cedence's reviews
112 reviews

Will continue later. 

Not for people with Arachnophobia.
 This review contain spoilers.

Atticus seeks out the love witch in the marsh for a spell to help his sister, only to find the witch gone, and Corliss, a necromancer, at the hut. Insisting they can make the potion, Atticus agrees and must stay with Corliss for three nights while the potion brews. On the third, they have to give each other "pleasure at soul reaching depths" (aka sex) to successfully finalise the potion. 

Characters 
I liked the characters. They were very charming and made the setting come alive. Infused the universe with a sense of mystery and grittier horrors that could have been further expanded on had the book been longer. It's odd in that same way. Because I do not read horror but most of the elements that could have horrified me was turned into... Charming and quirky and cute. Cozy. Would have stayed longer if I had the chance. 

Character list (characters that show up on-page):

I picked up this book due to the ace representation I hear was going to be in it, and I've been struggling about what to say about it so other people who may want to read it for that may find it helpful. You alresdy know the ace character is not the main character.
 
* There's not one set experience entailing the entire ace spectrum, so saying something is wrong would make no sense. I'll just tell you what your in for if you pick up this book instead.
* You will not find a sex-averse asexual character. However, they show little interest in it initially - rather taking refuge in their books, tea, and cat to avoid the issue. They do however warm up to each other over the days Atticus stays with Corliss.
* The asexual character had a previous relationship. 
* Explicit content-wise, the intimacy scene is not very detailed. Instead, it left me rather confused about what was going on. I think some was because you don't get to know anything about Corliss assigned gender at birth so there are no specifics. They embrace and kiss and make love but a lot is left to the imagination.  

Other thoughts
- I didn't really like the "we must have sex for x" trope

- Atticus seems to be crushing on Corliss after, and I don't get why? Why did he suddenly feel so intensely about them (a part of me is thinking they messed up the potion somehow, but also not), wanted so much for someone he didn't know three days earlier? It wasn't really built up enough throughout the three nights for me to be believable, but these may be some allosexual thing I just don't understand. Or something about the characters that I missed. 

- I've been rereading this book for this review and I still got no idea about if Lydia is the sister (as stated on page 7) or a the crush/best friend of an old friend (as suggested on page 11.) or both, but how? These background character mostly confuses me since I can't keep up with who's who. 
- Lenght-wise this book is 43 kindle pages (for me) and a quick read, which I really need right now. 
- The line "a guy in advertising" gets me chuckling every time. A highlight. 

Giving it 3 stars for the cozy and charming parts. Don't really know how to feel about some other things. 

I suspected this would be a five star read on chapter one, and it did. The Poppy War revealed itself to be phenomenal at every instance. This book is a EPIC (high) fantasy in every honor of that word. Over an hour after I completed this book, I still don't know what to do with myself. I'm exhausted and I'm thrilled. 

However, I want to take a paragraph to say that this is an adult(?) high fantasy inspired by 20th century Chinese history. The main character is 14years old when the book begins, but the story lasts for several years and turns closer to an adult grim dark fantasy halfway. Genocide(s), racism and justice are themes on the forefront of this book. Chapter 21 will put it full-blown on the page in great detail. It's grusome. I suggest skipping that chapter if descriptions of unthinkable violence and cruelty against people of all ages (and animals) is not on your budget for the day. Please, use the TWs. There are a lot going on in this book. 

The main character is not easily likeable as her sense of injustice fuels her need for power. And the price of power may be distrastous. 

A must-read for anyone who enjoys high fantasy, military fantasy, Chinese-inspired fantasy, and just spellbinding storytelling. I recommend going in as blind as you can so every twist takes you by surprise. 

Reading his one on and off for a while. 

A really good book on how to structure a romance arc and what should be in the different parts. 

I mostly showed up for the results and the knowledge one could extract from those, and the scientific basis these questions have been asked. I wanted to learn about stress and how it affects our body, how society keeps us stressed and sick and in unhealthy living situations per construct -- and I wanted to learn the way out.

I did that. It did that.
Now, to using this information in my life. 
That's the hardest part. Listening to 18 hours of this was difficult, but changing your lifestyle is harder.

I throughoutly enjoyed this duology. I liked the first book in the series better (I often tend to do so), but I loved the underwater dragon realm aspects of this one. In a way, it spent a lot of time in a whole new part of the universe, and I would love to have explored it even more. The Chinese folklore is really intruiging, and the descriptions are lovely! The duology wraps up nicely.

While there now are a spin-off, Her Radiant Curse (2023), who's backstory is much alluded to in this book, I don't think I will be continuing in this universe as they were far from one of my favorite characters.

I will need the physical edition to retain any of the information. The vocabulary, and the advanced discussion of themes I don't understand well-enough to just listen to, and to listen to in a second language, are the main problem.

This DNF is more of a pause.