try to get a structure into this mess of a review, don't worry, it'll stay spoiler-free.

I think I'll go along with the CAWPILE evaluation system. For those of you who haven't heard of it, CAWPILE is a rating system developed by The Book Roast on YouTube that is just more user-friendly than the 5 star-rating system; for many people, that is.

CAWPILE is an acronym meaning character - atmosphere - world-building - plot - intrigue - logic - enjoyment. You can rate all these on a scale of 1-10, and then the sheet automatically calculates your rating, 10 being the best. As you can see from the very top, I didn't like it (1.57).

Overall that I will say coming up, I want to give the author the benefit of the doubt: this was their debut. And it shows. Can they grow and become a better writer? 100%. Does this make this book any better? No. Can you disagree with Me? 100%! Am I still going to say what I'm going to say? 100%. So I'm going to refer to the book and not the author/writer.

So, let's start with the characters. There are 2(.5x2) Main characters and about a dozen main characters. The main crew of girls consists of six, if I remember them all, and combining them with the Mains makes it eight characters to keep in almost every scene. And that is just too much for this book. Besides the book not being sure who its villain is for 93% of the plot and then giving the change a very poor excuse (which actually is a trope many dislike (not going further into it for spoiler reasons)), the book also doesn't know it's own characters. There is a slight characteristic with the Mains, but they aren't consistent either. In fact, the Mains have the worse character building because they flip-flop all over the place, going from one emotional extreme to another ideological extreme. Having made up their mind and being absolutely sure of themselves and their decisions, but then in the next paragraph, they have their fifth existential crisis this chapter. The main characters, aka the rest of the girls and some people in the settlement, seemed to be there to give emotional leverage but had no character themselves (backstory - yes. character and emotional importance - no.) We don't even have a proper love-interest.

You may have heard that this book is sapphic. I disagree. I think the most we got was queerbaiting. Some hand-holding, one (1) peck on the cheek, and party 1 of the potential pairing ignoring party 2 for 80% of the time. And the most romantic thoughts we got were "so beautiful" and "Odd. I want to hug her".

And something that goes for all the characters, not just the potential couples, the "found-family," or the Main characters: there was no relationship building and zero chemistry. Not even in the girl group. No chemistry because no character. No relationship building because no character. I will excuse the awkward fight scenes and the weak plot points but at least give your main characters some significance to the reader. When the reader doesn't care about the characters during the final show-off, then something has gone wrong.

As for the atmosphere and world-building ( - for Me, they kind of go hand in hand). It was there. I definitely had an image and a feeling in mind, but then the distinct parts of the plot (the different places in the town, other places in the desert, the crews hide-out) were so... singular that I struggled to connect them all to one world in my mind. While one or two places feel familiar most of the time, I had no idea where we were or what it was supposed to look and feel like. As for the magic. Oh, btw. There is magic. It was ... eh? There was a system to it, but honestly, we are never told or even shown how it works. We never learn it with the characters, and there is no internal logic or consistency to it. Or there is, right up until the end when it's broken yet again.

To the plot. As I said at the very beginning, the premise is fantastic. It sounds absolutely amazing!

But you can guess: it wasn't. The plot being partially fuelled by the characters and their actions was inconsistent at best and random at worst. It felt like there was an idea, but the book didn't know how to get from point A to point B. The rules of the Game changed on a whim. The reader had to suspend their disbelief so much to get over significant plot points. And would the characters have consistency, intelligence, or strategic thinking, we would have lost the plot halfway through the book.

As for intrigue. To be frank, I would have DNF-ed this if it hadn't been for the fact that it was a buddy read with a friend of mine. Yes, I finished it almost a month late, I'm sorry, but I still wanted to complete it. So I read less for enjoyment and more for that friend. The intrigue was there, though. With certain parts. Mainly one of the Mains background, and though we got an interestingly well-developed world-building into that, it had no consequence on the story whatsoever. And because the reader doesn't care for the characters or the world, there are no stakes, nothing to make us worry about how the next chapter is going to end.

So I will not say much about the topic of logic. There hardly was any. Not within the characters, nor their interactions, nor the magic (mainly how to obtain the things), nor the town (because yes, it is set in 19-something, but that doesn't mean that people back then had no own willpower or ability to think), nor in the plot, nor in the strategy.

Also, this book is set out to be YA; I want to give clear trigger warnings of the not so mild though short discussions of sexual abuse, rape, murder, blood, bullying, severe and terminal illness, as well as physical and mental abuse.

Enjoyment wasn't there clearly. Though I like to be back in YA, 80% of the time, I was rolling my eyes, pinch the bridge of my nose, or simply closing the book.

Before we get to the plot's biggest issue, let Me quickly talk about equality and empowerment. The whole shebang - without going too deep into it - for the town is trying to be as equal as possible, no matter "the color, the gender, the money," or whatever. Do we see that? No. May it be that some of the main characters are POC? Yes, some are. Does it matter or contribute in any way to the plot? Absolutely not. Does it have to? Not necessarily, but we definitely shouldn't forget about it as soon as it isn't mentioned anymore.

And empowerment. A group of girls surviving the desert about to save the day. Sounds good. It's floppily done but okay. The thing that infuriates Me is that the most "rebellious and feminine" character - remember they all live in a single town trying their darndest to win the Game, aka proof themselves "worthy" - is running an underground make-up empire. The most empowering the book could come up with was "running an underground make-up empire"? So, that place where we try to be "our best selves" (as at the time) seems to be okay with girls wearing make-up they had to smuggle? While there is nothing wrong with enjoying wearing make-up, it is a necessity easily gone without in times like these, and it is illogically obtained, too. And at the very end, there is another scene where the crew gets their hands on some make-up and, okay, to distract themselves in the last few pages whatever. But when one says no, their reaction isn't.... pleasant, let's say. They don't bully her! But the undercurrent is iffy.

As promised, the biggest issue. Tell no show. All the missing development, all the inconsistencies could have been at least partially forgiven if we had seen anything of the plot actually happen. As it is, we didn't not even the final battle really, not even the training to learn magic, not even the performing of magic; there were prophetic dreams, did we see those? No! Did we see the emotional trauma? No. I could go on and on and on, but we would come to the same conclusion.

All in all, do I recommend this book? I mean.... sure... if you don't care about character depth, relationship development, logic, consistency, or internal coherence, you might like it. I didn't. But I think it might have gotten Me closer to reading more YA again. So that is good. I guess?

This is Me signing off, be kind, especially to yourselves. Bye ♥.

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adapted_batteries's review

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adventurous fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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