Reviews tagging 'Death'

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

44 reviews

mostlyvoidpartiallystars's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

A beautiful, heartbreaking, but inspiring book. The worldbuilding is rich. I love the combination of magical realism & historical fiction, it felt seamlessly woven in. I appreciated the strong anti-colonial themes. The disability representation is decent - I started out hesitant over how it was being handled, but I loved the progression. 

Finally, a recurring section I'm going to be adding to all my reviews going forward: Do they bury their gays?

No. The only queer/queer adjacent characters are a trans man, a bigender person, and the trans man's girlfriend, who isn't queer herself, but is part of a queer romance given her boyfriend is trans. None of these characters die, and no queer romances end tragically

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Deadnaming, Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Physical abuse, Rape, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

20sidedbi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Death, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement and Sexism

zghutcheson01's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

4.5

While I wasn't really interested in Riva or Sinne in the first 150 pages, by the middle and throughout the end all of the siblings had compelling stories and beautiful character arcs. I eas very wary when I recognized the Aurthurian references but it seems to be more references and I wouldn't call it an Arthurian story. I also was very familiar with the ballad "The Twa Sisters" before reading and I think it gave the whole thing a much more tragic lens considering the first few chapters bear little to no resemblance to the song.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexual content, Transphobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Ableism, Biphobia, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

tashtasher's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Transphobia, Medical content, and Death of parent

Minor: Body shaming, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Medical trauma, Murder, and Pregnancy

cattheteawitchfairy's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring sad 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

3.75

Beautiful text that wasn’t what I expected! With twists at every corner, characters you can’t decide whether to love or hate and a beautiful plot with magic, religion, war and a well written trans story.

Would recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Sexual content, Transphobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, and War

christinakann's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Absolutely stunning from start to finish. Sistersong by @silvanhistorian is achingly beautiful, raw, tender, and brave. I couldn’t recommend it more. Definitely a strong contender for my favorite book of the year. This is a library copy but I’ll be needing my own. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Fire/Fire injury

laurajeangrace's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Transphobia, Blood, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Minor: Vomit

mooshake's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

listen there were problems with how much plot importance keyne was given in comparison to riva and sinne but it's 1 a.m. and i’ve been lying in bed for the past 20 minutes silently crying over the ending so.... ..¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Deadnaming, Gore, Transphobia, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Death, Blood, Medical content, Colonisation, and Dysphoria

Minor: Pregnancy

simon_toast's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and War

Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent

Minor: Deadnaming

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

I. Loved. It.

Some of the very first fantasy books I've read as a child were the Albion/Avalon books by Marion Zimmer Bradley. And especially the beginning of this book reminded me SO much of them, it has the same vibes. 

The story takes place in Ancient Britain between the departure of the Romans and the Saxons attacks. It's about 3 siblings, the children of a British king, about their life endangered by the Saxons, about their personal struggles, about magic (vs Christianity), about love and jealousy and betrayal and war and family and identity. Also, there is amazing LGBTQIA+ and disability representation. 

The further I got into the story, the harder it was to put the book down. I loved the atmosphere, the (very flawed) characters, the plotting of the story as a whole. There was one plot that was painfully predictable. Like it made everything more cruel because you knew it was coming. But then there were parts of the story that totally took me by surprise. 

So, if you don't want to ruin this surprise for you, don't research the ballad (The Twa Sisters), which the story is based on. I did after reading the book, and now I'm even more in awe by how well this retelling was done. Also, a modern version of the ballad is one of my favorite songs by Loreena Mckennitt... and I realized I had never paid enough attention to the lyrics before. Ooops. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content