Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Smoke and Summons by Charlie N. Holmberg

5 reviews

crimsontheory's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, and Slavery

Minor: Sexual harassment

peacholino's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Blood, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Police brutality, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Murder

soniajoy98's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Vomit, and Colonisation

acoffeeandagoodbook's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

 This is a pretty solid YA fantasy and a little darker than Holmberg's usual style.

Smoke & Summons sets up the world for the rest of the Numina trilogy. The world-building is solid, and creates a fantasy world with rules and magic that I found engaging and interesting. Unfortunately, it also means that the plot is mostly taken up by chase sequences, and very little actually happens. Instead, the book ends on a big cliffhanger, clearly setting up for book two. Hopefully, there's more story in the next two books.

Our heroine, Sandis, fell a little flat for me too. She doesn't have much of her own agency, often relying on others to save her. Rone, the 'thief with a heart of gold' who helps her, was much better. I'd like to learn more about his backstory and motivations, as what there was interested me a lot.

An enjoyable, easy read for fans of YA fantasy, but it's not going to set the world on fire. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, and Murder

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Sexual assault

mbarclay245's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Loveable characters? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Sexual assault