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A review by chrysanthemum_days
The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Lady Sherlock Holmes and her assistant solve a mystery in a fantastical and or Sci-fi world.
Well 1st of all there is a lot of body horror in this book according to me. It's not done badly, infact it's an important part of the world building, it's an advanced world with people who have 'surgery' to become a 'strong' person, someone who can do math in their fingertips someone who can memorise what they see hear read etc. All kinds of augmentation you can do under the sun on human senses and intellectual abilities and physical abilities get done on the characters of this world. Quite horrific if you ask me sheesh. I'd like to stay as un'augmented as possible thank you very much especially since they have debilitating consequences as well. Not well recieved for the faint of heart, I draw a line at body horror it seems.
Apart from that, the way the author has used such augmentation of the characters and woven them into the story was mindblowing truly. Loved our main characters Din and Ana. Okay I thought this would be like any other books and have maybe a hint of romance with the mystery being the main focus but I spit my water out when I read Ana was like 50 or something. I thought uh is the author going to make an age gap romance happen? Well good for me it didn't happen and bad for me there wasn't any hint of romance (there was a mini dash of it betweenDin and Captain Strovi which was cuteee) well didn't expect to see a bi character here but we live in 2024. Anyways still loved the dynamic between Din and Ana like a mother son relationship or mentor mentee if you will. I'd protect them with my heart.
The story is part of an instalment of maybe 3 books I suppose? Not sure if I will continue reading. It took me like 12 days to finish the book, partly because the world was so complex it wasn't very readable and like I said, body horror. Oof. Anyways keeping it all aside the story is objectively wonderful. Maybe I'll continue and see.
Well 1st of all there is a lot of body horror in this book according to me. It's not done badly, infact it's an important part of the world building, it's an advanced world with people who have 'surgery' to become a 'strong' person, someone who can do math in their fingertips someone who can memorise what they see hear read etc. All kinds of augmentation you can do under the sun on human senses and intellectual abilities and physical abilities get done on the characters of this world. Quite horrific if you ask me sheesh. I'd like to stay as un'augmented as possible thank you very much especially since they have debilitating consequences as well. Not well recieved for the faint of heart, I draw a line at body horror it seems.
Apart from that, the way the author has used such augmentation of the characters and woven them into the story was mindblowing truly. Loved our main characters Din and Ana. Okay I thought this would be like any other books and have maybe a hint of romance with the mystery being the main focus but I spit my water out when I read Ana was like 50 or something. I thought uh is the author going to make an age gap romance happen? Well good for me it didn't happen and bad for me there wasn't any hint of romance (there was a mini dash of it between
The story is part of an instalment of maybe 3 books I suppose? Not sure if I will continue reading. It took me like 12 days to finish the book, partly because the world was so complex it wasn't very readable and like I said, body horror. Oof. Anyways keeping it all aside the story is objectively wonderful. Maybe I'll continue and see.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Death
Moderate: Sexual harassment