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thewoodlandbookshelf's review
- 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? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Murder, Blood, Lesbophobia, and Gore
Moderate: Sexual violence
tania_mybookishsecret'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
2.5
Graphic: Violence, Death, War, and Blood
Moderate: Grief and Gun violence
Minor: Sexual assault
_nem_'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
4.0
Tropes: Found Family
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Classism, War, Violence, Murder, Grief, Death, and Blood
ladygetslit'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? It's complicated
4.0
That being said, I love the strong Girl Power themes of this duology and the interspersing of Latinx culture within the fantasy world. This series is worth reading if only for the f/f relationship and the intriguing discussion of males in political power and how they seem to want to build walls (physical and metaphorical) to keep poor folks disenfranchised.
Teacher Thoughts: probably better for high school rather than middle school. I could see male readers not enjoying this much, but I can also see the need for these types of stories.
Graphic: Classism, Violence, War, Blood, Death, Kidnapping, and Torture
monicalaurette'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
4.0
“But comfortable doesn’t win battles.”
“It makes you worthy of the title rebel.”
“But even through all of that, the sun was shining.”
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, and Violence
Moderate: Medical trauma, Medical content, Gun violence, Blood, Abandonment, and Death
Minor: Lesbophobia
booksthatburn'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
4.0
The tone is immediately grimmer than the first book. Dani’s arc was one of hope and disillusionment in difficult circumstances, where Carmen’s begins in the wake of terror and betrayal with things going from bad to worse.
Carmen has two non-blood siblings who were around in the first book but this time around the narration includes Carmen's warm impressions of them. Her dynamic with Alex is fraught right now because she doesn't trust Carmen's loyalties after how close she got to Dani. Sota is more matter-of-fact and even more secretive than Alex. Speaking of Dani, Carmen starts off having no idea where she stands with Dani or whether she's cemented her loyalty with their husband since losing contact with the rebels.
WE SET THE DARK ON FIRE had a lot of worldbuilding to do and WE UNLEASH THE MERCILESS STORM uses it but doesn't add much to it in a grand sense. It adds more parts of the island, including the camp for La Voz, but other than the fact that there is a class divide it doesn't do much explaining of anything already covered in the first one. The overall effect is to treat this as the second half of one giant book rather than leaving space for someone who needs reminders since reading the first book. This is a duology, so that's fine, but this is best read as close to immediately after the first book as you can manage for the ideal experience.
The whole purpose of this book is to address things left hanging from the first book, like Carmen's sudden revelation and their entire relationship, for a start. Carmen is a different person than Dani and this book is about her troubles and goals which means there is a new storyline and some new things which are introduced and resolved. As far as I can tell this is a duology which is completed by this book. While there could maybe be more books in this setting, Dani and Carmen's story seems complete with a lot of things wrapped up. In a bigger sense I'd like to know what they do next and how the rebellion turns out in the long run, but it's closed enough to be the end.
Carmen is the new narrator and her voice is distinct from Dani's. She has a pretty different background from Dani (even at the school they received different training) and pays attention to completely different things. This picks up exactly where the last book left off, but from a different character’s perspective. This wouldn’t make sense to start here without reading the first book.
Even more so than the first book, the plot revolves around Carmen and Dani's relationship. This first thing is Carmen has to figure out how to get to Dani to see if they even still have a relationship, and the story proceeds from there. The story keeps moving and I like how it ends up, this is a good finish to the story and I'm satisfied with it overall.
Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Gun violence, Murder, Sexism, and Misogyny
Moderate: Grief, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Child death, Sexual content, Violence, Medical trauma, Torture, Death, and Medical content
Minor: Ableism and Fire/Fire injury
foxy_amy'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? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Blood, Gun violence, and Murder
Moderate: Misogyny
elenamarmiroli's review
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
L'opera è partita a mio parere non in maniera interessante, soprattutto perché avrei preferito a continuare a seguire Dani, invece che Carmen. Una volta che Carmen
Anche il finale non è male, solo che il conflitto principale viene risolto in maniera sbrigativa e in maniera ambigua.
Quello che mi è mancato in questo libro sono stati anche i paralleli tra i rapporti tra gli Usa sotto Trump e il Messico e le due popolazioni divise dal confine all'interno del romanzo, cosa che era più presente nel volume precedente.
Inoltre, le frasi all'inizio di ogni capitolo erano più interessanti nello scorso volume perché parlavano dei doveri della prima moglie e di come ottenere quello che vuole, mentre queste si rifanno alla rivoluzione, cosa che ritengo meno interessante da apprendere e mi sembrano pure meno vincolate al contenuto del capitolo.
Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Racism
Moderate: Death
treeworms'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
4.25
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Gore, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual content, Violence, War, and Xenophobia
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence
lindseyhall44'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
3.5
Graphic: Blood, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Abandonment
Minor: Sexual violence