clockworkchild's review against another edition
4.0
Beware of spoilers below!
I'll admit, I went into this book almost completely blind, not really knowing anything about it or having heard of it beforehand, other than the fact that is has LGBT characters. And oh, did it deliver on that! One protagonist is canonically aromantic but allosexual, and the other is a gay nonbinary using he/ they pronouns interchangeably. That admittedly made me do a little happy dance as I realized that, using he/ they myself! Among them are a huge myriad of other queer characters and others in the background. So, a very homonormative world; it's a breath of fresh air compared to most fantasy going for the tired heteronormative tropes.
As for the plot itself...
I'll admit, I'm a little bit tired of the classic plot of having to pretend to be a royal or noble person to infiltrate royalty. However, S. M. Pearce did a good job of balancing this plot and building up the world around it, such as showing how the nobility works through King Marius and his noble people. She also did an excellent job of making you almost immediately hate him, though I really do wonder if his charm was literal magic, or if he did just have that much charisma. I suppose we'll never know, though.
As much as I did like the premise, however, several high action scenes were sort of... left off in the background? We are told what happened through the characters, but we don't see any of the action. That's a bit disappointing. Most of the book is scheming and political warfare, essentially, which does sum up most regencies.
Some characters were a bit frustrating to understand, particularly Blythe, who kept going back and forth between wanting to keep her virtues and wanting to help in any way she could. Though I guess that can't be helped, especially if you're forcibly picked up from a quiet life by a boy who's a tad bit feral and a pyromaniac.
I also adored the little family Blythe and Kalen made up for themselves, and they absolutely are a queerplatonic relationship. Together forever like a package deal, but not romantically or sexually involved together.
All in all, I did really enjoy this book! It's been a while since I haven't been able to put a book down, wanting to see what came next. I hope the story with the cast will continue some day, though even without a sequel, the plot is more or less tied up well.
bea__reads's review against another edition
3.0
The description for this book was so exciting to read: a heist, found family, a QPR, queer characters, new adult, and some fantasy elements!!
All of this was spot on. The plot was centered around a small, desperate crew who need to pull off a heist in a royal court. The opening chapters were intense and hooked me in right away.
I was so happy to see such a diverse cast of characters and the inclusion of a POV character using he/they pronouns was really nice to see.
Also, the Viper was a great side character and I would love to read an entire book about her! I felt like she was the most three dimensional character and I was really rooting for her.
But I didn't love this book the way I had hoped to.
The writing style was often telling instead of showing and the pacing was inconsistent. Some scenes felt disconnected from each other. This made the plot and the characters feel underdeveloped. Some scenes that seemed really important as part of the experience of this story and its characters were only a couple sentences in passing. Important details were often explained only as they became relevant and this made it hard to be fully immersed in the world.
I didn't connect with the main characters for most of the book. I struggled to relate to Blythe. She made a lot of really questionable choices that I couldn't make sense of, especially in the second half of the book. Kalen started to grow on me towards the end, but by then I think it was just too late. I liked the on page discussion of their QPR, but it took so long to get there and I felt like their relationship was developed behind the scenes.
✨Overall, this was an enjoyable read with a diverse cast of queer characters. I look forward to seeing what this author writes next! I'd love to read more in this universe some day!
mxbluet18'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? No
5.0
☆
☆
Happy release day to this book.
•
Listen, I know that many authors enjoy emotionally and physically prodding their cinnamon roll characters, but I can't help but care about them. One particular quote I loved was “Kalen deserved all the happiness in the world.” because it's very true. After everything they've been put through he needs someone to care about them.
~
And that opening. That was enough to get me intrigued and wanting to find out more, why where they there, what was going on. And it only got more intense from there. It was high stakes in the best kind of way. I thought I knew what was happening, turns out I didn't, but that's fine.
~
High stakes is right, but so is unfairly good. It was addictive, I swear there was some sort of substance in the pages cause there ain't no way I got that addicted and invested in the characters. But God damn.
~
I also really liked the dedication in the front of this book, which reads: "This book is dedicated to anyone who's ever been made to feel like the world doesn't have space for them. We'll make space." It really spoke to me because I've felt that way before. And in time I had a place where space was made for me to be myself and be loved for exactly who I am.
•
Thank you to author S.M. Pearce for sending me an ARC copy of this book.
metaphorsandmisc'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
3.25
Graphic: Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Blood, Child death, Violence, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Self harm, Eating disorder, and Mental illness
Minor: Vomit and Fire/Fire injury
raesreadingcorner'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? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Classism, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Homophobia
Moderate: Grief and Violence
Minor: Suicide attempt, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Murder, Mental illness, Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Sexism, and Injury/Injury detail
tmdreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Violence, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Addiction
Moderate: Homophobia, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Vomit, Animal cruelty, and Sexism
queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Natural Outlaws and Fractured Sovereignty by S.M. Pierce is an adult dark fantasy that is super queer and has a heist! We get some wonderful found family moments and some great rep as follows: queer platonic relationship between main characters, Kalen uses he/they and is attracted to men, Blythe is alloaro and bi, Frida is a lesbian, and Saihd is (I think) intersex and ace.
We start with Kalen and his suicide attempt and Blythe talking him down. Kalen came from the home of an abusive noble, and Blythe is a poor girl just trying to take care of her ailing father while trying to please her god by being self sacrificing. Kalen is an expert in making bombs, and Blythe has a bestowment (sort like a talent like a Grace in Graceling) that makes it easy for her to hide or go unnoticed. When Kalen convinces Blythe to steal from the rich to feed themselves and pay rent, they are caught by the Governor, and coerced into planning a heist against a rival nation.
Blythe has to pretend to be a noble and go unnoticed in order to pull off the heist while Kalen is a servant, Frida (their roommate) poses as a cook, the Sea captain Saihd posing as an advisor, and the Viper (the governor's ward/indentured servant) poses as Blythe's lady in waiting. Blythe struggles with the need to harm other people as it goes against her self sacrificing way. She's a little too rightous, and it gets her into trouble. Kalen is struggling with the abuse they must endure at the hands of the servant Superior, triggering memories of his abusive father. The Viper must learn that kindness doesn't always come with a cost. Yay found family!
The Fletch King is the worst! He has a bestowment that makes him hard to resist and he gave me the major ick. I loved the relationship between Kalen and Blythe. We do get a bit of a miscommunication trope between them, but in this case it works pretty well, but I still wanted to yell at them to just talk about it. I do wish we had gotten more from Frida and Saihd, but I loved the growth that the Viper, or should I say, Arabella had. Although her arc was predictable, it was satisfying.
I don't know if there is going to be a book two or not, but I would totally read about these characters smuggling "natural Outlaws" (queer people) to safe places. This was super queer and I love the found family. Looking forward to more from this author.
This book releases August 12th, so get your copy!
Graphic: Violence, Drug abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Homophobia, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Child death, and Death of parent
Moderate: Cursing and Vomit
remus_reads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Graphic: Child abuse, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Torture and Sexual assault
mxbluet18'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? It's complicated
5.0
queerphobia & fictional slurs; classism, colonialism, death & grief; mental health issues and aquaphobia.
☆
☆
Listen, I know that many authors enjoy emotionally and physically prodding their cinnamon roll characters, but I cant help but care about them. One particular quote I loved was “Kalen deserved all the happiness in the world.” because it's very true. After everything they've been put through he needs someone to care about them.
~
And that opening. That was enough to get me intrigued and wanting to find out more, why where they there, what was going on. And it only got more intense from there. It was high stakes in the best kind of way. I thought I knew what was happening, turns out I didn't, but that's fine.
~
High stakes is right, but so is unfairly good. It was addictive, I swear there was some sort of substance in the pages cause there ain't no way I got that addicted and invested in the characters. But God damn.
~
I also really liked the dedication in the front of this book, which reads: "This book is dedicated to anyone who's ever been made to feel like the world doesn't have space for them. We'll make space." It really spoke to me because I've felt that way before. And in time I had a place where space was made for me to be myself and be loved for exactly who I am.
•
Thank you to author S.M. Pearce for sending me an ARC copy of this book.
sophiareads_'s review against another edition
- 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? Yes
2.0
Blythe and Kalen are caught robbing the Governor's mansion and blackmailed into leading a heist against a rival nation to postpone a brewing war.
This sounded so fun - a queer fantasy heist story - but unfortunately it was a real disappointment for me. This book has a major issue with 'tell' over 'show' writing in almost every aspect, which started off a little boring and got exceedingly irritating as it continued. At it's tamest, this manifests as world building being either underdeveloped (elements such as the 'bestowments' people have are really only mentioned in a very surface level way), or are presented with an inelegant info dump. At it's worst, whole scenes are described to us in two or three sentences rather than... like... actually being written.
Early on, we build to our characters overpowering a crew and taking over their boat, and this is, unfathomably, a fade to black? Of the most interesting scene of the book thus far? This was an absolutely bizarre choice. I was baffled and disappointed by this choice, but was going to mostly overlook it UNTIL IT HAPPENED AGAIN. The author goes out of her way not to write the scene of our characters discovering the location of the vault they'll be robbing, by having a POV character poison herself so that neither of our POV characters can be part of the scene that would actually be interesting to read. I don't know how to interpret this, it's such a bad way to write a book.
Speaking of our POV characters, Blythe and Kalen... I tried to like them, but GOD. For at least the first half of the book, both of their internal monologues are constant self deprecation and 'boo hoo this is all my fault I can't believe any of my friends don't hate me' which gets old SOOOOO fast. Blythe is particularly bad about this, especially because these convoluted self hating thought patterns start causing her to act unfathomably stupid. Like, so stupid I am not even starting to buy that a real person would make these choices. She deliberately jeopardises the group's mission because 'oh, I just can't burden them with this problem'. I was rolling my eyes into space.
All these issues in the 85% of the book which is build up to the actual heist and then... it's over in like 15 pages. Talk about anticlimactic. It was a bummer.
It might not sound like it, but this book did have things I liked! The Viper was easily my favourite, she was really cool and a pretty nuanced, multi-faceted character, and I liked her arc. She was definitely the highlight of the book for me. I also thought it was really cool that the main relationship here was a queer platonic relationship between Blythe and Kalen. Unfortunately, their relationship ended up falling a bit flat for me as I got frustrated by their miscommunication and again, thought we were told rather than shown how close they were, but conceptually, I was a fan! This was also the first book I've ever read with a main character who uses multiple (he/they) pronouns. It was a bit of a learning curve getting used to reading that, but it was really cool to see!
I think ultimately this was a case for me of a great concept and a not-so-great execution, unfortunately.
Thanks to the author for sending me an eARC in exchange for an honest review.
Graphic: Child abuse, Misogyny, Death, Violence, and Child death
Moderate: Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, and Eating disorder
Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, War, and Transphobia