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Mask of Shadows


Title Mask of Shadows
Writer Linsey Miller
Date 2025-03-09 01:14:21
Type pdf epub mobi doc fb2 audiobook kindle djvu ibooks
Link Listen Read

Desciption

I Needed to Win.They Needed to Die.Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But gender fluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class—and the nobles who destroyed their home. When Sal steals a flyer for an audition to become a member of The Left Hand—the Queen’s personal assassins, named after the rings she wears—Sal jumps at the chance to infiltrate the court and get revenge. But the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. And as Sal succeeds in the competition, and wins the heart of Elise, an intriguing scribe at court, they start to dream of a new life and a different future, but one that Sal can have only if they survive.


Review

This book was so dull, which is weird, for a book that contains mostly action and not much else.To mention this book in the same breath as Sarah J. Maas or Leigh Bardugo is just laughable. I don't even like Maas' books, but she has a writing style that makes her books easy to follow, and easy to read. This book is composed of too much action and dialogue, with little introspection and no art. Had I not read the blurb for the book, I would not have known what it was about, even after reading it 1/3 of the way through.I guess one of the main "selling point" of this book is that we have a gender-fluid protagonist. I really didn't notice the gender fluidity at all, nor did I understand the point of it, if there is a point to it at all? Am I being obtuse? Offensive? I don't really know. At the risk of being politically incorrect, and I will put the disclaimer here that I am a raging liberal, and pro LBGQT rights and I don't give a fuck who you are and what you fuck and what your identity is as long as it's legal (and even when it's not legal, cause some countries are ass-backwards), there really is no point of the main character's gender definition or lack thereof. I didn't notice it, and if it hadn't been specifically stated MAIN CHARACTER IS GENDER FLUID, I honestly would not have been able to tell whether he/she/they were or not.I guess it's good for the sake of representation and political correctness, but that's about it, as far as my impression goes.Their gender fluidity was not well-written, for instance, during a discussion of killing people and introductions and shit, all of a sudden, out of nowhere. “And you can call me ‘she’ when I dress like this. I dress how I am.” Huh? Where did that come from? I had to go back to read that entire section again because that comment was just so random. And then there's moments when they tell us "I dress how I like to be addressed—he, she, or they. It’s simple enough," and I'm just thinking in my head well, aren't you a special little thing." I would like to be called Khanh, First of Her Name, Eater of Brunch, Slayer of the Stairmaster, She of the Awesome Legs, and Mother of Bunnies, but I don't walk around telling people that. My bunnies are damned cute, by the way.Whatever, gender whatever is not the point of the book. The point is that a book should have a point, a clearly defined plot, excellent writing, compelling characters, believable dialogue. This book had none of the above, and that is my sole reason for the one star rating. It didn't draw my attention at all.

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