Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Gild by Raven Kennedy

3 reviews

annick's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

0.25

Nope. I would have given up if a friend hadn’t recommended this to me for spice and fantasy. The spice is awful. Misogyny, cruelty, patriarchy and traumatising violence. 

World building was meh. The book is far too longer for the amount of plot and character interactions. The first person narrative isn’t working for me either. And there is also the lazy use of perceived ugliness/beauty as a measure of villain. 

Sail and Digby were part of the brief interlude that I enjoyed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Blood, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

filipa_maia's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I have mixed feelings about this book.

I do appreciate this other side of the story. This is not King Midas' story (the one that everyone knows), it's someone else's... someone very important that stays in the shadows. Also, I very much enjoyed all this mystery around Auren, there is an aura of secrets involving her that kept me very focus till the end. Solving this mystery is exactly one of the things that is going to make me read the second book.

On a less positive note, this book is very hard to read: maybe I was distracted or maybe the trigger warnings weren't enough... I almost quit reading this book. Several times. I understand that women weren't seen as people, especially these women being King Midas' harem... but there is a less brutal way of describing some scenes. Honestly, the excessive use of some words were not to emphasise the narrative, but just to trigger the reader.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Infidelity, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Excrement and Vomit

micaelamariem's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This book was well written with an intriguing plot and great worldbuilding that had me flirting through chapters. However, there was too much on page sexual violence that we were only sometimes supposed to abhor as readers. The main character definitely has Stockholm syndrome and I don’t think that’s going to be addressed. I’m just so afraid we’ll see more toxic relationships develop as the series goes on but perhaps something will surprise me! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism and Grief

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Infertility, Death of parent, and Colonisation