Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Tainted Cup

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The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

38 reviews

kellybarth's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

In an opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupts from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and the blood of giant, ancient sea monsters give way to strange magical changes, it’s a death at once terrifying and impossible.

I mean… the Empire spends endless amounts of blood and treasure defending a whole continent from sea beasts the size of small mountains. But it can’t save a canton from one damned plant?

This book has:

✔ Sherlock and Watson-style detective team (with a Female lead)

✔ High fantasy with references to Greek Mythology

✔ Orphan Black vibes (highly altered people with unique powers and abilities)

✔ A satisfying conclusion (no frustrating cliffhangers here!)

✔ A diverse and inclusive cast of characters

Overall, I loved The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. As with all fantasy series, you’ll spend the first few chapters trying to acclimate yourself and learn the language, but once you’ve met the cast of characters this novel will have you hooked. I was certain I had everything figured out, only to find I was totally off-base, this mystery kept me guessing without becoming too convoluted to follow the plot. I came to love the crude but undeniable genius investigator Ana, and her earnest assistant Din, and I’m eagerly awaiting their next adventure.

Thank you to Netgalley and Del Ray for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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h0neypie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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lcp_99's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Oh my god I absolutely loved this book. I could rave about it for hours and I absolutely need to reread it and spot all the foreshadowing. Som much about this was just so damn clever- even the title is absolutely perfect.

The world was also fascinating. I am an avid fantasy reader but this was like nothing I’d ever read before. Definitely felt almost sci-fi at time and totally engrossing,. The only downside is that I want to know so much more than I do right now about how the world works and the history of it and what exactly are the leviathans

Din is an amazing POV character and they way we’re introduced to him using his skills as an investigator is so perfectly done and really sets the tone for the rest of the book. Ana is a one of a kind character and actually had me cackling at points but her relationship with Din was so wonderful to watch develop even if Din was completely clueless about it most of the time.

Every twist and turn to this book was somehow surprising yet felt entirely foreshadowed when I looked back over what I’d read which just made me love it even more.

The prose in this book is phenomenal- somehow absolute vulgarity becomes almost beautiful sounding? Very hard to explain but so magnificent to read.

I can’t wait for the next book in this series!

I would like to thank Hodder & Stoughton, Hodderscape and Netgalley for the for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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lyall_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Din’s first dead body would be hard for anyone to forget- an Imperial officer killed by a tree sprouting from inside his body is neither a pleasant nor usual sight- but for Din, it’s literally impossible. As an Engraver, Din’s brain was altered using substances derived from the very goliaths that threaten the empire he serves to be able to remember everything he sees in perfect detail- a useful skill when working as the assistant to the empire’s best (and most eccentric) investigator, the recently disgraced Ana Dolabra. Din took the augments and the job to send money to his family, but working for Ana is not a normal experience- even before the plant-based murder. He’d have enough to handle with weathering her quirks and hiding his own secrets from her sometimes terrifying powers of observation, but the Imperial officer is not an isolated incident. As the conspiracy becomes more vast (and terrifying), the giant beasts bear down on the city’s walls. Din may be able to help Ana expose corruption in the highest levels of power, but only if he survives the threats of plant-murder, regular-murder, and being squashed by a giant monster (not to mention the existential horror of never forgetting a thing).

Creative, engaging, and so much fun! I’ve been recommending it to a lot of people, generally pitching it as Holmes and Watson, but Watson is a dyslexic bisexual disaster with low self esteem and Holmes is an agoraphobic super genius who likes to lock herself in a trunk (mostly the same) and they live in something like the Roman empire but they’re under constant threat from kaiju. Loved the magic system (it leans towards SF with the augmentations but placed in a firmly fantasy setting), loved the characters, loved the mystery.

Also, great disability representation. While I don’t have the experience to comment on how Din’s dyslexia specifically was handled, I can say that the way Bennett handled neurodivergence as a concept interacting with the fantasy elements of the world was GREAT and felt surprisingly real to me. It’s a bit of a spoiler, so I won’t get into details, but something I thought was some allegorical representation of some issues more close to home for me turned out to be literal in the last few chapters and I almost cried. It’s representation that’s neither just slapped on nor patronizing and that’s unfortunately hard to find. It ruled.

Anyway, I’m recommending this book to a lot of people. It’s very early in the year and I still think this will be hard to knock from my top five reads come this December.

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devynreadsnovels's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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kimwritesstuff's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book was a little bit of a slow burn for me. I had a difficult time understanding the alterations and the complex government system. In all honesty, I think there were parts I still didn't understand after I finished the book. However, I still found it to be a pretty enjoyable read, and by the end, I was flipping pages so fast to see the conclusion.

While other characters in the book have had alterations done that make it so they can see in the dark or smell contagions, Din has been altered to have perfect memory and recall. These alterations seem to be a combination of magic and technology. It wasn't ever really explicitly stated. I don't think that's a bad thing; it gives the world room to build across other books. There were several minor plot points that make the world seem magical, like how many worm species a person could get or the highest level of "government" personnel basically living forever while also being as large as a house. It's also made clear that the leviathans have earth-altering blood and are studied to help with grafts and other scientific advancements.

This book at its heart is a murder mystery, and it's done very well. While we have a suspect pretty early on, the book continues to draw the reader in by slowly revealing new deaths and new angles. The author does an excellent job of relaying the stakes and of making Din's anxiety pop off the page. Din has dyslexia, though in this world, there isn't really a word for it. Din worries that his difficulty reading and writing will cost him his apprenticeship or make him bad at his job. This constant fear ups the stakes several times while he's looking for clues. His boss Ana is too sensitive to the world and, as such, Din must be the eyes and ears.

One other thing I really didn't enjoy about this was that the author continually mentioned the size of Din. Almost every chapter had mention of Din's height. It was kind of annoying. No one's inner monologue refers to their own height that frequently. I'm tall, and I don't constantly compare myself to others. It was a weird character quirk.

Overall, I had fun reading this even though the beginning was a bit of a slog to get through. It felt like I was reading the second book in a series and that there was something I missed from the beginning.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey for the ARC.

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madbookworm15's review against another edition

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adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I received this arc through Netgalley and was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the book. I've only read one other book by this author but have intended to read more. This one has such an interesting magic system. I love the main character's augmentations and how he uses them throughout the book. Ana is delightful (if a little vulgar in her language) and reminds me of Sherlock Holmes. The mystery and how it is solved is so interesting. Definitely would recommend this book!

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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*I received a free review copy in exchange for an honest review of this book.

This follows the trend of the witty, arbitrarily restricted genius of several recent popular iterations of Sherlock Holmes, but with a danger that feels at once too remote and too specific to make a lot of sense to me. I can tell it's aiming for a thing that I don't like, and so I'm not going to finish it. I like banter, I like witty dialogue, but I think I'm finally at a point in my life where I don't like someone explaining to me how smart they are with information I literally had no access to until this moment. The biggest factor in this DNF is I'd started to feel like I wasn't allowed to finish other books until I struggled through this one, and I don't like books that make me feel like I can't or shouldn't read other books. I'm definitely bothered by one character's personality quirk of wearing a blindfold at all times, and treating a refusal to leave her home as an affectation that exists to annoy other people. The narrative calls attention to it but refuses to explain. I don't enjoy being told repeatedly that I don't need to know something, or at least don't get to have it revealed at this time. It doesn't feel mysterious or interesting, just irritating and petty.

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