booksthatburn's reviews
1032 reviews
Blood Heir, by Ilona Andrews
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
BLOOD HEIR is set in the same world as the Kate Daniels books, and serves as both a sort of sequel and as a new story which can be enjoyed by readers who are unfamiliar with the earlier book. It has its own story with Julie, renamed Aurelia Ryder after she left Atlanta at the conclusion of the earlier series. One of the draws to this book is that it continues a world readers will already know, but there have been a lot of changes in Julie as a person and in Atlanta as a city so this is very approachable for new readers.
Aurelia returns to Atlanta after a long absence, magically changed and now (hopefully) unrecognizable to those who knew her before as Kate and Curran's ward. At the word of a Witch Oracle she's trying to avert a prophecy which promises terrible things for the people she loves. In addition to her powers as a sensate, Aurelia has magic learned from her (sort of) grandparents and years of physical training to back it up.
The worldbuilding does a good job of explaining things that are relevant for Aurelia, without getting bogged down in the tangled mass of relationships and events which were established in the earlier series. It presents people as they matter to Aurelia, not necessarily commenting on whatever role they played before unless it becomes relevant. This means that characters like Conrad, Derek, and Asciano (who play important roles) get far more attention than even Kate, since she's far away and needs to stay there long enough for Aurelia to make a difference.
The main plot is a combination of a murder mystery and mind games while Aurelia tries to solve the murder of a pastor who ministered to the poor in the city. Atlanta has become a much harsher place in recent years, not that it was particularly kind when Julie was a child.
A good follow-up to Kate Daniels, I'm hopeful that this will be the start of a great new series.
Aurelia returns to Atlanta after a long absence, magically changed and now (hopefully) unrecognizable to those who knew her before as Kate and Curran's ward. At the word of a Witch Oracle she's trying to avert a prophecy which promises terrible things for the people she loves. In addition to her powers as a sensate, Aurelia has magic learned from her (sort of) grandparents and years of physical training to back it up.
The worldbuilding does a good job of explaining things that are relevant for Aurelia, without getting bogged down in the tangled mass of relationships and events which were established in the earlier series. It presents people as they matter to Aurelia, not necessarily commenting on whatever role they played before unless it becomes relevant. This means that characters like Conrad, Derek, and Asciano (who play important roles) get far more attention than even Kate, since she's far away and needs to stay there long enough for Aurelia to make a difference.
The main plot is a combination of a murder mystery and mind games while Aurelia tries to solve the murder of a pastor who ministered to the poor in the city. Atlanta has become a much harsher place in recent years, not that it was particularly kind when Julie was a child.
A good follow-up to Kate Daniels, I'm hopeful that this will be the start of a great new series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Blood, Violence, Death, and Body horror
Moderate: Kidnapping, Medical content, Torture, and Child abuse
Minor: Alcohol, Rape, Vomit, Child death, Death of parent, Drug use, Ableism, Excrement, and Mental illness
Travelers Along the Way: A Robin Hood Remix, by Aminah Mae Safi
adventurous
medium-paced
- 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
3.5
TRAVELERS ALONG THE WAY takes place during the Crusades (just as in the original Robin Hood tales), and features characters whose archetypes and circumstances are recognizable, but don’t require that similarity to be enjoyable. I like Rahma, and the generally breezy rapport between the party members. There are moment of tension, especially related to the actual war which is the whole reason Rahma and her sister are here in the first place. My favorite bit is the sequence with the Templars, and I like how the whole thing wraps up.
I enjoyed it while reading but I’m having trouble teasing out anything in particular for comment afterwards that wouldn’t be a huge spoiler. The audiobook narrator did a great job, and I’m glad this is part of the Remixed Classics collection.
I enjoyed it while reading but I’m having trouble teasing out anything in particular for comment afterwards that wouldn’t be a huge spoiler. The audiobook narrator did a great job, and I’m glad this is part of the Remixed Classics collection.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, War, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Confinement
Minor: Cannibalism, Islamophobia, Death of parent, Death, Antisemitism, Slavery, Sexual content, and Grief
Bloodhound, by Tamora Pierce
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
BLOODHOUND doesn’t specifically wrap up anything from TERRIER, but it does answer the question of what happens once Beka is a Dog instead of a Puppy. There’s a new storyline related to counterfeits in the money supply and a trip away from Corus, as well as a romance for Beka, both of which are introduced and resolved. It’s not the final book and it leaves open Beka’s next steps and new partnership to be continued later. Beka’s narration is consistent with TERRIER, though she’s a bit wiser after her Puppy year. The backstory is explained enough for this to make sense to anyone who started here without reading any other Tortall books.
The worldbuilding has some pretty egregious lifts from real-world cuisine in terms of seafood and Beka’s inland reactions to it. The details listed food without celebrating it, mostly focusing on whether or not Beka liked it on her first time. It's perfectly fine for fantasy stories to use real-world food, but it felt like "westerner's first visit to a seafood restaurant" and the whole vibe was off.
The plot is slow, meandering through the investigation, and letting the supposed craziness of the villain be the justification for a scheme that makes no sense and could ruin a whole country's economy for very little actual profit in the long run. When the villain and their motivation is revealed there's an implicit shoulder shrug of resignation that they didn't care about the long term and were just bad. It feels sloppy and makes the story frustrating to solve, a far cry from the neat way things were intertwined in the first book. There, the resolution of a particular hanging detail could feel triumphant when solved. Here, it's obvious who's doing it but not why, and the answer turns out to be they didn't care that it's a bad plan.
There’s a weird vibe around Beka’s reactions to Okha once she finds about Okha’s alias, Amber Orchid. Amber states plainly that’s she’s a woman’s soul in a man’s body as a result of the Trickster god. Beka’s reaction is acceptance of the statement, but it’s treated in the text that Amber/Okha is grateful she didn’t react violently to the news. When Beka spends the rest of the novel misgendering Okha by using he/him even when she’s in women’s clothes and using the name “Amber”, it just feels like performative allyship that doesn’t actually respect what Okha said. I’d have less of an issue with it if Beka used “he/him” when Okha was in men’s clothes, and she/her when Amber was in women’s clothes, but it’s very off-putting when Beka’s with Amber, surrounded by people who don’t know she spends part of her time answering to any other name, and still Beka writes of her using he/him. Gender is complicated, and gender in a second-world fantasy setting shouldn’t have to map neatly onto reality, but it seems off for a setting which has terms which seem to mean gay and lesbian, while not having one for another kind of queerness that’s prominent in the story. Amber could say what the proper word or common (non-derogatory) slang is when she says she has a woman’s soul. Instead, it’s this halfway ground that tries to show Beka as good for not being horrible, while not having her actually behave as though she believes Amber about her own identity. It’s especially frustrating when details like clothing, customs, and food are lifted nearly unaltered from real peoples and cultures in order to build out the worlds, and that worked out rather badly once again. As a trans person myself, we may joke about being a soul in the wrong body as an attempt to convey to cis people how distressing it can be to be chronically mistreated and misgendered, and there may even be individuals for whom that feels like what happened, but it seems like the author heard that explanation at some point and decided to make it literal in Tortall. The end result misgenders a lovely character who had a chance at being an example of a queer person using drag to explore or display their gender expression in a safe context, or it could have been tweaked slightly to let Amber live publicly as a woman the whole time. Instead, Amber is referred to as either “Okha” or “Amber/Okha”, and her identity is discovered like a badly-kept secret.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Sexism, Violence, and Confinement
Moderate: Classism, Excrement, Sexual content, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Cursing, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/injury detail, Transphobia, and Animal death
Minor: Death, Sexual harassment, Vomit, Deadnaming, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Murder, Homophobia, and Pregnancy
Terrier, by Tamora Pierce
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
TERRIER is about an ancestress of George Cooper, a character important to other series set in Tortall. It serves as a prequel of sorts, and is best read after the Song of the Lioness quartet for readers who intend to read all of the Tortall books. However, after the prologue which establishes the connection to George Cooper, the rest of the story does not require any additional knowledge from the other books in order to be appreciated.
The story is told in a journal format, with a few entries to establish Beka's backstory and place in the Tortall books, then it switches completely to Beka's journal that she keeps as part of her Dog training.
