The_BookishBug's Book Journey

Grouping a few things together because overall Alex is reading as incredibly holier than thou and not like other girls.

There’s the fixation on both mathematics and classical music as a way of elevating herself above both other people but noticeably other girls because they enjoy neither. She focuses on conducting while being beat partially to unconsciousness which could be a narrative choice if she wasn’t also narrating it.

The utter unawareness at age 19 of what a penis is when she’s been living out of the same cardboard box as a boy for the last ten years stretches disbelief to snapping.

The Spartans have both a lot of sex and potentially multiple partners so they’re degraded as being slutty and therefore less than her and her mathematics.

All in all, it’s giving extreme mean girl and I’m Tired™️

Extending the thought from prev and moving the general misogyny from just Alexis’ POV to a more widespread world view, but then also adding in that queer relationships are commonplace enough that there’s no remark on them, even Nyx’s bisexuality gets a oh I thought and then nothing else from the vaguely religious Alexis is an odd line to try and balance on. But then it’s specifically teenage girls highlighted in the exam faking, there’s this overarching notion about women and breeding and fertility issues that no one would surely abandon a female child. Overall the vibe is Strange.

I’m also curious about her pastor if he’s shaped a substantial section of her worldview, does he ever show up on text or just in the secondhand sayings.

Apologies, this post went longer than expected.

I have been having a hard time staying in "reading mode" with this book and I think it's because of the shorter paragraphs. The writing style feels very staccato-ed, and the flow is lacking making it hard for me to concentrate and get into my typical groove.

At least I technically read faster because there is less on the page with the 1-2 sentence paragraphs?

But then the chapters are decently long, so it just feels quite choppy for a while.

I'm also not completely invested in Alexis as a character yet. I agree with the others about how her perspective and thought patterns haven't changed since she was a child. Character growth and development is often my favorite part of any media and I'm just not seeing it.

Now that she's in the Spartan Boot Camp and has these amazing but asshole mentors, I was hoping to see some determination and willpower from her to not just survive, but to succeed and shove it all in the faces of those who have never believed in her. She has Charlie to think about, too, and I would think at any point in time she would want to show up for him.

Instead, she kinda just continually says how hard it is and wallows a bit. Shouldn't she be interested in her lineage? Or trying to find her powers? She demanded some sort of strategy from Patro and Achilles, but she needs a plan for herself, dammit.

I guess she is only 19 so maybe these are unrealistic expectations on my part.

new drinking game: take a sip every time "bloody chthonic", "evil chthonic" or any other variation comes up. no shots because you would die so far. also no actual reason to why people hate them aside from the fact theyre homicidal! and its people that for the most part, are not homicidal in their myths (ill excuse ares due to the fact hes a god of war But other gods allowed more people to die and encouraged more than he has)

New drinking game (you’ll probably die): take a drink every time “warp[s]” or “[goes] fuzzy” or “[stands] still”.

I don’t want to be a hater, but this book has me pissed right the fuck off. Someone who supposedly graduated from Georgetown University wrote this? I’m on the floor. The language? She is stilted. The FMC? She acts and speaks like she is 10. (She is at the start, but her speech never evolves, despite the fact that she can read and speak Latin, a dead language). Which, since I’m on this soapbox anyway, why aren’t Spartans using Ancient Greek?! On that note, the mythology? It is not here. Sure, the characters might have the names of the mythic gods and heroes, but that’s where it begins and ends. “Chthonic” is basically used as longhand for “evil”, which is hammered home with as much frequency as time warps.

I’m nearly halfway into this thing and she still hasn’t figured out that the burning pain she experiences in her chest is her power attempting to manifest.

All the men sound exactly alike, some variation of being disgusted with her while also being weirdly obsessed with her. The way the author describes them is not it, either. If you want me to root for a morally black MMC, make them interesting. There’s nothing to these two-dimensional cardboard cutouts. Tattoos, maybe, and the inability for them to realize that their promotion rests on them being able to mentor her for a barbaric coming of age rite, which ends with most of the participants dead (a truly buckwild practice, given the slow decline of Spartan numbers and lack of fertility is also brought up at least once a chapter).

Yes I have been trapped on a train for the last two hours with this book to read. It’s very inconsistent on the stance of women just throughout this story and shockingly the additional POVs are not helping.

Augustus swings to the direct other side with his insistence that women are too fragile to be able to keep up with the men and it smacks of a sister complex.

Telling the reader that Kharon is obessed because of her perceived ‘brutality’ (where?) through his POV is one of the more disbelieving things, especially when he tells Patro that he likes his lovers more bloodthirsty than him, the ruthless killer, meaning the shies away from violence girl.

There is just again more helpings of misogyny in the more classic sense (slut shaming from the open multiple partners society but just for the women) and ‘stealing a man’s spot’ on both sides of the aisle thanks to the introduction of Augustus’ POV.

Alexis spends more of the narrative being either quirky or insensible and I’m going to try and forget the entire Big Bertha whale section as much as I can.

The vague feminist leaning (and this is with the greatest heaping of salt) continues with the “feminine urge to lead a fictional revolt” and not helping anyone else until she’s forced to.

Nyx is the main driver for any kind of romance happening and that is entirely the reader being told that he’s so possessive, it’ll be hot, without any legwork or chemistry or buildup being used. Even the established pair barely interacts on screen and when they do it’s through the lens of Alexis so it’s brief and startling lacking.