Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

The Empire of Gold, by S.A. Chakraborty

7 reviews

thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? No

5.0

I can't imagine a more perfect ending to this series. Chakraborty does an excellent job of following through on the world and the characters she's established, and I feel like everyone ended up in a place that felt real and earned. This has cemented The Daevabad Trilogy as an all time favorite series for me and earned it a spot on the very short list of series that I feel get better with each instalment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Murder, War, Torture, Slavery, Genocide, Gaslighting, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Homophobia and Pregnancy

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

Wow this was a rare series where the sequels either stayed the same quality or got better. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Torture, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Sexual assault, Rape, Animal death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Grief, War, Vomit, Trafficking, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Medical content, Injury/injury detail, Infidelity, Hate crime, Racism, Homophobia, Alcohol, Blood, Gaslighting, Gore, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Child death, Colonisation, Confinement, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Slavery, Sexual content, and Murder

tinybluepixel's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Injury/injury detail, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Murder, War, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Colonisation, Dementia, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, and Suicidal thoughts

lais's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Blood, Genocide, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, and Murder

Moderate: Slavery

instalovewithbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

All I am gunna put right now is inconsolable crying over chapter 46 because holy shit.
Empire ruined me. I thought Brass and Copper have, but no, Empire is where I broke 😭
 
  chapter 46, where Dara is saying goodbye forever to Nahri absolutely devastated me. I was trying to read as my eyes are turning blurry with tears ruined me. I'm so lost on that, and I KNOW it makes sense but that does not take away how much it hurt to see them finally separate I really hope Dara got some happiness. My Afshin.../

This series has honestly been a trilogy where it has kept me wanting to read it over and over again. I have now read City of Brass 3x, Kingdom of Copper 2x, and now Empire of Gold once. I did not know what to expect from this book, I honestly felt lost through it, and it wasn't because it was a bad book, it was quite the opposite. It was one of those books that you really aren't sure what the direction of the story will take, and what will happen next.

I am very much glad we are getting River of Silver this year as a physical book because I must have it. I really need something more to carry me on as this trilogy has taken a year off my life, I swear.

Honestly, this review is a mess, and I just don't care. I love this book so very much, and I plan to return to this world as many times as possible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Medical trauma, Blood, Violence, Toxic friendship, Murder, Gore, War, Medical content, and Grief

Moderate: Slavery and Gaslighting

Minor: Confinement

isleoflinds's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/injury detail, Gaslighting, Gore, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, and War

Moderate: Grief, Mass/school shootings, Pregnancy, Trafficking, Colonisation, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Outing

Minor: Rape

hanarama's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-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

4.0

The Good:
 • Sympathetic opposing POVs
 • Interesting setting and world building
 • Pleasant writing style
 • Satisfying ending

The Bad:
• Portions or the final showdown felt overly convenient.
• Information kept from reader.

You Might Like this if You Like:
• Epic fantasy
• Unique world building
• Big final battles 

As the conclusion to the Daevabad trilogy, I feel mostly positive, but a tad mixed. 

Coming off of the excellent second installment, Chakraborty initially allows her readers a well needed chance to breath and absorb everything that happened thus far. This also gives her ample time to set up the different factions as they were left off. This allows the reader to really absorb the growing threats and to see the characters in new settings. 

And this book brings a few new settings that really help to flesh out the world. While the previous books took place mostly within Daevabad, this book takes place mostly outside of the city. It was really cool to see parts of the Djinn world that have only been mentioned previously. 

However despite the great first and second acts, I felt like the final showdown was a bit lacking. Though the overall conclusion was satisfying, I rolled my eyes a couple of times during the battle. It felt as though it were written as a screenplay rather than a book. Some key information wasn't given to readers beforehand, leading to some silly, Marvel-style reveals. Further, it felt like everything and anything went right for the heroes, erasing a good chunk of the tension I had felt leading up to the conclusion. It felt really out of left field as Chakraborty has previously written very tense and engaging battle sequences. 

Non-battle reveals did shock me though, and felt well executed, and satisfying. The mains all got appropriate endings. Overall, a good read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Suicide attempt, Slavery, Self harm, Murder, Medical content, Genocide, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse