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akgeekgirl's review against another edition
- 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? No
5.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Death
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Stalking
kathrynleereads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
In my mind, this book can be split into two very distinct parts, the first being the majority of the book, and the second being the last 100 pages.
For most of the book, the pace is slow, the plot basically nonexistent, and the character development mild.
Lady Mykaela- Despite having to deal with the daeva on her own for the most part, and without the presence of her heartsglass, Lady Mykaela is such a calming and positive presence. I do wish that she fought back against the kingdoms using her basically as a tool though.
Zoya-
Likh- I wish Likh had been a little more present in this book. I love his character and the debate that his presence brings up about tradition.
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Having Tea explain things to the Bard was a seamless way to foreshadow, and to fill readers in on things they may have overlooked, but I think the Bard’s reactions to Tea’s stories are so much more valuable.
Fictional worlds are sometimes hard for readers to grasp because even with different customs and traditions explained through world-building, it is not always easy to gauge the level of difference between that world and our own.
Putting aside the Bard and the added world-building element that they provided, I enjoyed the presence of the flash-forwards because of the intrigue they created.
Obviously, there are some slight spoilers released through the flash-forwards, but they are so far-fetched from the current direction of the story that it only builds the suspense more.
This book taught me that it is not world-building alone that makes or breaks a book, but world-building that is well-paced.
I can’t wait to find out what’s in store for Tea in the rest of the trilogy!
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Violence, and War
Minor: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Classism, Medical content, Misogyny, and Sexism
directorpurry's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.75
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief, Racism, Sexism, and War
tifftastic87's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Tea is a necromancy witch in a world where witches are known. Female witches are trained to use their rune magic to both protect and entertain the wealthy and high class. In their training to entertain they are very highly educated in history, dance, musical instruments and song, as well as fighting. Male witches join the military ranks as Death Seekers. Tea discovers her ability as a Dark Asha by accidentally raising her brother, a fallen death seeker when she is only 12. From here the story follows Tea as she is trained in her craft, but the training doesn't come easy and Dark Asha's are more feared and ridiculed than respected.
The story itself was a little slow, but is told in two timelines. When the reveal of why happens the story starts to pick up. As with most YA stories, Tea is incredibly strong and special. But it didn't feel as Mary Sue as it could have. We see her struggle with many things and we see her fail and we see her punished. I did enjoy the aspect of her making mistakes and learning from them, we aren't told she is smart but we see that she is smart. Though that doesn't mean she doesn't make stupid young teen mistakes. Which I greatly appreciated.
The building of the world and weaving of cultures honestly gives it extra points for me.
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, War, Bullying, Chronic illness, and Sexism
Moderate: Emotional abuse and Violence
amre23's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Graphic: Death, Bullying, Gore, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Blood, Transphobia, Xenophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, War, Violence, Grief, Sexism, and Classism
Minor: Terminal illness, Alcohol, and Body horror
aura_rurubele's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
I love the way we explore a young girl's mind in the midst of such chaos and madness. I also love her relationship with her big brother, they're the perfect pair, so to find out what happens in the next book is absolutely heartbreaking.
In other words, this book has phenomenal world building and beautiful descriptive language of all of scenery. It's not particularly over whelming and perfectly positioned to help us gain a sense of this beautiful and dangerous world. The ending is such a plot twist though, goodness I'm still in shock!
Essentially I love this book! Rin Chupeco is officially my favourite Chinese Filipino author, probably my favourite YA author next to Cassie Cassidy.
Moderate: Death, Sexism, and War
Minor: Xenophobia
ofbooksandechos's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
Graphic: Death, Gore, and Blood
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Grief and Bullying
kurumipanda'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
2.0
Moderate: Death, War, and Sexism
Minor: Animal death and Transphobia
thenovelmaura's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I was fascinated by the Eight Kingdoms and I could tell Chupeco put a ton of thought into these lands, the people, and the magic system. This book was a bit contained to just a few cities and villages, but I'm expecting Tea to travel a lot more moving forward. I would recommend this book to people who enjoyed The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang or The Young Elites by Marie Lu; these books all have the fascinating theme of following the gradual corruption of the main character. And be prepared for really lush descriptions of clothing and other parts of the setting because there's a lot of that as well. I have friends who enjoyed this entire series so I'm really excited to continue it!
Graphic: Death and Blood
Moderate: Sexism
Minor: Transphobia
taglharp's review against another edition
- 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? No
3.5
Summary of things I liked:
‣ The worldbuilding — especially the dresses and the culture (JBC I was going "Hello Asia, I'm so happy to see so much of you" all the way through). But I also enjoyed the magic system!! There's also a lot of world politics and history that had a good amount of detail.
‣ The minor duelling — or, well, sparring. Listen I'm a sucker for any hint of military fantasy even though this is not a military fantasy.
‣ The family fluff — Fox & Tea's sibling relationship is to die for!! I'm used to squealing about more complex dynamics, but the simplicity of their relationship was so cute. I also really enjoyed the found family trope in this one - but lbr, is there anyone who doesn't like found family?
‣ Lihk & Zoya's characters — was this really published in 2017? Anyway, if you know you know. They were treat.
‣ THE FOOD DESCRIPTIONS. I was only hungry, like, all the time reading this book.
Summary of things I disliked:
‣ The beginning of the book — specifically the first 20%. Boring as all hell and quite hard to get through. Descriptions upon descriptions to the point that it was honestly disorienting. I'm a character-first kind of reader & they were almost all buried beneath the amount of worldly descriptions.
‣ The italicized interludes — alright, so I'm biased. You can pin this on my shallow dislike of lengthy italicized flashbacks (or in this case, flash-forwards) but I also didn't care at all for future (present day?) Tea. Each time they came in, I was like: Why do I care lmao. The Unknown Bard POV doesn't really help either, if anything it further isolates me from her character. Though I do understand its narrative purpose.
‣ The possible love triangle — spare me!! Not impressed!!!
‣ THE NAME DROP AT THE END?? I swear I would've been more intrigued if it was kept secret.
Summary of things that were "eh, okay, I guess":
‣ The characters — admittedly, I'm suuuuper picky about this. Still, I thought the characters in this book were rather bland and left something to be desired. The execution of their narratives lacked a lens that could've explored any depth and complexity they potentially had - and I could see quite a few characters that had this. But since this is a plot-driven story, I understand why we didn't delve much. So this is more of a preferential kind of thing (well, this entire review is, obviously, but this especially).
Spicy things I have to say:
‣ The world of the asha are a lot more interesting than that of the grisha. No, you cannot change my mind. Come for me!! (jk, don't - but hey! if you like grishaverse, you may like this!!)
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, and Death
Moderate: Sexism