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woolerys's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.25
Writing - 4/5
Plot - 2/5
Characters - 4/5
World-building - 3/5
Personal tastes - 3/5
TOTAL: 3.2
The pacing was uneven and the plot was occasionally hard to follow given the unsignaled time jumps; however, the novel’s voice and the characters were vibrant and engaging. Had it been a longer book, I would have been glad to hang out with the protagonist for as many more pages as Wilson wanted to write.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Body horror, Violence, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Alcohol
Minor: Sexism and Xenophobia
erebus53's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. It chucks you in the deep end a bit at the start but any fantasy or science fiction reader would find a footing pretty quickly, as it leans in hard to it's show-don't-tell ways.
I see some similarities to (of all things?!) Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. In both we are immersed in a world explained by scientific and theoretic under underpinnings that we know we know little of, with queer love, and anime-style hyper-violent action fight scenes. I've never really been one for fight scenes or battles so the splurt and slice does little for me, and leaves me feeling a little like hardly anything relevant has happened.
The descriptions are sumptuous and creative. The author has a real handle on simile and metaphor that can make seemingly bland things seem visceral and organic. The best things in the way the story is told though, are the dialogue and the world. This is probably even more striking in the Audiobook performance. The "brothers" feel like Black American soldiers...
... kinda want to understand where those soldiers are going and what for though. The whole book feels like it left off at the end of the first chapter and you've come to your first crossing, but nowhere near the end of your journey.
I see some similarities to (of all things?!) Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. In both we are immersed in a world explained by scientific and theoretic under underpinnings that we know we know little of, with queer love, and anime-style hyper-violent action fight scenes. I've never really been one for fight scenes or battles so the splurt and slice does little for me, and leaves me feeling a little like hardly anything relevant has happened.
The descriptions are sumptuous and creative. The author has a real handle on simile and metaphor that can make seemingly bland things seem visceral and organic. The best things in the way the story is told though, are the dialogue and the world. This is probably even more striking in the Audiobook performance. The "brothers" feel like Black American soldiers...
... kinda want to understand where those soldiers are going and what for though. The whole book feels like it left off at the end of the first chapter and you've come to your first crossing, but nowhere near the end of your journey.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Death, Drug abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Cursing, Medical content, Murder, and Sexual content
therese_nook68's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I had high hopes for this novella and was really disappointed.
Let me start off with the things I did like: I liked the use of AAVE in a high fantasy novel. I thought it was a novel and unique idea. I liked the way that the world is so expansive and so huge.
Unfortunately, the latter reason why I liked it was also the reason why I ended up disliking the novel. While the world is so expansive, it’s almost too expansive for a novella. There was so much to absorb and I couldn’t figure out the world, couldn’t figure out what it meant to be a demigod, who the gods are, etc. What other things I could have enjoyed from the book, such as the romance, the characters, the tension and fear as they get to the Wildeeps, got overshadowed by this huge world that I couldn’t begin to visualize.
Let me start off with the things I did like: I liked the use of AAVE in a high fantasy novel. I thought it was a novel and unique idea. I liked the way that the world is so expansive and so huge.
Unfortunately, the latter reason why I liked it was also the reason why I ended up disliking the novel. While the world is so expansive, it’s almost too expansive for a novella. There was so much to absorb and I couldn’t figure out the world, couldn’t figure out what it meant to be a demigod, who the gods are, etc. What other things I could have enjoyed from the book, such as the romance, the characters, the tension and fear as they get to the Wildeeps, got overshadowed by this huge world that I couldn’t begin to visualize.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Body horror, Gore, Slavery, Child abuse, and Blood
clarabooksit's review
challenging
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I feel unequal to rating this story let alone reviewing it. Parts of this I loved: the use of language—(though not always—why describe a tongue as a mollusk while its in the act of kissing?)—the romanticism threaded throughout, and the glimpses of magic, theology, power and love that built snapshots of a lush, tantalizing world. But I also found so much confusing—(what is this world? where is Demane from and what brought him here? was this also sci-fi?)—the world-building was more of a tease than a fulfillment, and it wasn’t until the very end that this novella gains any kind of momentum.
In addition, for all the high praises women receive from the narrator, where were they on page and why did one of the few brief scenes with a female have to be a child prostitute?
The real kicker, for me, is that I think that this is meant to be a love story but the reader has no idea until the very, very end, by which point the reader hasn’t been given enough to be invested in it. There was so much potential here and I wanted more.
Again though, I’m not sure I fully comprehended this story and perhaps am not the best person to be reviewing it. I definitely think reading rather than listening to the audiobook would have served me better here. A reread might be in order as I think a lot of the confusion was with me, though I also think the nonlinear storytelling didn’t quite work, especially as it isn’t a consistent part of the storytelling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism
Minor: Homophobia, Pedophilia, and Drug use
gdpr_official's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
sad
fast-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
- an absolute banger
- intricately & lethally crafted; your heart will be dissected before you feel the blade
- very, very beautiful prose
- weird gods
- Afrofuturism
- sufficiently advanced tech indistinguishable from magic, or possibly the other way around
- cool linguistic worldbuilding centred on AAVE
- codeswitching used for multiple narrative functions, SO GOOD
- it's gay
- joyous & extremely sad
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Gore, Violence, Death, Racism, and Xenophobia
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