Beka is from the slums of the Lower City, and she lives near the Kennel she's assigned to as a Dog. She has some friends among the Puppies, she gets to know her training Dogs (Tunstall and Goodwin), and she ends up making a few friends with rushers new to the court of the Rogue. She has a cat with purple eyes, and a magical ability that lets her get information that other Dogs cannot. She ends up on the trail of two sets of murders: someone hiring workers and then killing them to keep their efforts secret, and someone who’s been extorting poor people by kidnapping their kids. Beka trains, goes on patrol with her Dogs, and tries to make things right in a city with too few good Dogs to handle ordinary crime, let alone spree and serial killers.
Beka makes friends, straight and crooked, and tries to keep from crossing any lines that can’t be uncrossed. The camaraderie in the morning group which develops is a bright spot in her world of patrols, fights, and death. She has strong friendships with individuals and as a group. The journal format of the book lends itself well to conveying their growing friendships, which are a strong point of the novel.
TERRIER closes with Beka still a Puppy but wiser than when she began, and ready for her next challenge. The story closes off so neatly that it feels like it could have been a stand-alone, but instead it’s the first in a trilogy.
The story is told in a journal format, with a few entries to establish Beka's backstory and place in the Tortall books, then it switches completely to Beka's journal that she keeps as part of her Dog training.
Beka is from the slums of the Lower City, and she lives near the Kennel she's assigned to as a Dog. She has some friends among the Puppies, she gets to know her training Dogs (Tunstall and Goodwin), and she ends up making a few friends with rushers new to the court of the Rogue. She has a cat with purple eyes, and a magical ability that lets her get information that other Dogs cannot. She ends up on the trail of two sets of murders: someone hiring workers and then killing them to keep their efforts secret, and someone who’s been extorting poor people by kidnapping their kids. Beka trains, goes on patrol with her Dogs, and tries to make things right in a city with too few good Dogs to handle ordinary crime, let alone spree and serial killers.
Beka makes friends, straight and crooked, and tries to keep from crossing any lines that can’t be uncrossed. The camaraderie in the morning group which develops is a bright spot in her world of patrols, fights, and death. She has strong friendships with individuals and as a group. The journal format of the book lends itself well to conveying their growing friendships, which are a strong point of the novel.
TERRIER closes with Beka still a Puppy but wiser than when she began, and ready for her next challenge. The story closes off so neatly that it feels like it could have been a stand-alone, but instead it’s the first in a trilogy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Violence, Suicide, Murder, Grief, and Death
Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Blood, Injury/injury detail, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Child abuse
Minor: Confinement, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Rape, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Ableism, Alcohol, and Alcoholism
Dwellers: A Novel: Winner of the Philippine National Book Award, by Eliza Victoria
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
DWELLERS is a twisting story, where two brothers fleeing something terrible end up in a situation with its own set of problems when they take over the bodies of two strangers. Tightly constructed, this winds through tense boredom and fear as Jonah and Louis try to figure out why the people they replaced have a dead body in the basement.
I love doppelganger stories, and this fits into that general type while weaving something new-to-me along the way. Part of what's so unsettling about it is that other than the mental body-snatching which brings Louis and Jonah (not their real names) into someone else's life, most of the horror is so plausibly mundane. Jonah broke his leg in the crash when he took over this life, and he's trapped inside while he waits for his (new) body to heal. Louis is technically more mobile, but their need for secrecy means that he's nearly as trapped as Jonah.
The ending is suitably ambiguous. This is a story of loose threads, mistakes, malice, and unsettled things, and the strangeness of the ending suits it well.
I love doppelganger stories, and this fits into that general type while weaving something new-to-me along the way. Part of what's so unsettling about it is that other than the mental body-snatching which brings Louis and Jonah (not their real names) into someone else's life, most of the horror is so plausibly mundane. Jonah broke his leg in the crash when he took over this life, and he's trapped inside while he waits for his (new) body to heal. Louis is technically more mobile, but their need for secrecy means that he's nearly as trapped as Jonah.
