Scan barcode
nicodaa'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? It's complicated
3.5
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Cursing, Self harm, Stalking, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Torture, Vomit, and Grief
nutmegandpumpkin's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
It has a quick pace and is more on the plot driven side, but I was in the perfect mood for this type of story.
The character dynamics and interactions are so well done and made me smile (though they only go so deep).
The plot is the perfect mix of politics and action. Just the plot being based around a dangerous audition for a job under the Queen that’s filled with
1. deadly tests
2. training
and
3. other auditioners who are allowed to kill you
Is right up my alley. And the setting is mainly the palace grounds? Yes please!
Although the world building wasn’t deeply explored within the book, I could tell the author spent time doing it anyway because every detail fit within the world and felt like it made sense.
It did get a little sluggish around the middle but it soon picked back up and I was just as invested again when it did.
Okay I’m done gushing. Would recommend if you’re in the mood for a fast-paced fantasy that isn’t too bogged down or “deep.” Very fun read.
P.S. I also really love that the Queen’s left hand have “titles” / new aliases named after the rings she wears on her left hand: Emerald, Ruby, Amethyst, and Opal. I thought it was pretty rad.
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Transphobia and Classism
Minor: Self harm, Violence, and War
The transphobia is done by an asshole character who refuses to call Sal by anything but feminine pronouns. But it is very obvious this character is a bad guy (it’s not glorified) and we get some great moments when he’s put in his place :)emtees's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
This book did have a lot of strengths. The world is very interesting, and the hints at the history behind the ascension of Our Queen Marianna da Ignasi to the throne are fascinating. This is a world that doesn’t seem to have magic, but only a generation ago it did, and it is populated by former sorcerers covered with magical runes and haunted by the memory of dark, destructive magic. We don’t see very much of this - other than one brief venture, the entire story takes place within the walls of the palace where the competition is happening - but the hints were enough to make me interested. The Assassins - called the Left Hand, made up of Ruby, Emerald, Amethyst and Opal - were also fascinating. These are trained killers who gave up their public identities to become known only by their code names, and who never remove their distinctive masks except when alone together. The competition is brutal - Linsey Miller doesn’t skimp on the violence of this world - and there are a lot of twists and turns in the plot to keep it moving quickly. (Sometimes too quickly - an entire subplot is introduce and disposed of in the last few chapters.)
The problem, for me, was the character of Sal. A thief from a rough area who joins the competition for reasons that are only made clear later, despite not being a killer, Sal never really came into focus for me as a character. Writing a complex but sympathetic character who is going to murder a whole bunch of people in the course of the story is difficult, and I don’t think Miller really pulled it off with Sal. They feel more like a conglomeration of fantasy tropes than a person. They have a tragic backstory which becomes more tragic the more we learn about it. They have a secret history. They aren’t who they seem. They want vengeance. They can’t trust anyone, but they clearly want to. They are extremely skilled, despite some of these skills not really being explained. Worse, they start out the story having never killed anyone, and by the end they have killed several people, and I have no idea how they feel about it. Sal’s feelings on the subject of being an assassin are extremely vague and seem to change from chapter to chapter. This was too important of an aspect of their character to miss and unfortunately Miller did.
There are some aspects of Sal I did like, though. For one, they are genderqueer - they have a fluid gender identity, at different points identifying as male, female or nonbinary - and the scenes devoted to Sal explaining their gender identity to others were really well done. (I admit I was a little confused that Sal wanted people to use pronouns associated with however they were dressed on a particular day, because I don’t understand what “non-gendered dress” looks like in this world, but that’s a minor quibble.). I especially liked the scene where they explained their gender identity to the Left Hand and the assassins immediately understood and accepted it. In general this appears to be a world that is pretty open to all forms of queerness, which was neat. Sal also came alive as a character in their relationships with others: Maud, the servant assigned to them for the duration of the competition, who becomes a friend and ally, and especially Elise de Farone, the love interest. Sal and Elise’s relationship was like a rom-com inserted into this otherwise grim world and I loved every minute of it.
There was enough in this book to make me want to read the sequel, but I doubt I will pick this one up again.
