Reviews tagging 'War'

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

53 reviews

brukneem's review

adventurous challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

Amazing characters, an intricate plot, deception, betrayal, and so much more. This book was utterly amazing and I can't wait to read book 2!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Gore, Xenophobia, Murder, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

Minor: Vomit

av0universe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Religious bigotry, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Gun violence, Violence, and War

Moderate: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Vomit, Torture, and Slavery

Minor: Sexual violence

jpeirce's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Tough read, both for the content of cruel colonialism and characters who were interesting but not quite fully fleshed out. I usually read a book straight through and I kept putting this one down. I couldn’t believe the love story or the decisions the main characters made given their stated motivations. The world-building was beautiful and compelling. I think this author has a lot of promise and will probably mature over time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual violence

wardenred's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

3.0

Change was coming. Touraine aimed to be on the right side of it.

I'm afraid this is one of those times when I've built up really high expectations for a book in my head, and then the book and I just didn't click. There were definitely parts of it that I liked; in particular, I was impressed by the vivid, visceral portrayal of colonialism and all the varied harm it can bring. I liked some of the relationships among the Sands. The prose and the pacing both flowed really well for the most part. There were a lot of interesting worldbuilding elements.

Unfortunately, the main characters just... weren't my cup of tea. Both Touraine and Luca made so many downright stupid choices, it was hard to understand how either of them had survived long enough to begin the plot in their respective positions. Touraine's entire personality seemed to be at odds with the role she was in. She literally gets praised by a friend for thinking before she acts, but the fact is, most of the time she very much doesn't. And Luca so clearly lacked the knowledge and understanding of all things political, which was odd considering the way she was brought up. That just kept taking me out of the story.

Also, the romantic storyline that I expected to be one of the main draws was probably my least favorite aspect of the book. Given the premise and how thoroughly colonialism was explored in other parts of the story, I expected the romance to be more explicitly/genuinely enemies-to-lovers, with higher-stakes conflict, and with an equally thorough examining of the oppressor/coloniser dynamic and its inherent toxicity, hopefully with both leads recognizing the toxicity. Instead, all too often it fell into the usual romanticized tropes with little self-awareness. 

Overall, lots of mixed feelings. Perhaps  I would have enjoyed the story more if it was about the same world and events, but with different characters?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Ableism, Violence, Colonisation, and Slavery

Moderate: War, Torture, and Confinement

Minor: Death

aseel_reads's review

adventurous dark 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

3.75

This one is a hard one to rate because I found it super engrossing and something I wanted to constantly read but at the same time, I found that some of the betrayals just didn't make any sense and were quite unbelievable, so I couldn't rate this as a four. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Child death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Genocide, Gun violence, War, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical content, Rape, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

3.0

I went into this booking thinking it was going to be more fantasy and less political drama and I was wrong. I liked the tension between the two main characters, Luca and Touraine, and I think the duel points of views worked well for the book. 

I loved the world building, I could clearly see the coutry of Balladaire in my mind's eye. This is definitely a fantasy because

Spoiler

there's magic in the world

but I think the book was too heavy on politics for me have to rated it four stars or higher.

I read this for my book club,  The Supernova Book club

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Abandonment, Racism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Misogyny, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Blood, Grief, Slavery, Gun violence, Police brutality, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Racism, War, Death, Confinement, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Medical content, Chronic illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Sexual harassment, Ableism, Kidnapping, Trafficking, and Torture

Minor: Animal death, Vomit, Alcohol, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Rape

Execution by hanging. Power imbalance in relationship (representative of colonizing government/colonized subject).

readyfreddie's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

this book had me in a chokehold. 
it is raw with emotions ranging from rage and fear and pain to hope and love. the characters are complex and flawed and the book doesn’t shy away from showing them at their worst. 
the amount of times i went “holy shit!” out loud while reading this is unreal ajfkdjf. my jaw stayed fucking dropped for the last 50 pages or so. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Colonisation, and Death

Moderate: Ableism, Gore, Racism, and Violence

rorikae's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

“The Unbroken’ by C.L. Clark is a tense fantasy steeped in the political machinations of the heir to the throne and a soldier questioning her loyalty. 
Touraine is a soldier sent to quell a rebellion in the homeland that she was stolen from. After arriving, she realizes that there is more going on in the country than she suspected and that there are still some personal connections that exist for her. She also meets Luca, the princess who is secretly trying to steal the throne from her uncle. As the two women connect, they begin to learn more about how they can create peace in this country but it may require them to come close to committing treason. 
Clark creates a fascinating story rooted in complex characters that it is easy to care for. This world is filled with political intrigue and a cast of fascinating and sometimes despicable characters. Touraine and Luca are both easy to care for and easy to curse at in the same breath. They feel like living people with all of their flaws painfully obvious. The story took a number of twists and turns and Clark keeps the reader guessing about what will happen next. I'm fascinated to see where the story goes in the second installment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Confinement, Violence, War, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Gore, Racism, Torture, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape

Minor: Sexual content

ryankaybee's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Colonisation, Gore, Grief, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Death, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War