Reviews

This was such a dark and intense read! Felt a bit slow at the beginning, but the pace definitely picked up toward the end. I loved the unique portrayal of magic and how it works in this world and enjoyed putting the pieces of the puzzle together along the way. Highly recommend!

olivia9024's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

libraryoflei's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

cover2cover24's review against another edition

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lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

The majority of this book was amazing, I loved the story telling and how it slowly unraveled but the end, still not sure how I feel about it. It seemed a bit messy.

ashleegb46's review against another edition

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3.0

Meh! This one was okay, but nothing thrilling. I made it through but I know there were some chapters I slept through. It seemed to me that the magic just wasn't fun. Also, why is magic only for the rich? The more I think about it, this book was classist. I know the character descriptions described humans of all colors of skin, but it still felt like the poor were the workers not getting to enjoy any magic while the rich got to blissfully partake of all things magical without cost.
Would I still suggest this to a kid, sure.

arberry's review against another edition

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3.0

Just very unserious.

I did like way more than Caraval, which this book has already been compared to a lot. I didn’t feel super connected to any of the characters in this book, but I didn’t actively hate them like I did the ones in Caraval. The flowery prose added to the atmosphere the book was trying to create, and didn’t feel too overdone or anything.

I wish I had liked it more but it was a solid book, and I’d read more from this author in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

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