Graphic: Body horror and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent and War
Minor: Transphobia
There are several scenes of graphic violence and body horror; there are a few minor instances of antagonists not respecting the MCs gender identity but they are always corrected.anniereads221's review against another edition
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Transphobia
oceanherd's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Genocide
Minor: Transphobia and Colonisation
lolajh'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
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis
Moderate: Transphobia
bloodyvalentine's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
There’s few books where I’d say that the main character is one of my favorites, but this one is definitely one of them. I started on the second one as soon as I could and I can’t wait to see how the story continues.
Graphic: Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcohol
julesadventurezone's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.5
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail
taliahsbookshelf's review against another edition
- 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
The best way to describe this book would be if you took the competition from the Selection, the murder game from the Hunger Games, a magic system that felt almost kind of loosely related to something you might read in Shadow and Bone, and then threw in Skyrim's Dark Brotherhood storyline (yes, I am quite confident that is where the idea for the third test is from and will hear no criticism on this point).
As for the writing, despite what I'm seeing a lot of people claiming, it's not similar to SJM or Leigh Bardugo? I just didn't get that comparison. I think all three of these writers are unique and have very different writing styles, and I wouldn't lump them all into the same category. (Additionally, those of you who continue to compare this book to ACOTAR, besties, do you understand that a) ACOTAR was not SJM's first book, and her writing style did develop significantly from her actual first book and b) SJM is... questionably good at writing? But that's pretty debatable and not what my point is here.)
Now, onto the characters. I liked the characters. I liked the almost impersonalized way of developing the background characters. Everyone wore masks, and physical appearances weren't as important as in a lot of other books. Readers get to make up our own assumptions and ideas. I get some people's point when suggesting that it can be hard to track who is who when everyone is just a number for the majority of the book, but... if you take the time to write it out, or just keep track of things, or color code, or whatever works for you, it's actually not that difficult at all. If you can understand the different Grisha and keep them straight, you can keep 1-23 separated especially since most of them die.
The main love interest, Elise, was... certainly a love interest. I think this was the most boring part of the book for me. I liked that Elise is unlabeled queer, but the relationship between her and Sal felt almost rushed, and not well developed. I wasn't sold on their feelings for each other, and it was kind of boring to read through the "romantic" parts. I found myself no longer paying attention and kind of zoning out during these parts, but everything else kept me engaged, so I can't complain too much.
Onto my biggest frustration with other reviewers: I was reading through reviews and trying to condense my thoughts when I came across a few suggesting that Sal's gender identity (gender fluidity) was "pointless, distracting, and not important to the plot." Hey, guys, I hate to break it to you, but someone's gender identity doesn't actually have to be a main plot point! Shocker, I know, that people exist with characteristics and life events outside of just their sexuality and/or gender identity. It's good to sometimes read a book where the main character is coming to terms with their identity, or growing into it, or facing huge hurdles as a result of it. But this isn't that book. Instead, it's a novel with a plot line totally separate, and our main character happens to be genderfluid. I personally prefer reading these types of books, because you can be LGBTQIA+ without it being the main point of your story. It's a part of you, rather than the main point of your life.
I actually really liked this book. It was recommended to me by a creator on TikTok, and it looked semi-interesting. Y'all. When I tell you this book blew my mind, I mean it. The twist with Ruby (I'm leaving it at that because Ruby is my favorite character - I will fight anyone who says otherwise) was so well-crafted. I was jumping back through my annotations and realized that Linsey Miller hid the most obvious conversations and tiny details in the most obvious places, but it worked really, really well.
The reason I didn't give this book a five star review was because although I really enjoyed the premise and the competition and the characters (Ruby especially), the magic system was just confusing and very poor, not well explained, and didn't have understandable rules (if you are looking for a book with a solid magic system, this isn't it), and the romance (if you could even really call it that - see above) was weak and I didn't sense any real chemistry.
Was this the best book I've ever read? No. But it didn't have to be. It was good and I enjoyed reading it. I looked forward to times when I could just sit down and read it for a while. I found it easy to get lost in the plot and lose track of time because I was so invested. This got me out of a reading slump, and I think that's pretty important for a lot of people.
Spoilers:
High-level spoiler:
Graphic: Death, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Gore and Violence
Minor: Torture, Transphobia, Grief, and Abandonment
mar's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Genocide and Torture
Minor: Transphobia