Good audio, okay plot.

The audio is what helped me get through this book. The concept of the story was good, I love books about competitions and this also had a gender fluid main character which is awesome! I think it was too long and there were parts where the plot dragged. The narrator saved me from not finishing, they did a great job of keeping neutral, not overly male or female and sounded just like I imagined the character would. Great casting for this!
The book did a good job of showing Sal feeling sometimes male, sometimes female and sometimes neither. I hope to read more books with gender fluid characters. Not a bad book overall, just needed more action or to be shorter for me to love it.

2 persone l'hanno trovata utile

Perfect Narrator

Every minute not listening to this, I was thinking about listening to it. Perfect narration.

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Wow!

Expertly written, clever politics and elegantly executed! The protagonist is a delight to follow, and the other characters are complex and deoightful to read about! Absolutely loved this book!

1 persona l'ha trovata utile

Sal is amazing!

Sal is such a wonderful character, and the dynamic of the competition is fun and thrilling.

beautiful narration and wonderful storytelling

I had no problem at all finishing this audiobook. the narrator did a wonderful job with the voices and making each one unique. The story was well paced and very descriptive. I am very eager to start the sequel to this. I will definitely listen to it again.

loved it!

Despite some little things in writing, and there being more than a few times it was hard to tell whether the narrator was supposed to be speaking out loud or simply thinking to themselves, I can whole heatedly suggest listening.

Very much enjoyed Sal, the protagonist and point of view character. Always glad to have a non-binary main character who feels realized like them.

New Favorite Series

Excellent writing, great characters and just the right amount of fun. Fan of Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir will enjoy this series and author as well. Worth buying!! :)

had some good potential

I was interested in reading as it features a gender fluid character and I been looking forward to see their perspective on it. But the actual story fell like a typical YA fantasy that I feel like I read a dozen times over. It's not bad but it's not impressive.

Interesting

I don't review often, but this book was interesting and different! Give it a chance

tragically disappointing

Parts of this book were grreat, which made all the disappointments worse. I love the premise, and a lot of the characters are really interesting and intriguing to get to know. Major points for subverting assumptions about male and female roles, which fantasy doesn't do half as much as it could considering anything is possible. it's super lgbt-friendly, including a non-binary main character, a bisexual Lady of the Court, and one of the main heroes as ace. Unfortunately, the drama and court intrigue was so predictable it became frustrating if not laughable. Much of the book is spent building up the evil and insurgency among the Lords in the North, one of them happens to be the father of the main character's eventual love interest. Spoiler alert, he's evil! And in the following confrontation between hero and villain, every classic mistake was made - the hero talks so much the villain get away with the innocent girl and hero is left to Stew and Angst and set up the scene for book two. Really, the last five chapters were so frustrating because for the most part I had enjoyed the lead up.
(Also considering the main character is trying to become the Queen's next assassin, they spend a lot of time moralizing over it and being haunted by ghosts. Maybe a different job ?)