Reviews tagging 'Outing'

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

4 reviews

marthadude's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Heavy emphasis on plague. There’s also a lot of near misses of pedophilia/sexual assault of a minor. It doesn’t end up happening but the mentions/threat of it are brought up pretty frequently

gringolet's review against another edition

dark hopeful sad tense medium-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

4.0

Well researched, succeeded in capturing the feel of the period and really excellent for anyone who likes religious horror, medieval settings, and the plague, which is me. It is weirdly Catholic on a fundamental, foundational level, however I think writing anything set in medieval Europe kind of requires that headspace and it was Catholic in a "cool with gay people" way, so it didn't bother me too much. The characters were grounded in the period and yet still dynamic, interesting and likeable, and the horror elements were well done with some fun messed up creatures and gore.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Antisemitism, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Child death, Homophobia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Outing, Sexual harassment, and War

kurumipanda's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual violence, Violence, Antisemitism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Torture, Xenophobia, Excrement, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, War, and Classism

Minor: Infidelity, Self harm, Suicide, and Vomit

seanml's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad slow-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? Yes

3.75

Not always perfectly coherent, Between Two Fires is still one of the most original and unique horror novels there is. Taking place in medieval France during the sweep of the Bubonic Plague, the book mirrors a classic chivalrous Christian knight’s tale: a journey fraught with varying perils and moral trials to test the knight’s renown. But in this rendition our knight is excommunicate from the church and our perils are Lucifer’s second crusade, continuing on from Paradise Lost’s original war. Recommended if you want an original horror novel, with the caveat that the components of medieval Christianity (Sexism, antisemitism, Islamophobia, homophobia) are still part of the setting. 7.5/10.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Outing, and Alcohol

Minor: Genocide, Incest, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Death of parent