The ending is suitably ambiguous. This is a story of loose threads, mistakes, malice, and unsettled things, and the strangeness of the ending suits it well.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, and Child death
Moderate: Medical trauma, Grief, Cursing, Gore, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Body shaming, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Sexual assault, Gun violence, and Car accident
Minor: Lesbophobia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Confinement, and Animal death
The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Murder, Death, Confinement, and Blood
Moderate: Grief, Gun violence, Ableism, Misogyny, Medical trauma, Suicide, Animal death, Violence, Medical content, Child death, Terminal illness, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, and Kidnapping
Minor: Rape and Antisemitism
Changeless, by Gail Carriger
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- 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
3.0
CHANGLESS is a pretty good book which is utterly ruined by a terrible ending.
CHANGELESS begins with annoyances and crises, the regiment has appeared on the lawn and a mysterious plague of mortality has fallen upon London’s normally supernatural residents. This introduces Madame Lefoux, a hat-maker and inventor who affects masculine dress as a matter of course. There’s an entirely new storyline related to Madame Lefoux, Ivy, the mortality plague, and a sudden need to travel to Scotland. This doesn’t wrap up anything left hanging, though it is nice to see Alexia and Conall as a married couple. Several things related to the mortality issue and Conall’s past are introduced and resolved. This isn’t the final book and has a very sudden cliffhanger which demands to be addressed in the next volume. Alexia is still the main narrator and her voice is consistent, though there are some sections following other characters. I like Madame Lefoux, she's a great addition to the ensemble of characters.
There’s enough backstory given that this could mostly make sense if someone started here and hadn’t read the first book, but this book thrives on banter and relationships, so it will be much more impactful for anyone who started the series at the beginning.
Because the setting is based on real-life Victorian England (and Scotland), but with supernatural elements and steampunk, it ends up engaging with Great Britain as an empire and not just a country. The regiment which shows up was returning from serving the British military in India, apparently some kind of colonialist possession, though I’m not sure how precisely it aligns with the real trajectory of that situation. There are also mentions of British military presence in North Africa. The main characters are supernatural representatives in Queen Victoria’s government, but this is the first real reference to British colonization in the series.
I hate the ending. It’s technically in keeping with the various characters’ personalities, but it’s sudden and stressful and I’ve never liked it.
CHANGELESS begins with annoyances and crises, the regiment has appeared on the lawn and a mysterious plague of mortality has fallen upon London’s normally supernatural residents. This introduces Madame Lefoux, a hat-maker and inventor who affects masculine dress as a matter of course. There’s an entirely new storyline related to Madame Lefoux, Ivy, the mortality plague, and a sudden need to travel to Scotland. This doesn’t wrap up anything left hanging, though it is nice to see Alexia and Conall as a married couple. Several things related to the mortality issue and Conall’s past are introduced and resolved. This isn’t the final book and has a very sudden cliffhanger which demands to be addressed in the next volume. Alexia is still the main narrator and her voice is consistent, though there are some sections following other characters. I like Madame Lefoux, she's a great addition to the ensemble of characters.
There’s enough backstory given that this could mostly make sense if someone started here and hadn’t read the first book, but this book thrives on banter and relationships, so it will be much more impactful for anyone who started the series at the beginning.
Because the setting is based on real-life Victorian England (and Scotland), but with supernatural elements and steampunk, it ends up engaging with Great Britain as an empire and not just a country. The regiment which shows up was returning from serving the British military in India, apparently some kind of colonialist possession, though I’m not sure how precisely it aligns with the real trajectory of that situation. There are also mentions of British military presence in North Africa. The main characters are supernatural representatives in Queen Victoria’s government, but this is the first real reference to British colonization in the series.
I hate the ending. It’s technically in keeping with the various characters’ personalities, but it’s sudden and stressful and I’ve never liked it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Gore, and Body horror
Moderate: Grief, Colonisation, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Violence, Cursing, Gun violence, Injury/injury detail, and Sexual content
Minor: Pregnancy, Drug use, War, Vomit, Sexual harassment, Infidelity, Alcohol, and Body shaming
So Many Beginnings: A Little Women Remix, by Bethany C. Morrow
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- 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
5.0
SO MANY BEGINNINGS reimagines the story of LITTLE WOMEN with the March family as newly freed Black people in the Freedpeople's Colony of Roanoke Island. It fundamentally transforms the original story with the change in context and characterization. I love the decision to keep the same nicknames for the sisters but different full names. That small change makes it clear early on that this is its own story, that these are different March sisters and from now on I need not belabor further distinctions and divergences.
