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becxaa's review
adventurous
emotional
tense
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? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Death and Death of parent
Minor: Alcohol
lkristin2018's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-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
I thought that even though Isla’s age wasn’t precisely defined, and perhaps she was legally an adult, having her love interest literally centuries older than her felt icky. Also, the curses endured by the various kingdoms were not at all in proportion to each other. One kingdom simply loses the ability to fly, while another one must regularly eat human hearts in order to survive, and will die if they fall in love. I find it almost impossible to imagine a society where people exist on eating human hearts. Even if a person only eats one a month, it means twelve other people have to die every single year of that person’s life. It just doesn’t feel sustainable. Yes, it’s fiction, but I can’t suspend my disbelief quite that far.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Death, and Cannibalism
Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, and Gaslighting
Minor: Blood and Alcohol
spatterson7's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood
Minor: Alcohol, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Sexual content, Torture, Vomit, and Death of parent
jonghyun4life's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- 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? Yes
4.75
4.75 ⭐️- I’m very pleased to have given myself a chance to read this book after all the review bombing. However, It captured my attention from the very beginning. It was a quick and easy read. This book gave me one of the biggest emotional rollercoasters I’ve had over a book. I would definitely re-read this again and proceed to think about it for years to come.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War and Violence
Moderate: Confinement, Death, Blood, and Death of parent
Minor: Vomit and Alcohol
booksandladders's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
I waited what I felt like was enough time to read this without the hype or the controversy to be prevalent in my mind, but honestly this was just a bad book. None of the premise made any sense and it was trying to be too many things instead of focusing on what could have been the good part of this: breaking the curses and learning about magic. But with how many times I rolled my eyes, hated Isla, or thought that there were stupid decisions all around being made, I just can't give this more than one star.
There weren't "trials," there was barely any fear of being assassinated, and the fact that they get paired together was just convenient rather than being part of what made sense in the story. The ebook is 384 pages and I thought it was close to being done at the like 40% mark because of how fast the book was pacing through the Centennial.
I have so many thoughts about how stupid the characters were in general, but they really don't matter because the worldbuilding, or lack thereof, was so poorly done that I couldn't even focus on how much I hated the characters. The magic system could have been the redeeming part of this story, but instead it was poorly explained, important pieces of information were sprinkled throughout, and for how much they trained Isla to be a warrior, they didn't give her ANY information on the other magical elements or rulers. Beyond that, Isla had apparently been visiting the other magical areas (which is like page 1 of the story so not spoilers) but had so little knowledge of any of the history of the island or how the magic works together.
It just felt like so much of this was multiple ideas sewed together to make a semblance of a story rather than a thoughtful exploration of what it means to learn about yourself, your abilities, and the way you can work together to overcome obstacles. I wanted the negative reviews to just be because of the "controversy" of the novel but instead they were just right about how poorly this book was written and how well it was marketed.
I am going to read book 2, which I have heard basically nothing about. In fact, I didn't even know it was released. This is called a "saga" but I only see two books on Goodreads, so I'm interested to see if it ends up being a duology because of everything that happened.
I can't recommend this one at all. If you are looking for something similar, I would recommend The Night Circus or The Crown's Game. I can't believe I let this be the last book I read in 2023.
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There weren't "trials," there was barely any fear of being assassinated, and the fact that they get paired together was just convenient rather than being part of what made sense in the story. The ebook is 384 pages and I thought it was close to being done at the like 40% mark because of how fast the book was pacing through the Centennial.
I have so many thoughts about how stupid the characters were in general, but they really don't matter because the worldbuilding, or lack thereof, was so poorly done that I couldn't even focus on how much I hated the characters. The magic system could have been the redeeming part of this story, but instead it was poorly explained, important pieces of information were sprinkled throughout, and for how much they trained Isla to be a warrior, they didn't give her ANY information on the other magical elements or rulers. Beyond that, Isla had apparently been visiting the other magical areas (which is like page 1 of the story so not spoilers) but had so little knowledge of any of the history of the island or how the magic works together.
