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wardenred's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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
4.75
Sometimes kindness made the difference between a day you could get through okay and a day that ground you into the dirt.
This is one of the most hopeful, optimistic, inspiring books I've read lately, which is hard to fathom because it's a post-apocalyptic story that deals so heavily with PTSD and living after huge losses. But I guess it just goes to show: it's all in how you handle the subject. This is a story about people in pain who gradually find healing, and it's so beautifully focused on community and connections. While it's a character-centric book first and foremost, I've got to say I got really invested in the post-war, post-apocalyptic setting, all the intricacies of the society inhabiting it, all the ways it has fucked the characters up in the past and all the opportunities it provided for them to get better. There's the kind of complete unity between setting, plot, and characters here that I absolutely dig.
I very much enjoyed how the polyamory was handled, and all the different connections formed in the community: friendships, friendships with benefits, romance, an intense emotional connection with a sexual component that wasn't in fact romantic, allyships, familiar relations. All of these different relationships felt so real and so completely human. I also loved how trauma was handled, and how clearly it was shown that interacting with the world through the lens of your trauma will lead to fuck-ups, and it's completely understandable, but it's not an excuse.
I came for the romance, but I honestly stayed for the entire cast and all those connections. It was beautiful to witness the story of such a diverse community made up of flawed yet genuinely kind people striving to do good by themselves, each other, and the broken world they inherited. Absolutely every relationship/interaction held my complete interest. Like, I would never expect myself to be so fully invested in the plot thread about the romantic lead sorting out things with his ex who wants them to get back together when things between the two LIs are shaky, and yet here I am.
I also randomly want to note the way Clark's chronic pain is handled, all those ways, big and small, in which it impacts various areas of life, and how at the same time that pain never defined him, outside of the moments when he semi-consciously chose to define himself by his disability. This was awesomely written and so, so relatable. Also, I love Hadas and her dog. And all those times I wanted to give Van a hug and a shake at the same time? Good times. Plenty of feels.
There was a tiny bit of rockiness here, too, like a bunch of scenes feeling kinda... summarized and stilted, and the two POVs/plotlines not always intersecting in the smoothest of ways. But honestly, these flaws were super easy to overlook in favor of all the beauty and kindness this story provides in spades.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Gun violence, Alcohol, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, and Drug use
Moderate: War and Death
otterpebbles's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
5.0
This was a really fantastic read: An emotionally thoughtful book with great depth to the various characters and the balances found and developing in their relationships.
There's a full list of CW on the website for the bookbut a few main ones- violence and death as part of a post civil war society; non-negotiated D/s dynamic; grief; internalised ableism
Set in a period after a future civil war, we are based in one of the new communities set up, and mainly gollow the development of a relationship between Van, a stronghold and leader of the community, and Clark, a new arrival. When the story opens, Van is dealing with grief after the death of his wife in previous battles between this community and outside raiders, and the effect that that has had on him not merely on a personal level but also by leaving him a position of greater authority than he had originally considered. Relationship wise, he has a girlfriend, Hadas, and a more casual hookup partner, Jaime. When I first read the blurb for the book, I had assumed that the relationship between Hadas and Van would be pretty strong and established at the start, but actually we see much more how Van is struggling, closing himself off so as to avoid being vulnerable and risk getting so badly hurt again. One of things I enjoyed greatly within the novel is how we see the unreliability of the character's POV narration as in here, where Van insists that his relationship with Hadas is not so serious, but we can see the glimpses of how he tries to guard himself off from the reality of his feelings. I did feel sometimes that I might liked to have had a few chapters from Hadas perspective too, mostly because I really liked her! But I did feel that she was given a lot of positive attention and development in the book too.
Clark is another great character whose vulnerability is also shielded, but through his emphasis on casual sex and hookups rather than allowing a relationship. Just as I liked seeing the development of Van and Hadas, I really liked that Clark was given the opportunity to face his past relationships. Both really worked for me to see the characters in greater depth and to make the future both happier and more sustainable.
There was a lot about consent and communication in the book, which I think came partly from the themes of D/s and polyamory, and it was something which I really enjoyed seeing, especially in the way that they did mess up in this regard, but addressed the issues and worked through it. Its very much still a work in progress at the end, but the progress is getting there and there is a real sense of hope. Positive communication methods are exactly what I love to see!
And hope is one of the fundamental themes in the book and which was one if the things that kept me gripped to it throughout. There was always this sense that the characters would work through things, even if they lost someone or a relationship changed form, there was still a future somewhere.
This book gave me do much to think about and worked in a lot of depth, and I really enjoyed reading it.
*I received a free ARC of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*
There's a full list of CW on the website for the bookbut a few main ones- violence and death as part of a post civil war society; non-negotiated D/s dynamic; grief; internalised ableism
Set in a period after a future civil war, we are based in one of the new communities set up, and mainly gollow the development of a relationship between Van, a stronghold and leader of the community, and Clark, a new arrival. When the story opens, Van is dealing with grief after the death of his wife in previous battles between this community and outside raiders, and the effect that that has had on him not merely on a personal level but also by leaving him a position of greater authority than he had originally considered. Relationship wise, he has a girlfriend, Hadas, and a more casual hookup partner, Jaime. When I first read the blurb for the book, I had assumed that the relationship between Hadas and Van would be pretty strong and established at the start, but actually we see much more how Van is struggling, closing himself off so as to avoid being vulnerable and risk getting so badly hurt again. One of things I enjoyed greatly within the novel is how we see the unreliability of the character's POV narration as in here, where Van insists that his relationship with Hadas is not so serious, but we can see the glimpses of how he tries to guard himself off from the reality of his feelings. I did feel sometimes that I might liked to have had a few chapters from Hadas perspective too, mostly because I really liked her! But I did feel that she was given a lot of positive attention and development in the book too.
Clark is another great character whose vulnerability is also shielded, but through his emphasis on casual sex and hookups rather than allowing a relationship. Just as I liked seeing the development of Van and Hadas, I really liked that Clark was given the opportunity to face his past relationships. Both really worked for me to see the characters in greater depth and to make the future both happier and more sustainable.
There was a lot about consent and communication in the book, which I think came partly from the themes of D/s and polyamory, and it was something which I really enjoyed seeing, especially in the way that they did mess up in this regard, but addressed the issues and worked through it. Its very much still a work in progress at the end, but the progress is getting there and there is a real sense of hope. Positive communication methods are exactly what I love to see!
And hope is one of the fundamental themes in the book and which was one if the things that kept me gripped to it throughout. There was always this sense that the characters would work through things, even if they lost someone or a relationship changed form, there was still a future somewhere.
This book gave me do much to think about and worked in a lot of depth, and I really enjoyed reading it.
*I received a free ARC of this book from the author in exchange for an honest review*
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism
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