There's so much love between the March sisters and their parents. Their father is away for most of the story, but he is constantly in their thoughts and in correspondence with them through letters to their mother.
The story begins with the March family emancipated and living in the Freedpeople's Colony. Much time is devoted to showing their lives there, a mix of precarious circumstances and deliberate choices to fortify what they have and make things better for those around them. Meg is a teacher, and she teaches Amy at home when she's done with her students in the colony's school. Jo (Joanna) composes words and thoughts constantly and is persuaded by her sisters to begin putting them to paper so they can be shared with others. Beth (Bethlehem) is a seamstress, taking apart the clothes which were left behind and using them to create new garments for her family. Amy (Amethyst) is full of energy and constantly dancing. Her mother and sisters try to shield her from adult concerns as much as they can so that she can have a childhood in ways they were never able to.
The audiobook narrator is a delight, bringing them all to life. The narrative seems to focus a bit more on Beth and Jo than on Meg and Amy in the first portion, then after the time jump most of the story is about Jo and Amy, with some scenes featuring the others. I love how Beth and Jo are handled, which might have tinted my recollection of the balance between the characters. They all have plenty of time in focus and no one feels neglected by the narrative. I'm especially pleased with Jo and Lorie, as Jo describes herself in ways consistent with an aspec character even though that label would have been anachronistic (and therefore doesn't appear). Instead she does the more useful thing of describing the tension she experiences in how other people think she should feel about Lorie. Their bond is unshakeable and doesn't need to fit anyone else's ideas of how they should be with one another, and the narrative supports that instead of trying to bend them to society's expectations. It's a small but important thing which feels emblematic of how the whole story approaches these characters. It's in everything from seeking answers about Beth's illness, to Jo using her words to educate others about the colony rather than letting white journalists control the narrative without even interviewing a single Black resident.
There's so much love between the March sisters and their parents. Their father is away for most of the story, but he is constantly in their thoughts and in correspondence with them through letters to their mother.
The story begins with the March family emancipated and living in the Freedpeople's Colony. Much time is devoted to showing their lives there, a mix of precarious circumstances and deliberate choices to fortify what they have and make things better for those around them. Meg is a teacher, and she teaches Amy at home when she's done with her students in the colony's school. Jo (Joanna) composes words and thoughts constantly and is persuaded by her sisters to begin putting them to paper so they can be shared with others. Beth (Bethlehem) is a seamstress, taking apart the clothes which were left behind and using them to create new garments for her family. Amy (Amethyst) is full of energy and constantly dancing. Her mother and sisters try to shield her from adult concerns as much as they can so that she can have a childhood in ways they were never able to.
The audiobook narrator is a delight, bringing them all to life. The narrative seems to focus a bit more on Beth and Jo than on Meg and Amy in the first portion, then after the time jump most of the story is about Jo and Amy, with some scenes featuring the others. I love how Beth and Jo are handled, which might have tinted my recollection of the balance between the characters. They all have plenty of time in focus and no one feels neglected by the narrative. I'm especially pleased with Jo and Lorie, as Jo describes herself in ways consistent with an aspec character even though that label would have been anachronistic (and therefore doesn't appear). Instead she does the more useful thing of describing the tension she experiences in how other people think she should feel about Lorie. Their bond is unshakeable and doesn't need to fit anyone else's ideas of how they should be with one another, and the narrative supports that instead of trying to bend them to society's expectations. It's a small but important thing which feels emblematic of how the whole story approaches these characters. It's in everything from seeking answers about Beth's illness, to Jo using her words to educate others about the colony rather than letting white journalists control the narrative without even interviewing a single Black resident.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical content, Chronic illness, Slavery, War, Death, Racism, and Classism
Minor: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Terminal illness, and Death of parent
Servant Mage, by Kate Elliott
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
SERVANT MAGE has the density of an epic fantasy in a novella-sized package, told from the perspective of a character who would usually be incidental to this kind of story.
