Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

149 reviews

fluffy_comet's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

It just fell flat at the end.

The forced marriage plot

was deeply frustrating, and the fact that all these two has to do was COMMUNICATE THE BAREST AMOUNT to avoid

another deadly war

was kind of infuriating at the end. The writer's grammar leaves much to be desired and I swear to God if she does the triplicate thing over (and over and over) in the next book I *will* DNF it. Loopholes and editing problems abound: you're telling me a 20 year old living in vampire territory isn't worried about her period? Also certain sentences/descriptions are repeated in the book in difficult situations, ie: he pissed himself, bleeding is bad, etc. 

Enjoyable read though, but it was very much a "kinda want to see what happens" vibe that drew me to ordering the next book, not a "I need to know what happens NOW".

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking

kassidyreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Torture, and Grief

shinyfox's review against another edition

dark emotional 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: Child death, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death and Vomit

crybabybea's review against another edition

dark tense 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? Yes

2.0

I gotta stop reading romantasy. I feel like the subgenre just doesn’t work for me because it always feels like the author has to try and shove so many different elements in, to the detriment of the quality of the work. The world-building, plot, characters, and romance are all underdeveloped because of how much has to be fit into the book. Everything takes a backseat to the romance more often than not, because the author wants to get to the sex scene within the first book. They always end up longer than they need to be because of it as well. Granted, this is on the shorter end of romantasy at 450ish pages, but the next one is over 600 pages. It’s just not enough payoff for a book that long. I feel like it actually takes an incredible amount of skill to write a good romantasy where all elements stand on their own (and seemingly takes a great editor as well cause whew every romantasy I have read needs serious editing). I actually love fantasies with romantic elements as I’m a big YA fan, but I have yet to find a romantasy that doesn’t feel lackluster and overhyped. 

This book falls into all of the issues I usually have with the genre. The fantasy doesn’t hold up if you look at it for too long. I understand it’s one of those books that people want to “turn their brain off” and read, which I have no issue with, but this book almost feels like you have to turn your brain off to read. You have to read it not really understanding the point of the plot or really anything about the world at all. The world-building is muddy at best, and oftentimes the narrative just doesn’t make sense. I still don’t understand the point of the Kejari tournament, why it’s happening now, how the world works politically, or the difference between the vampire clans. The magic also isn’t explained well and it’s not clear who can do what magic (is it a racial thing? is it only certain vampires? idk) or what the consequences of the magic are. It just doesn’t feel well thought out and it’s only dragged down more by the author’s bland writing and habit of telling vs. showing. 

The writing itself is just… meh. There’s nothing special about it. I don’t think all writing has to be poetic or use flowery language (and in fact some authors force it to the point that it’s cringey ~~cough When the Moon Hatched cough)~~ but the writing here just has no substance. Like, it’s fine but there is nothing about it that is memorable or that encourages me to pick up more by this author. It’s also written in first person POV, but the narration doesn’t match up with the voice of the main character, and it actually makes it hard to connect with Oraya as a character. We don’t get a lot of time in the narration before we are plunged into the Kejari (about 30 pages or less of setup), so we go into the story not really having an idea of who the characters are or what the purpose of the plot even is. It felt very YA, which is fine but… I thought this was not YA for a reason. The only thing that differentiates the writing from a YA book is the overuse of cursing to seem edgy as well as a sex scene. Which, even the sex scene is just bland and boring. There were multiple times I was wishing this book had more editing. At one point the author repeats the same "surprise" and the characters act like they weren't aware even though the same thing was said like 200 pages prior.
 
I did like the action scenes and felt they had nice pacing and were detailed enough to be understood but not too detailed that they dragged on.

The characters aren’t well developed over the course of the story. We have a very, very narrow cast of characters, which should mean we get intimately acquainted with them, but we just don’t. They fall into their respective tropes and don’t venture outside of them. The author tries to do a “found family” type thing with the main 3 characters but it just doesn’t work because we don’t get to know them well. There are beats of the story that are clearly intended to be emotional but I just don’t care about the characters enough to worry about them. The beginning setup for Oraya’s relationships was good, but

then the author kills off one of two characters that she cares about before the tournament even starts with little fanfare. Her death happens off-page and Oraya never really feels much about it.

I actually found Vincent to be the most interesting character by far, and hoped to see more of an exploration of he and Oraya’s relationship. 

I did like the ending. Even though it was similar to other plot beats I’ve read in similar books, I did find myself at least a bit connected to the romance at the end.

This is compared to The Hunger Games (and I understand why) but I would probably compare it more to The Cruel Prince and the later books of ACOTAR. The plot points were almost exactly like The Cruel Prince but with less developed enemies to lovers. I don't think the political strife or intrigue is enough to accurately compare it to The Hunger Games.

Like other romantasies, it’s good for an easy, light entertainment read. If you’re a high fantasy fan and want deep world-building, complicated magic, and political intrigue, I think this is just meh. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, and Physical abuse

grayb14's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

savvyrosereads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense 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? Yes

4.5

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Oraya, the adopted daughter of the Nightborn Vampire King, enters a bloody competition in a quest to earn the power to survive in a deadly society.

I’ll be honest, I totally failed the buddy read this time around—mostly because I got too caught up in a different series. I also had a bit of a struggle getting into this one for some reason…it wasn’t bad, but it also wasn’t clicking for me.

Fortunately, by the time I got about halfway through, this absolutely clicked. I was super entertained for the entire second half, and ultimately stayed up until absurd hours to finish reading because I just needed to know what happened. Some of the final reveals felt a bit predictable, but I still really enjoyed them, loved the relationship between Raihn and Oraya, and can’t wait to see where this goes in book 2!

CW: Violence (including sexual violence), blood/injury; torture; death (including death of children and death of parent)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

r3ader's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

The ending?!?? Oh. My. God. Not sure if the ending was brilliant or ruined everything?!?? 
This book was awesome. Like TRULY awesome. I recommend it to EVERYONE who loves romantasy (just as much as me). 
This is one of these few books you read, that seem like they change the way you see the world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Hate crime, Rape, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Religious bigotry, and War

got_smut's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

It’s kind of like Vampire Hunger Games, but with spice 🔥🌶️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

booknerdcoco's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.75

It's been a while since I've read a vampire novel. And this did not disappoint. I listened to it on audiobook, and though I prefer to read, I felt like the narrators added to the story.

The plot twist at the end was unexpected, and my heart broke for the FMC.

But the build-up I thought was good.

My only frustration was that I struggled to keep track of some of the less prominent characters that turned out to be significant in the end. This somewhat interrupted the flow of the story for me.

Spice 2.5/5
Plot 4.75
Book boyfriend: This is difficult because of the plot twist, but the for the most part 90% maybe a 3.5/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape and Suicidal thoughts

sbordo's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Genocide, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism