Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

Return of the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner

6 reviews

spinebenderbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

4.0

This was my first read of this book and I think it's a fantastic ending to the series. In this book we are introduced to Pheris, the grandson of Baron Erondites - a seditious baron of Attolia - who has newly been named his heir and sent to court to serve as an attendant to the king, Eugenides. I really enjoy that Whalen Turner continues to write disabled characters with sensitivity and gives them full personhood in her stories. I also appreciated that

while we know that there are visual indicators of Pheris' disabilities, she doesn't actually describe the way he looks, only how his disabilities affect him. It feels very different from the way in which some writers describe disability in an extreme detail, which can come across as similar to the way disabled people have historically been made a spectacle in sideshow attractions.

Pheris is an interesting POV to read and his perspective on events shows us yet another way that Whalen Turner is a master at the craft of misdirection and foreshadowing. The way his neurodivergence is portrayed made me feel very seen. The ableism experienced by disabled characters in her books continues to be realistic, but written in a way that invites the reader to examine how they might have internalised this kind of thinking in themselves.

Pheris and Eugenides' relationship is an important relationship in this book. They each understand what it means to be dismissed and underestimated and mirror each other in so many ways. It is Eugenides who first understands who Pheris truly is and Pheris recognises himself in Eugenides in turn. It is this commonality that leads Eugenides to place such trust in Pheris at crucial moments in the story. These moments are small but the course taken in later events hinge on these moments.

It is Pheris who, when Eugenides is at risk of giving himself over to the Thief, pulls him back.

Which brings me to a part of the story that I loved and that the title itself is a spoiler for: the return of the Thief. For the past 3 books, people far and wide have been so unhappy with the idea of Gen being king that they forgot to fear who he is when that is taken away. All the books leading up to this have been laying down a mythology of the Thief, telling us the ways in which we should fear and be awed by him, and this book brings those threads together to show us how a myth is made legend.

I will say that ultimately I found the war with the Medes to be not as large in scale as I had been expecting and so somewhat disappointing. We don't see much of the large battles, they are fairly glossed over. But then I suppose it makes sense for a book series about a thief that the parts we do see are smaller incursions and guerrilla tactics rather than an all-out fighting. But there were parts of it that were fantastic to finally see come to pass, such as the death of Nahuseresh, and I found it very satisfying that the queens  - who have the most experience with directing their respective militaries - were the ones directing the armies of the Lesser Peninsula.

All in all, a satisfying ending to a phenomenal series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, and War

Moderate: Child death, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Minor: Torture, Murder, and Pregnancy

nekoshka's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Miscarriage and Vomit

Minor: Sexism, Torture, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

fitzofinspiration's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Vomit, War, and Injury/Injury detail

caitlin_bookchats's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful medium-paced

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

5.0

I found this to be a fitting ending to Whalen Turner's Thief series. We are introduced to a largely new narrator who is privy to much of the action that takes place so we are held apart from but able to see much more of Eugenidies & Co than in books 3-5. We see the aftermath of much of the planning and threat from the rest of the series, and I found the resolution largely satisfying, if getting there was emotionally fraught.

One thing of note: the narrator here suffers from some form of visible disability that limits his movement and does not allow him to speak aloud. The disability runs in his family but previous members with it have been hidden from society or not allowed to live to adulthood. I don't know if we get enough description of the disability to know what the modern name for it would be and I am unsure if the portrayal is "accurate" but there is a lot of ableism aimed at the character from various figures throughout the book and it's important to know that going in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Torture

Minor: Miscarriage, Vomit, and Death of parent

The main difference between this book and previous books in this series re: content is the death and violence associated with a war and the ableism directed towards our narrator. This waxes and wanes over the course of the book but it's relevant to note there are some extremely harsh views directed at him including re: the value of his life. Other content is on par with previous books. After the previous book many people wondered about the nature of the relationship between the main characters of that novel. There is no clarity about those two in this novel, but there are other prominent side characters who are in a confirmed m/m relationship and there is no particular judgment for the relationships being m/m in the text from any characters.

octopus_farmer's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

it was the happy ending that fit with enough seriousness to make it stick

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, and Grief

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Vomit

Minor: Miscarriage

katieconrad's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism and Violence

Minor: Blood and Vomit