Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Das Reich der Vampire by Jay Kristoff

69 reviews

amy_reading_23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad fast-paced

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

5.0

This book broke me. It is the best vampire book I've read in ages. I really didn't expect it to be this good. 

It's about Gabriel De Lion, a dhampir recounting his life to a vampire who has him imprisoned. He focuses on two tales, the one of his upbringing and the one of the adventure leading him here. Just when one tale comes to a cliffhanger he switches to the other. 

I really enjoyed Gabriel's character. He is a destructive mixture of cynical, sad, fearless and hopeful, a man having lived an incredibly hard life. But although the book has dark and sad moments, he tells his story with humour and I couldn't get enough of it. 

There were some bits I was unsure of, that made me a bit uncomfortable. E.g. I don't know why Kristoff felt the need to write such explicit sex scenes between teenagers in an adult fantasy book. That felt unessecary and having heard some criticisms of his other books I do have to wonder why he chose to do that. But other than that, the book was great and I'll be thinking about it for a while. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

simmich429's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

5.0

starts off very slow but SOOOO worth it. can’t wait for the book 2 to come out

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

ravenfaerie's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Religious bigotry

faefolkreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Gore, and Grief

wildflower030's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Homophobia, and Abandonment

_calreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Grief, and Religious bigotry

yyooh17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad 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

5.0

“Hearts only bruise. They never break”

Well mine certainly feels pretty broken right now. It’s certainly gone through alot TT

I fell in love with ALL the characters, nearly cried a few times and actually cried more than that.

The book intertwines 2 plots, his past at San Michon and years later as a man. These are linked through the 3rd plot which is the present day. The majority of the book is a retelling of the past.

As you read more, previous brief comments begin to make more sense and have a deeper meaning and you gradually understand why Mr MC is the way he is. I’d say try not to gloss over any details because it WILL be relevant later on.

Jay Kristoff appears to have gone to a writers workshop and applied EVERY PIECE OF ADVICE EVER, but better. Anything I could ask for in a book is here.

The illustrations are also gorgeous and really add to the descriptions in the novel. 

I will add that there is quite alot of gore, violence and religious horror, however, in my opinion that is a staple of vampire fiction so it shouldn’t come as a surprise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content and Religious bigotry

el_pender's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Outing

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, and Child death

Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism

novaleestar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.5

I loved this book just as much as anticipated! It is a dark, macabre trek through an endless forest full of horrible frights, and I often felt as if I were a phantom being led through a bloody painting. Viseral, beautiful, heart wrenching. Jay Kristoff always does such a good job making me reach out to find the hope he has hidden in the darkest nooks and flaws of his characters. This was no exception, and I can't wait for the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Excrement, and Death of parent

seekerxr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

is there even any words to describe this masterpiece?

i was engaged from the beginning to the very end. there wasn't a single moment of this book where i wasn't on the edge of my seat. it is worth every single bit of its 700-something pages because the story simply couldn't be told in less than that.

the atmosphere? unable to be duplicated. take every hard, dramatic aesthetic of the church and turn it up to eleven. it's blood and silver and hopelessness and battle fury.

the characters were intensely flawed and intensely loveable. no one could have told this story like gabriel did.

i didn't realize this was an incomplete series when i started it (i don't usually read incomplete series) but i am absolutely locked in. i cant wait for the rest of the story.

if you want a grimdark vampire fantasy epic, why aren't you already reading this?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry

Moderate: Gore, Homophobia, Xenophobia, and War