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albyatross's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
reflective
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.25
Look I love a religious-themed fantasy novel, ok. And yeah, maybe Csorwe abandons the prophecy cult she was raised in at 14 thus necessitating a weird time skip in the middle of the book, but also she's partly like an orc and watching a maybe-orc grapple with the life-long impact of being a traitor to their religion was a breath of fresh air. Ok. Ok.
And her bits bickering with Tal and Oranna were fun.
ps - The Box is mostly a plot MacGuffin to make the plot Go, so if you hate those, skip on out.
And her bits bickering with Tal and Oranna were fun.
ps - The Box is mostly a plot MacGuffin to make the plot Go, so if you hate those, skip on out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Toxic friendship
Minor: Alcohol
starccato's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Self harm, and Vomit
ruthlessreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This book was exactly the dark epic fantasy I wanted but didn't know it. It starts a little slow while the world building is established but once it gets into gear, the plot doesn't stop until the last page. There are so many twists and turns, I was never able to predict what would happen next. It's also SECRETLY GAY. Well, not really secret, but it's not mentioned anywhere in the summary or elsewhere that there's a sapphic romance at the core of the novel. It's still primarily a fantasy novel, with plenty of slash and stab adventures & sparkle and bang magic to fulfill all your fantasy adventure desires. But it's also a tender coming of age story about learning who to trust and who to fight for when you've been raised to believe a fight is all you're good for. It's about defying & subverting expectations by being true to the person you discover along the adventure of your life. I really loved this book & highly recommend it for fans of Gideon the Ninth! The main characters give me Harrow & Gideon energy.
Okay, so brief summary: Csorwe, though she's only 14, is a clergy member at the temple of the Unspoken One. As she is poised to sacrifice herself in a religious ritual, she is rescued & smuggled away by Sethennai, a powerful & brilliant mage. Sethennai raises Csorwe to be his weapon, training her to fight, and tasking her with retrieving The Reliquary--an object of extreme power & knowledge. On one of many trips to discover the location of this item, Csorwe meets Struthmili & everything she thought she knew about herself, her job, and her path in life will be called into question when she is faced with a difficult decision: fight for the item she's tasked to recover or save the life of someone for whom she's developing complicated feelings. Again and again, Csorwe will be faced with decisions that alter her fate & lead her down paths she never expected to return. What is at the end of her story? I guess you'll have to read it to find out!
Okay, so brief summary: Csorwe, though she's only 14, is a clergy member at the temple of the Unspoken One. As she is poised to sacrifice herself in a religious ritual, she is rescued & smuggled away by Sethennai, a powerful & brilliant mage. Sethennai raises Csorwe to be his weapon, training her to fight, and tasking her with retrieving The Reliquary--an object of extreme power & knowledge. On one of many trips to discover the location of this item, Csorwe meets Struthmili & everything she thought she knew about herself, her job, and her path in life will be called into question when she is faced with a difficult decision: fight for the item she's tasked to recover or save the life of someone for whom she's developing complicated feelings. Again and again, Csorwe will be faced with decisions that alter her fate & lead her down paths she never expected to return. What is at the end of her story? I guess you'll have to read it to find out!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Drug use, Violence, and Religious bigotry
Minor: Child death and War
There are some pretty dark themes and scenes. Please read content warnings & summaries before starting this series. This is the first book in The Serpent Gates series!sapphic_in_the_stacks's review against another edition
This book and concept had such potential, I was really excited to start reading it. Honestly I just couldn't make myself finish it. I was listening to the audio book and I kept listening in hopes it would get better, but it was so slow and dull from the beginning and it didn't get better. The characters are somehow both boring and annoying, their motivations feel so basic. I also couldn't listen to any more unnecessarily gory scenes. I get that Csorwe is supposed to be this badass character, but she's really just annoying and reckless, and the amount that she becomes seriously graphically injured really got to me by this point. When I realized I was dreading trying to get through any more of this book I decided it was time to give up. If it's not good by 70% of the way in, it's not worth finishing.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Torture
Moderate: Toxic friendship
Minor: Child death
giuliagoolia2k's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Toxic friendship