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olivia_piepmeier's review
adventurous
slow-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? No
3.0
Fantasy is not usually my thing, but I really enjoyed Lo's Ash and had bought a digital copy of this at some point. For whatever reason I figured now was the time to read. I found it slow going for awhile, but eventually I felt invested in the characters and story enough to keep going. Overall, it seems like it could have been cut down some, but I enjoyed the foray into this interesting world.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Animal death, and Death
doomluz's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
I love the descriptions and the setting, but the magic and the relationships could've been developed a bit more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Child death, and Blood
arlaubscher's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Animal death
amandalorianxo's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I wanted to read an origin story to what I assumed was how the huntress became to be who she was according to Malinda Lo’s version of Snow White except gender bent and sapphic. This dragged a little bit in the middle, as most fantasy based books do but it was a good set up for Ash. The abrupt random pov changes startled me a little but it gets easier to adjust the further you keep reading. The love between T & K felt a little insta lovey. I wasn’t sure where Con and Shae developed any sort of chemistry because I just … didn’t see it. The fairies were a cool addition.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Injury/Injury detail
madamenovelist's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Animal death
booksthatburn's review against another edition
Stopping because I’m bored. Since it starts off with one of the two main characters having a vision about how she’ll fall in love with the other one, I immediately felt like any potential romance is pointless, since she wasn’t attracted before having the vision. There’s too little drama for it to be an exciting read, and too much trauma for it to be a soothing read, which hits an uncomfortable middle zone for me.
I adjusted to the mixed dual-POV style, so this isn’t part of why O stopped, but it definitely threw me at first to have the focus of the third-person omniscient view switch between the two main characters repeatedly within each chapter.
There’s lot of great worldbuilding happening, with some cool details about items, clothing, and architecture, but that ultimately wasn’t enough to hold my interest.
I adjusted to the mixed dual-POV style, so this isn’t part of why O stopped, but it definitely threw me at first to have the focus of the third-person omniscient view switch between the two main characters repeatedly within each chapter.
There’s lot of great worldbuilding happening, with some cool details about items, clothing, and architecture, but that ultimately wasn’t enough to hold my interest.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Violence, Death, Pregnancy, Body horror, and Blood
ailsaod's review
adventurous
hopeful
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Oh wow this book was not long but I felt every page of it! I am baffled: how can so little happen in a book and yet still make the ending seem rushed? The setting was uninteresting - the book blurb boasts about "lush references to the I-Ching" which I didn't know of and wrongly assumed was some kind of book of Chinese folklore or something similar (it is actually a text about divination which is a strange thing to base a fantasy novel off of and I cannot think of anything that struck me as a reference). In fact to me the overall setting felt very generically European save from the main characters eating rice instead of the fantasy quest staple of bread and cheese. I am sure that other mythologies have Dryad or Unicorn equivalent creatures and translating their names to the English version aids understanding but it also means that a reader who only knows of the European version of the creature will only imagine that.
Another problem with this book is the characters - they are flat and I was utterly unable to feel anything in particular about them. The central romance had no reason for happening - Taisin has a vision of the future where she is in love with Kaede and then she's like "oh no I had best fall in love with her then!" They barely even talk to each other and yet they are also supposed to be madly in love. Also the author made a universe with no homophobia and then decided to add in different elements that make their relationship forbidden?
This book also wishes to have not one but two messages but fails in the delivery of both which I must say is an achievement! The most obvious is that a whole second quest is hurriedly tacked onto the end to make sure the reader knows that no problem is solved with murder. This is thrown right in the reader's face very unsubtly and immediately undercut with murder once again being used to solve the problem. Wow. I will say that a lot of the many seemingly purposeless scenes from earlier in the book made more sense once this moral was revealed but it doesn't change how boring they were! The second message is that true love is a thing - although I'm not certain if this was meant as while a lot of noise was made about it at the beginning, in the end Kaede and Taisin decide not to be together . Love it when people contradict themselves.
So to summarise: book is boring, badly paced and inconsistent. Would not recommend!
Content Warnings
Minor: Child death, Death, and Murder
mandkips's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Child death, and Blood
Minor: Animal death
obviousthings's review
DNF at the end of part 4 (85% according to my ebook reader). I did really like the beginning of this, but I eventually lost interest. Not sure if that's me or the book, though - I'm picky about what I read these days & it seems like I only really like about YA about a quarter of the time.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Death, and Blood
Minor: Animal death
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