Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Das Reich der Vampire by Jay Kristoff

20 reviews

anntharai's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The bits I liked I REALLY liked. 
The issues I have with it REALLY irk me. 

The world building is immaculate if a bit on the nose, really vivid writing and visceral descriptions, a great mechanic. Love the use of tattoos and the lore building. Overall I liked the story itself. 

The issues, though? 
I found myself rolling my eyes at a lot of the vulgarity because it was genuinely ludicrous at times. Swearing doesn’t bother me in the slightest but the lengths to which these characters went just to get a “banged your relative” joke in was over the top. 

Everything has a simile. Everything. The doors locked like a secret. The floors cold like the night. The night air cold like knives. Wind like knives. Words like knives. Running frightened like a startled horse in a barn on fire and the devil whipping it all the way. The lips red like red things.

The repetitive phrases (fuck my face, like his lady’s lips the last time he kissed her, better a bastard than a fool) stopped feeling symbolic and started feeling like a crutch about half way through and using the same *twist* mechanic used twice (gender neutral names being the crux of two stories told so closely together) made it feel less polished than it could have been. 

Thanks to various reviews etc I was also expecting a “big thing” to shock me at the end but I kind of felt it was obvious…? 

Anti-climactic, in a word, but I do want to know what happens so it’s not like I hated it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Religious bigotry, Murder, Outing, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

caitlinbutcher's review against another edition

Insanely boring. Like oh my god. I got EIGHT HOURS into the audiobook and I was still SO bored. I could have read an entire book in the time it took me to learn that Gabe is a horny watered-down-vampire but vampire-killing legend who swears a fuck ton. I was on the fence about whether to continue with it or not when I looked up some goodreads reviews. I was feeling a little weird about the portrayal of women in this book but the goodreads reviews really cemented it for me. Apparently only the women in the story die horrific and graphic deaths. So yeah. I understand now why people hate this author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, and War

darkmattersoybean's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexual content, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual violence

hilwithonel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, and War

Minor: Addiction and Sexual violence

bookworm9867's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Much longer than it needed to be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, and War

beckybookish's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Moderate: Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

no1willnot's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Religious bigotry

It’s a book about vampire wars that centres around a religious order of vampire hunters based heavily in Christianity, so there is a LOT of blood, violence and institutional abuse

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Homophobia, Sexism, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual violence

readwithanne's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual violence, Torture, Religious bigotry, and War

Minor: Pregnancy

leahjanespeare's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

In the vein of Name of the Wind, a vampire hunter recounts the fantastical events from his life to his executioner. This epic dystopian fantasy is dark and seductive and includes frightening artwork that brings the story even more alive. The violence! The expletives! The smut! What’s not to love?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Homophobia, and Stalking

Minor: Sexual violence