This was a reread for me, having already completed this series once in like 2023 maybe. And once again I do understand why this series is so polarizing! The content is pretty heavy—there are on-page depictions of assault (sexual and otherwise), there's slavery, there's fantasy racism, there's just a lot going on. 

But like I said in my review for Dark Heir, I feel like one of C.S. Pacat's strengths as a writer is in his ability to navigate the moral grayness of institutions and circumstances in a way that feels authentic while still remaining hopeful. This is true throughout the entire Captive Prince series, and this is the book where she lays the groundwork for the way that relationships and attitudes will change and grow throughout the rest of the trilogy. Neither of the two main kingdoms in this series are particularly sympathetic—both participate in slavery, both have some somewhat archaic (by my modern American standards) attitudes toward women and consequently some very narrow definitions of masculinity. It's no surprise that Laurent and Damen are therefore not always particularly sympathetic protagonists, since their attitudes and behaviors are informed by the cultures that shaped them.

That said, what I do think a lot of readers miss in this series is that Pacat isn't condoning these attitudes and expectations. On the contrary, especially on this reread it seemed pretty obvious to me that a lot of the work the books are doing is getting Damen and Laurent to overcome the circumstances that inform their behaviors, to break away from those expectations and to make their own decisions and grow stronger as a result. A lot of the 1-star reviews I've seen for this are like "eww rape shouldn't be titillating!" and like... yeah! It shouldn't! And it's not, it's pretty clearly always presented in a negative light even when the characters themselves don't necessarily see it for what it is (yet).

For me personally this book is a really excellent example of building from the ground up, both in terms of the world itself and the characters who populate it. I've very rarely read an enemies-to-lovers story where I actually buy that they were enemies to start with and slowly start to fall for each other, but in my opinion Pacat pulls it off without it being cheesy or contrived. It takes a long time and a lot of work for the relationship to blossom and that, along with the hard and sometimes embarrassing work that the characters do to unlearn the negative things they've carried with them from their upbringings, is what makes this series so endearing to me.

(Two notes: One, again, C.S. Pacat is genderqueer and uses both she/her and he/him pronouns, so I've used both throughout this review. Two, because I read all three of these books in close succession I'm going to use the same review for all three, sorry!)

This was a reread for me, so obviously already a book series I enjoyed... but once again I am reminded of why C.S. Pacat is the only bitch I trust with a real enemies-to-lovers arc. This book is such a tense but ultimately satisfying payoff of so many plot threads that were woven through the previous two books, and I really love how many subtle (and tbh sometimes less subtle) moments there are where Damen and Laurent really get to serve as mirrors for themselves earlier in the series. You get to see where some of those motivations came from and how they moved through them to get to where they are now.

This was a reread for me, having already completed this series once in like 2023 maybe. And once again I do understand why this series is so polarizing! The content is pretty heavy—there are on-page depictions of assault (sexual and otherwise), there's slavery, there's fantasy racism, there's just a lot going on. 

 

For a short book this was well-paced in my opinion, and I think Gran does a good job of letting the narration reflect Amanda's declining mental state. It was a quick read but an impactful one.

However -- and I recognize that this is maybe a petty complaint -- I do wish that Amanda had a little more agency in this book. I think maybe I'm just tired of horror stories where women get the short end of the stick.

Like, on the one hand I recognize that part of the horror element of a book like this is that the narrator isn't powerful enough to resist the entity that's trying to take them over, and to that end, as I said, I think Gran does a really good job of letting the actual language and narration reflect the way that Amanda's mind is fracturing. You really do get a sense, while reading, that the words themselves are being used to reflect the way the demon is taking her over, and that's a gorgeously unsettling experience to read through! 

On the other hand -- you're telling me that she didn't even once notice that this demon was taking over her life until she was too far gone to do anything about it? It was like Amanda was just a passive observer in her own life, allowing things to happen to her, noting these weird happenings and doing very little to stop them. She goes to an occult shop once to get... an anti-demon potion of some kind and then pretty much does nothing with it. She starts missing huge chunks of time and doesn't seem to be all that concerned about it. 

I don't know! I think that maybe if there had been a little bit more of a struggle for control, even if it ended in Amanda being consumed by the demon, I probably would have felt a little more satisfied with this book. 

Nonetheless, it is absolutely gorgeously written and I did really enjoy reading it, so if you're into horror (especially demon possession horror) then I would certainly recommend it!

This was a reread for me, having already completed this series once in like 2023 maybe. And once again I do understand why this series is so polarizing! The content is pretty heavy—there are on-page depictions of assault (sexual and otherwise), there's slavery, there's fantasy racism, there's just a lot going on. 

As a big fan of C.S. Pacat's Captive Prince series and also an avid consumer of pretty much anything dark-magic-fantasy, Dark Rise hit my TBR as soon as it was released. However, I held off on actually starting the series until
Dark Heir came out, because I was under the impression it was a duology—uhh, spoilers, I was wrong! But that's fine, because both of the books are immensely enjoyable anyway and even though I'm furious (/j) with Pacat for leaving me on a cliffhanger, I still had a really good time getting there.

I am glad I read the author's notes on this one because I was thinking "damn, this is like Gossip Girl was even more racist and the stakes were way higher," and then at the end I read how the author was inspired to write it by watching Gossip Girl and observing how few people there were on that show who looked like her. So in that respect I think the idea definitely got across! The tension-building in this story is so excellent to the point that by the end you really don't know who the characters can trust, and there were a couple of scenes that made me feel like, for-real genuinely palpable fear for the characters. Beautifully executed.