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missmali's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
4.5
Moderate: Gaslighting, Colonisation, Blood, Death, Violence, Toxic relationship, War, Death of parent, and Murder
angievansprang's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, War, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Lesbophobia, Violence, Sexism, Alcohol, Racism, and Murder
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, and Death of parent
thesunthesunthesunthesun's review
- 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
5.0
My partner thrust this book in my hands yesterday with the request to read "just chapter one, and then let me know what you think :)". I finished it in 2 days (mostly because general life got in the way). I'm still reeling. This book is etched into my brain now.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Biphobia, War, Torture, Blood, Drug use, Trafficking, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cannibalism, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Child death, and Animal death
becky_hofer's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Lesbophobia, Torture, Sexism, Racism, War, Misogyny, Death of parent, Homophobia, Colonisation, Murder, and Violence
hailstorm3812's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Classism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, War, Colonisation, and Xenophobia
Moderate: Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Genocide, Murder, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Sexism
Minor: Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit
abbyschalupa's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
The first set of chapters hooked me. Baru’s childhood is raw, detailed in rich prose and the wounds are eminent there on the page. Immediately, I was rooting for her. So what happened?
Unfortunately, the writing. Everything from there on fell. While the beginning brought the lens to focus on Baru, showing her experiences and all she endured, it felt like the writing style switched. Maybe that was the intention.
However, the writing no longer gave a lens into Baru’s world. It wrote from an outsider’s view, in black and white tone, as though a script were documenting all that occurred. There became an extreme lack of detail, we are no longer shown Baru’s world but instead told about it. The color went away and all became black and white. The rest of the book read like text for socioeconomic studies, detailing who said what, and what that meant, and what Baru must now do. All told, never shown.
Everything here is detached. I no longer cared for any of the characters, or Baru herself. She skyrocketed through the ranks, in ways that felt incredibly unrealistic, becoming arrogant, ruthless, and coldhearted. Although repeatedly called a savant, she ended up putting herself into multiple bad situations that were entirely avoidable. There were several situations I saw solutions to, but this savant never saw coming, and gave stern replies to people she supposedly cared about, only to never see them again before they died. It became incredibly frustrating.
I debated quitting halfway. Instead I skipped through chunks of chapters, glad to not have tried reading through them. It felt more like dragging through socioeconomic dense text compared to reading. Far more detached telling then showing. I ended the book disappointed that with such a great start, I never could get hooked back into the story or the character again. Unfortunately, the writing took such a detached and reporter like stance that I found no possibility of drawing further into the story, caring about the characters, or getting further invested. A huge bummer for me.
Graphic: Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Murder, Sexual content, Death, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Death of parent, Grief, Genocide, and Medical content
Moderate: Gore, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism
aileron's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, War, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Moderate: Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Grief, Medical content, Animal death, Blood, Sexual violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Racism
Minor: Confinement, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, and Suicidal thoughts
kingcrookback's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Colonisation, War, and Violence
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Homophobia
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Murder, Outing, and Sexual content
strawberrybex's review
4.0
please do look through the trigger warnings though! they are very real. and like add on pretty extensive discussions of eugenics (as like a mechanism of the big evil empire but. thorough and frequent)
Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Homophobia, Violence, Lesbophobia, and Murder
Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, War, and Death of parent
imperialism, colonialism, colonial violence, genocide and cultural genocide, race science and eugenics. also threats of sexual violence include like. threats of FGM. also conversion therapythird_bookworm's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Colonisation, War, Violence, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, and Torture