It just felt like so much of this was multiple ideas sewed together to make a semblance of a story rather than a thoughtful exploration of what it means to learn about yourself, your abilities, and the way you can work together to overcome obstacles. I wanted the negative reviews to just be because of the "controversy" of the novel but instead they were just right about how poorly this book was written and how well it was marketed.
I am going to read book 2, which I have heard basically nothing about. In fact, I didn't even know it was released. This is called a "saga" but I only see two books on Goodreads, so I'm interested to see if it ends up being a duology because of everything that happened.
I can't recommend this one at all. If you are looking for something similar, I would recommend The Night Circus or The Crown's Game. I can't believe I let this be the last book I read in 2023.
Like my reviews? Buy me a Ko-Fi!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit and Blood
Moderate: Drug use and Alcohol
drug use (non consensual), on page sex scene, alcohol consumption, poisoning, drowning, falling from heights, blood, vomitcdoubet's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Cursing, Gaslighting, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, War, Mental illness, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Death of parent, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Alcohol
katvou's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Alcohol, Blood, Cannibalism, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexual content, and Death of parent
humanmessofaperson's review
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
0.5
This book made me want to never see a question mark again.
All tell, no show.
Constant explanation of what was being implied instead of just letting the reader understand the implications/piece things together themselves. Poor character depth and very rushed connections between characters. A confused pacing with the characters spending most of their time looking for a particular object in far too many different locations: searches that wielded nothing for the plot or character development, only there to add in tired worldbuilding/lore and fill more pages with words.
A complete over use of clichés and tired tropes, and while this could be true of most books, the author doesn't succeed in making them interesting or fun, meerly laughable.
I have never read a book that felt more like it was in its second or third draft. Characters had no depth, the story felt bored of itself, and things were either not explained enough or completely over-explained. (I couldn't tell you want anyone or anyplace looked like apart from vague, broad descriptors.)
Isla was a character that could do no wrong and was oh so special in the most grating of ways. Boring and plain. The same can be said for her love interests - Oro and Grim - who felt more like vague ideas of a character and less like actual people.
As frustrating, sometimes baffleing, and terribly written as this book is there certainly was a glimmer of something that could potentially be good, but considering this book went through multiple edits and this is the final product, I don't think Aster is the one capable of making it work. At least not without a serious marked improvement in her writing skills.
The half star is for the occasional gasp I had towards a plot twist (admittedly often followed by a laugh) and the memes me and my friend got to make because of this book, we had fun.
All tell, no show.
Constant explanation of what was being implied instead of just letting the reader understand the implications/piece things together themselves. Poor character depth and very rushed connections between characters. A confused pacing with the characters spending most of their time looking for a particular object in far too many different locations: searches that wielded nothing for the plot or character development, only there to add in tired worldbuilding/lore and fill more pages with words.
A complete over use of clichés and tired tropes, and while this could be true of most books, the author doesn't succeed in making them interesting or fun, meerly laughable.
I have never read a book that felt more like it was in its second or third draft. Characters had no depth, the story felt bored of itself, and things were either not explained enough or completely over-explained. (I couldn't tell you want anyone or anyplace looked like apart from vague, broad descriptors.)
Isla was a character that could do no wrong and was oh so special in the most grating of ways. Boring and plain. The same can be said for her love interests - Oro and Grim - who felt more like vague ideas of a character and less like actual people.
As frustrating, sometimes baffleing, and terribly written as this book is there certainly was a glimmer of something that could potentially be good, but considering this book went through multiple edits and this is the final product, I don't think Aster is the one capable of making it work. At least not without a serious marked improvement in her writing skills.
The half star is for the occasional gasp I had towards a plot twist (admittedly often followed by a laugh) and the memes me and my friend got to make because of this book, we had fun.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Death of parent and Vomit
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