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A review by kitvaria_sarene
The Thirteenth Hour by Trudie Skies
4.0
This was a very delightful read!
I had no idea what to expect when I started it I just went by a friend's "you should read this", without even glancing at the blurb.
What I found was a wild mix of murder mystery, heist, revolution, a gang of misfits, cranky gods, aether fuelled technology and a lot of mystery.
Really, a whole ton of mystery, as even the main character doesn't have the slightest idea what she is, after one strange incident.
I loved the world, though at times it felt a bit rough around the edges. It's such a complex set up, that other pieces felt a bit lacking in contrast. Those weren't enough to rip me out of the story, just felt a bit too loose here and there.
What really made the book for me was the character! I loved the snark and the sarcasm that just felt right at home in a rather bleak and dark world. This made for a great balance between humourous and fun, and yet full of suspense and gritty. The main character(s? As she has a voice in her head) was easily my favourite, but I also enjoyed all her friends, and some of her enemies as well.
The gods were a bit too stereotypical for me, again with how amazing the rest of the book was, I expected a bit more from this part as well.
There's a bit of romance, but written in a way that even I, as a decidedly non romance reader, didn't mind. Warning for one short and well handled, but still hard to read scene of sexual assault.
The whole book was an "easy" read for me, but it's really rather dark in places. It has topics like social injustice, work houses, correction facilities, murder, violence, quite some death, some torture. It's not a fully Grimdark story at all, but it's also not at all fluffy!
I'll definitely pick up more by the author!
I had no idea what to expect when I started it I just went by a friend's "you should read this", without even glancing at the blurb.
What I found was a wild mix of murder mystery, heist, revolution, a gang of misfits, cranky gods, aether fuelled technology and a lot of mystery.
Really, a whole ton of mystery, as even the main character doesn't have the slightest idea what she is, after one strange incident.
I loved the world, though at times it felt a bit rough around the edges. It's such a complex set up, that other pieces felt a bit lacking in contrast. Those weren't enough to rip me out of the story, just felt a bit too loose here and there.
What really made the book for me was the character! I loved the snark and the sarcasm that just felt right at home in a rather bleak and dark world. This made for a great balance between humourous and fun, and yet full of suspense and gritty. The main character(s? As she has a voice in her head) was easily my favourite, but I also enjoyed all her friends, and some of her enemies as well.
The gods were a bit too stereotypical for me, again with how amazing the rest of the book was, I expected a bit more from this part as well.
There's a bit of romance, but written in a way that even I, as a decidedly non romance reader, didn't mind. Warning for one short and well handled, but still hard to read scene of sexual assault.
The whole book was an "easy" read for me, but it's really rather dark in places. It has topics like social injustice, work houses, correction facilities, murder, violence, quite some death, some torture. It's not a fully Grimdark story at all, but it's also not at all fluffy!
I'll definitely pick up more by the author!