Scan barcode
gen_nh's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Torture, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief
how_sweet_the_sound'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
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and War
bencaroline'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
4.0
Graphic: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
ksykes'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
4.5
I haven’t read enough race theory to have formed a confident opinion on this but her portrayal of race struck me as a bit problematic. It was hard not to lay our own world and culture over top of the ones she has created and I don’t think the expectation should be that readers <em>can</em> do that. In context of the series as a whole her depiction of race becomes a little less problematic but I think these books are still meant to operate as standalones?
All that to say I really enjoyed this. It’s more in the vein of Bitterblue than Fire or Graceling and has a riveting mystery at its centre.
One final thing, there should be a huge trigger warning for extreme emotional and physical abuse of a main point-of-view character and other children.
Graphic: Kidnapping and Death of parent
Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
Minor: Gaslighting
megansreading's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
2.0
Here are the good bits:
- Surprisingly, I enjoyed reading from the fox’s POV. He had the clearest motivations of all the characters. (Though I’m still not sure why he was heroically wanting to help Louisa, who despised him.)
- I enjoyed Hava and the exploration of her grace. It felt right to give her more page time she wasn’t able to have in Bitterblue and the different graces have always been one of my favorite parts of this world.
- Lastly, Though I know others disagree, I did enjoy Giddon and Bitterblue’s romance. It felt like they genuinely cared and relied on one another—even if they were separated for a lot of the book.
Now for the bad bits:
- This book takes forever to get started. I think I was around 150 pages in before it felt like things were actually happening. This boring pace continues for the rest of the book. It felt like too much was being thrown at me at once with no indication of where the plot was actually going. There was no clear goal and motivation that I could point to. And I’m not even sure everything was resolved by the end.
- Which brings me to the large cast of characters that were so forgettable. It’s a good thing there was a cast list in the back of the book because the side characters were so interchangeable that I never remembered who was who. I was missing the deep characterization from the previous books. Most of the side characters I didn’t hate…because I honestly didn’t know them well enough to care about them at all.
- Lovisa was one of my least favorite protagonists I’ve read in a long time. She was hypocritical, self-centered (except for when she threw in mentions of her brothers so we would have sympathy for her), and just rude. I understand she comes from a rough home life (see the next section on themes), but she did not seem to make any effort at all to be kind to people who were kind to her. I was sympathetic but not at all empathetic. She outright admits that she uses people for sex and she has next to no healthy relationships. There is not a single character, aside from her brothers that are just personality-less tools, that Lovisa cares about. It’s hard to be invested in her when she doesn’t have anyone in her life that she’s connected with. This also makes me not want to care about the other characters, as mentioned previously. She could be interesting as a side character, but it was not enjoyable to be in her perspective.
- There were so many themes going on in this book that it felt like none of them were properly explored. In her previous books, the author did a fabulous job exploring the effects/consequences of abuse and manipulative parental relationships. But that even seemed to fall flat for me.
- Normally I don’t bring this up in reviews, but let’s talk about the sex for a moment. For one, the on-page sex scenes were too explicit and numerous to allow this book to be YA. To be brief, Lovisa has a super unhealthy relationship with sex, and it is never condemned. It’s reasonable considering her upbringing that she would have an unhealthy relationship with sex, but it’s never portrayed as wrong that she uses people for sex and uses sex as a distraction/harmful coping mechanism for trauma. Sex has real emotional consequences, especially when used in an unhealthy way. Additionally, this is a huge break in tone from the previous books—and it is largely unnecessary to the plot.
- Along with themes, In one of Bitterblue’s POV chapters it’s mentioned twice that Lovisa seems to be contemplating suicide. This suicidal ideation was NEVER mentioned in any other chapters, not even in Lovisa’s POV. It didn’t even feel like a natural direction of Lovisa’s personality. It felt like a weird deviation and like throwaway lines about an incredibly sensitive, deep topic. We get one mention at the very end of the book from Lovisa about it, but overall it either needed to be developed more or cut completely.
- There is also one character who is entirely replaceable/unnecessary.
There is probably more I could say but this will suffice. I’m really sad that this novel didn’t expand on this world in a way that I enjoyed. I almost wish the author had created this in a different, standalone world since there is such a large deviation in setting and themes.
I will not be rereading this book and I will probably not read any of the following books in this series.
Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Sexual content
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
darth_twain'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
2.5
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Kidnapping
Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
melplays9000's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I must say however that the beginning of this book did feel a little rushed to me. There wasn’t much time to get back into the characters and the world before we were thrust right into the main plot. Saying that, the series as a whole doesn’t really have a overarching plot, which I also find a little strange. Each book has its own plot which is just the characters reacting to what is happening to and around them. I’m not sure this is something I specifically don’t like, just an observation which I’m not sure how I feel about.
Overall this book was exactly what I wanted and needed it to be at the time I read it. I definitely need to read more fantasy and more series because clearly that’s what I like best. 5 stars.
Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Grief
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Drug use and Suicidal thoughts
geekmom'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
4.5
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Abandonment
jenkneebee'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
4.0
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder