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ticktock's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
Graphic: Cannibalism, Rape, Violence, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Murder
macmannwood's review
5.0
Graphic: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Blood, Emotional abuse, Death, Cannibalism, Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Physical abuse, Murder, Mental illness, Grief, Eating disorder, Violence, Religious bigotry, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Death of parent, Abortion, Pregnancy, Torture, Vomit, and War
anxiousnachos's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.25
Star Eater is a pacy, gruesome and gory horror fantasy about a murder mystery with cannibalistic government nuns and cats the size of horses and sexually transmitted zombieism. There are definitely problems! The ending is very rushed, the epilogue comes out of nowhere and it could of have had an extra 20-30 pages to end the book properly. And as other reviewers have pointed out, it’s weird how there’s no mention of trans/nonbinary people in such a queer-norm world?
But the vibes were so perfect for me and I can’t remember the last time I flew through a book like I did this.
Content warnings: Graphic blood and gore, graphic cannibalism, rape, forced impregnation, hallucinations, eating disorder, violence, murder, attempted murder, abortion, child death, child abuse, death
Graphic: Gore, Blood, Abortion, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Rape, Sexual violence, Eating disorder, Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, Death, Death of parent, and Mental illness
urs's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Death, and Mental illness
Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Murder, and Rape
Minor: Abortion, Child death, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, and Violence
nofriendofmine's review
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
2.0
Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, and Violence
Moderate: Murder, Rape, and Death of parent
booksthatburn's review against another edition
Graphic: Cannibalism
Moderate: Animal death, Death, and Blood
Minor: Rape
nullandvoidlibrary's review
3.5
Graphic: Cannibalism and Death
Moderate: Abortion, Confinement, and Child abuse
inkslinger's review
- 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? N/A
3.0
Elfreda Raughn is just an acolyte. Her best friends are both non-magical, Millie and Finn.. they're also the only family she's got. She wants out of the Sisterhood and all the ritualistic activities they center their lives around.
When a shadowy faction offers her an opportunity to avoid some of the most trying day-to-day duties, she agrees to spy for them. Her tasks give her access to a world she's never seen before. The elegant parties, twisted games, and dangerous interactions that only the leaders amongst her order engage in.. but surviving them may be another story.
Conceptually it's an intriguing story with incredibly dark elements. Not only do the Sisters engage in blood magic, it's quite frankly a brutal existence. Even those at the top have to sacrifice heavily, having more power only enables them to choose between those sacrifices a bit more aggressively and in Aytrium, none of the choices are good.
Hall manages to take some truly horrific acts and make them so palatable that they seem almost acceptable within the structure of the story. Which, isn't to say there isn't an occurrence here and there that's methodically too much even under the expectations she sets.
I enjoyed the multi-tiered conflict. The characters have plenty of internal struggles, but there are also waves and waves of conflicts overlapping and crashing into each other amongst the citizens of Aytrium. Though I did feel the ending was a little anti-climactic for me, the path from about the midway point of the book up to that conclusion hits pretty hard and fast. In fact, there's a moment it the city that is really rough emotionally.
While overall the story was pretty enjoyable, the beginning was a big of a slog. Somehow the author both over-describes and under-describes.. and I've genuinely never seen that before. Meaning, she'll give an eye-view of nearly everything the character comes across, but she doesn't actually describe any of it in enough detail so as to be easily visualized or memorable. The overuse of group names within the order is also a bit out of hand.
Fortunately, after the first third or so of the novel, that clears up as the plot itself becomes more dense. The book is definitely still worth a read, as it improves considerably from that point on and by the halfway mark or so, I didn't want to put it down anymore. If you're sensitive to graphic scenes, blood, gore, or death.. this book might not be for you.
(I received this title as an ARC. All opinions are mine and freely given.)
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Abortion, Confinement, and Vomit
phoebereads's review
5.0
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Cannibalism, Death, and Death of parent
Minor: Abortion and Child abuse