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blewballoon 's review for:

Her Majesty's Royal Coven by Juno Dawson
3.0
dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Gonna get a bit more "political" than I typically do, since this is a quite "political" book. If you are the type of person who asks yourself "I don't know, I feel like the stuff JK Rowling says in her tweets isn't that big a deal?" and you are genuinely curious to know why it is a big deal, then this might be a good book to help explain it to you. If you are a TERF, you will hate this book. I didn't like this book either, but not for that reason. I didn't like this book in the same ways I didn't like The City We Became by N.K. Jemisin: dwelling on the power that racists/sexists/homophobes/transphobes/etc have just bums me out. I know things suck. I read to remind myself that sometimes people don't suck. I read to keep myself from falling into a pit of despair about the state of the world. Apart from Niamh, Theo, and Holly, I didn't really like any of the characters. I absolutely hated the ending. I felt like I knew what was coming the whole time and just wanted it to be over. I gave it 3 stars because of the intention, the world-building, the setting, and there were some funny lines. I don't think this is a bad book, it just didn't suit me even though I agree with its message. The narrator for the audiobook was really fantastic, I'll be looking for more books narrated by them. 

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