Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

50 reviews

bluejay21's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child death, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

chilivanilli28's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Genocide

Minor: Child death and War

poppywarphan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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

5.0

Nahri accidentally calls a djinn or Daeva as he prefers to call himself. He finds out she is a shafit (has Daeva blood) and is the last descendant of a powerful family of Daeva healers. There are dangerous creatures after her, so he takes her on a journey to Daevabad, (a magical city hidden from the human world) her family's ancestral home. This journey takes up quite a large portion of the book. I wouldn't call it boring, but it definitely dragged on compared to the rest of the book. When they finally arrive to Daevabad is when the good stuff starts. I'm talking really good shit 😌. The worldbuilding is stunning and characters complex. There's also a short glossary at the end, which helped me keep up with the terms. Definitely need to buy the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Slavery, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and War

hollyjbyrne's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape and Self harm

lauraeerika's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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: Child death, Death, Racial slurs, Slavery, Medical content, Grief, and Toxic friendship

mscalls's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

thereadingshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Animal death, Rape, and Sexual assault

cameronreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? No

5.0

Y'all this book! I haven't read a book with such a complex cast and plot in a while. The characters were so immensely developed; each with their own complex backstory and motivations, all of which were thoroughly believable. The worldbuilding was amazingly done, and the politics and history was rich without being too complicated or hard to read. I loved the writing and the plot, and was completely gripped from the moment I read the first sentence to the epilogue. It was incredibly unique, unpredictable, and exciting. I did have a slight issue with the ancient immortal x young woman trope, as well as the mild queerbaiting (which I hope will be confirmed in the sequel), but otherwise I adored this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Cursing, Slavery, and Alcohol

binayocheved's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

we do love djinni & political intrigue & morally complex characters & mutual pining & zealous young idealists & con artists & ~lies~. 

all of that. 
we love it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

THE CITY OF BRASS is a fantasy balanced on a knife's edge, with a prince and a con artist working at occasionally-aligning purposes in a city filled with djinn and Daeva, with the partially human underclass just trying to survive.

This generally avoids infodumps by making sure that, when exposition is necessary, it comes in the form of telling someone information that’s truly new to them. Sometimes that’s a briefing for an unfamiliar situation, other times it’s a story around the fire. A lot of these explanations happen early on, and it seemed like a bit much at first (there are a lot of tribes, for one), but the main narrative only demands consistent recognition of three or four tribal names so it wasn't overwhelming once the story got going. The two main characters have very different lives and knowledge bases, and that works together to give the reader a fuller picture of the world and the secondary characters. 

I love the political wrangling and intrigue. Ali is pretty blunt, surrounded by much more subtle players with complicated aims, and there are a few places where people use insider terms to tell him what’s going on but he doesn’t realize that a double meaning is involved. Later when Mahri becomes immersed in it she's a much savvier player with the information she does have, and I'm looking forward to how she handles things as the the trilogy progresses. I love heists and thieves, so having Mahri the con artist as a protagonist is a treat. She's self confident but wary of the situation, and that blend of prowess and uncertainty is truly delightful. There's something great about taking a person highly skilled in one arena and dropping them into a wholly different one that brings out their known and unknown strengths in intriguing ways. Dara isn't a point of view character, and I think that's because he knows too much to be a good narrator. The story is so much richer for his presence, but he's stingy with information, doling it out only when he thinks Mara needs to know something, which is often well after he's acted on the knowledge. This leaves her to pick up the pieces each time, in turns fond of and exasperated by him as he drifts in and out of the scene.

The ending is rather shocking, managing grief and triumph as Mahri and Ali have to deal with sudden changes in the last chapters. It's not a twist of plot as much of the inevitability of consequence, as things that had been a little bit wrong for a while suddenly get out of control. I'm excited for the next one, I need to know what happens now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Xenophobia, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Minor: Rape, Excrement, and Antisemitism

CW for major character death (graphic).