Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Traitor by Seth Dickinson

51 reviews

omniscienttrees's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

One of the best depictions of imperialism i've ever seen in fiction. This book also served as the best inoculation against the pain of 'bury your gays' tropes in media ever, and kind of cured me of the pain of a lot of films growing up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

likeopomp's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.5

The Baru Cormorant series could be my favorite fantasy series, despite having read plenty of fantasy more epic in scope, cast, stakes and prose.

The premise is haunting and unforgiving and the main character is molded by what she has been exposed to. The setting is much more imaginative, grounded, elaborate, natural and intellectually interesting than most without any reliance on magic of any sort.

Also the plotting and set-up is absolutely incredible.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Grief, and Colonisation

notbambi's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-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

5.0

Baru Cormorant sets out to fight monsters, only to become one herself. This is a book that has you thinking, "what is her endgame?" up to literally 30 pages from the end, and then you hit it and you're gobsmacked. 

This book spends a lot of time exploring local politics, economics, colonialism, and war, and it turns out that made-up geopolitics are totally my jam. For once, the map in the front of the fantasy novel was indispensible for keeping track of the web of dukes and their shifting alliances as the story went on (also, nice touch that the map is an in-universe sketch of the region, with pithy notes about all the dukes). And at the centre of it all, Baru Cormorant, ostensibly trying to save her people from the empire by bringing them down from the inside, and being fundamentally transformed by that empire into a completely ruthless, calculating bitch. She has just enough blindspots and vulnerability for us to at least be captivated by her contradictions, if not always sympathetic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Lesbophobia, and Colonisation

dataphract's review against another edition

challenging 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

5.0

jesus christ seth

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Colonisation, and War

liokamino's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

perfect fucking book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

missmali's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and War

angievansprang's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

This book is truly a feat. An apropos read for this time in history as the story follows a rebel who insights uprisings as a favor to a larger colonial power, of which she is attempting to gut from within. A rich rumination on power, wealth, betrayal, and loyalty - this book will have you wondering what you would do in Baru’s shoes. What is the worth to you of the freedom of your own homeland? How far would you go to achieve this? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Violence, Murder, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

thesunthesunthesunthesun's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I'll try to write a proper review later, when I've recovered. This book killed me, revived me, and then killed me again. Everything fits perfectly it just,, had to happen like that there was no escaping this.

My partner thrust this book in my hands yesterday with the request to read "just chapter one, and then let me know what you think :)". I finished it in 2 days (mostly because general life got in the way). I'm still reeling. This book is etched into my brain now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

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

emilyplun's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Racism, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and War

andrew_corduroy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

This was a challenging listen, as many fantasy books are with all of their names and places. But damn if I wasn’t just hooked and felt like I needed to know what happened next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Homophobia, Blood, Murder, Lesbophobia, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Confinement, Drug use, Grief, Outing, and Pandemic/Epidemic