Fellian is an interesting and well-defined character, I like her a lot, and she's what got me through this book. She's a commoner chosen for a specific but not unique skill, being used by people with a particular political angle and strategic goal that has very little to do with her everyday life. Where this fell apart for me is that it tries to fit a novel and a half of worldbuilding into a novella, gradually turning into a confusing blur of names and motivations that left me unsure of the point until the very end. In the final third of the book, Fellian is still asking questions about who people are and why things matter, and at one point is rebuked for doing so. It’s especially frustrating because this means the author knows it’s unclear, teases with the possibility of an answer and then declines to offer it when it would be most useful.
Even though there were a lot of details, most of them weren't useful in terms of understanding the secondary characters and their motivations. They seemed to fit character archetypes pretty generically and I kept mixing up who was who.
I think it's supposed to be a slow burn reveal that actually but it felt like 20% kidnapping, 40% adventure, 35% confusing piles of unnecessary detail, with the final 5% as a manifesto about ordinary people making a difference for themselves while the bigger powers tear each other apart.
Fellian is an interesting and well-defined character, I like her a lot, and she's what got me through this book. She's a commoner chosen for a specific but not unique skill, being used by people with a particular political angle and strategic goal that has very little to do with her everyday life. Where this fell apart for me is that it tries to fit a novel and a half of worldbuilding into a novella, gradually turning into a confusing blur of names and motivations that left me unsure of the point until the very end. In the final third of the book, Fellian is still asking questions about who people are and why things matter, and at one point is rebuked for doing so. It’s especially frustrating because this means the author knows it’s unclear, teases with the possibility of an answer and then declines to offer it when it would be most useful.
Even though there were a lot of details, most of them weren't useful in terms of understanding the secondary characters and their motivations. They seemed to fit character archetypes pretty generically and I kept mixing up who was who.
I think it's supposed to be a slow burn reveal that actually
Spoiler
both sides of this conflict suck and the Monarchists aren't as great as they seemed at first, but since the very first thing they do is kidnap Fellian and enlist her help under false pretenses which rob her of any meaningful agency for long stretches, I didn't spend any time thinking they were good. It ends up being a struggle between the group that will straight up murder a baby and the group that thinks it's fine to just cut one a little bit if it's for the greater good. By the end, it was impossible to think of either side as good, which is definitely the point of the book,
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, Child death, and Classism
Moderate: Terminal illness, Body horror, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Excrement, and Grief
Minor: Death of parent, Slavery, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Sexual harassment
A Clash of Steel: A Treasure Island Remix, by C.B. Lee
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- 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
4.0
Xiang feels ignored by her mother, treated as a thing to be kept safe rather than a person who can want things and pursue them competently. She's been surrounded by people paid to teach her and keep her safe, part of a village where she's free to roam to hills and read, but is kept away from anything more adventurous. Her prized possession is a pendant from her presumed-dead father. When her mother agrees to let her try to learn one aspect of the business, it appears as though her mother might finally take her seriously. Instead her mother keeps trying to arrange a marriage for Xiang, a prospect which feels stifling. She meets Anh, a sailor, and feels close to her almost immediately, but takes longer to realize just how different their perspectives are, due to their vastly different life experiences. When she runs away and joins Anh's crew she finds a place where she is valued for what she does and for how she fits into a larger whole.
The worldbuilding leans into a heady mix of clothing, food, and legends of the Dragon Queen's exploits from decades ago. Once she's on the ship, Xiang works to learn as much as she can and revels in the feeling of getting stronger from daily work. There's an emphasis on found family, and in untangling the difference between where you come from and where you feel at home.
I enjoyed this both on its own and as a retelling of Treasure Island. You don't need to be familiar with the original, as this takes the bones of that other story and clads them in something wonderful and new. The ending is tense and dramatic, I like how it wraps things up.
The worldbuilding leans into a heady mix of clothing, food, and legends of the Dragon Queen's exploits from decades ago. Once she's on the ship, Xiang works to learn as much as she can and revels in the feeling of getting stronger from daily work. There's an emphasis on found family, and in untangling the difference between where you come from and where you feel at home.
I enjoyed this both on its own and as a retelling of Treasure Island. You don't need to be familiar with the original, as this takes the bones of that other story and clads them in something wonderful and new. The ending is tense and dramatic, I like how it wraps things up.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Gun violence, and Death
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Death of parent
Minor: Sexual content, Lesbophobia, Drug use, and Child abuse