Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

A Court of Mist and Fury by Sarah J. Maas

16 reviews

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

katie0528's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This is better than the first book by leaps and bounds, but Mass still struggles with pacing issues. After the first book, Feyre and Tamlin's relationship is irreparably broken. Desperate to get away from his smothering precense, she leans into her bargain with Rhysand of the Night Court, eventually allying herself with him completely. In theory, the book is about them preparing for war with the fae king Hybern. In actuality, it's long, long stretches of romance between Feyre and Rhys without any mention of the various quests they need to go on in preparation. And even when they do remember, it's often not what Feyre thinks. I liked the interactions between Feyre and Rhys, but Feyre is often the last to figure things out (even as the reader I was usually several steps ahead) and it really bogs down the plot. Both this and ACOTAR could have been a fraction of the length or at least broken into 2-3 books. For as popular as these books are, the pacing and structure is just odd...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, and War

helfire124's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, and Classism

catastrophiclyss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

deathmetalheron's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted fast-paced

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

0.75

Don't read this review unless you're ready for me to be unnecessarily harsh. I don't like this book and think it's a travesty in so, so many ways. I understand I am not the target audience nor is it written to be a profound work of classic literature, but the fact remains that I feel it fails even within that tapestry of perspective.

ACOMAF picks up three months after ACOTAR and you are suddenly hit with the realization that in those three months SIGNIFICANT character development has occurred!! Offpage, offscreen. Tamlin is now major dickhead dumbass and Feyre is very sad. Reminder, this is NOT how we left them. Feyre was happy to have freed Tamlin from a curse and is getting married to him.
But in the back of her mind, sexy, sexy Rhysand (known dickhead in the first book) made her make a deal. However, he seems to have "forgotten" that deal until her (dreaded) wedding day when he whisks her away, finally reneging on her deal. They trade barbs, she bites her thumb at him, etc. When she returns, Tamlin in response to this becomes jealous and overprotective.

Right away, if you are familiar with the first book, this entire sequence should seem odd. Tamlin was sexy, sexy understandy man who valued Feyre and Rhysand was sexy man but also evil and he killed innocent people. Now the two personalities have flip-flopped--Tamlin is sexy with a bad side and Rhysand is soooo understanding and empathetic. 

I'm not against this dynamic, but for 600+ page book more time could've been clearly spent on that development instead of just throwing us in the first page. Instead, we get tons and tons of scenes of characters who instantly befriend Feyre, talk about her vague powers, "training," and will-they-won't-they dynamics between the two MCs. 

At the end, Rhysand's

murderous behavior in ACOTAR is justified as a combination of being misblamed/killing people who deserved it

and while it works, it's too late. 

The biggest thematic issue of this series is in its inception--it is not fantasy romance, it's just romance with a high fantasy setting. Many of the fantastical elements seem to revolve around Feyre's relationship and warp to meet her expectations. The magic system in particular has effectively no rules yet it goes to be the crux of nearly EVERY plotline in the book. Yes, including the romances!

This is not really a story, this is a trope payoff with 550 pages of fluff to justify said tropes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Violence, and War

Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Pregnancy

booitsbam'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

A lot better than the first book.
I was significantly less frustrated with the characters and overall plot, though I still have my qualms. 

I’m so glad we are away from Tamlin for the majority of the book, as I really did not like him in the first book and highly disliked his actions in the beginning of the second. I even extremely hate him for the last part of the book as well. I only really missed Lucien, but I was really surprised and upset by him a lot of the time he was in scene.

I really love all the new characters we’re introduced to from the Night Court; they all have their own motivations that feel realistic, but in our reality and a fantasy setting. They feel properly fleshed out for the most part. The relationships between each of them also feel plausible, along with how they came to be. 
The descriptions of the settings were pretty good and felt pretty immersive, especially since similar are often used in visual medias already so I could easily refer to something I’ve already seen to visualize the surroundings.
It’s not the best written thing I’ve read, but certainly a lot better than the first book, so that’s why I’ve rated it higher but not much higher than the first book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Eating disorder, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Vomit, and Kidnapping

jg34's review against another edition

adventurous challenging slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.75

I have now reread this and I almost want to drop my rating lower? This was maybe a hate read for me IM SORRY. I just keep seeing references to this series online and I feel left out 😩 

Sarah J. Maas crafts a story that is interesting enough and set up in a way that I always wanted to know what happened next. However I just wish it was told by… someone else. We all collectively agree that these books are not well written, right? Like from a factual standpoint??? Here are the top things that irritated me while reading:

1. Weird phrases and metaphors. We all know the water bowels from book one but in this book you get “I tried not to bleat like cattle” … like moo? Was she about to moo?????

2. Repetition. I get it’s a long book and there are only so many ways to say things but then maybe… some things don’t need to be said? The word “indeed” must have been said 100 times in this book. And Rhys doing feline things. And prick and vulgar gesture. We get it Feyre is ~feisty~ 

3. The dialogue and relationships. Personally I find it really uncomfortable when in books the character start acting too familiar with each other right off the bat. Whether it’s asking invasive questions or Feyre/Nesta bitching people out instantly or cassian/rhys spewing sexual innuendos (or would it not be considered and innuendo if they are blatant and blunt? Like Rhys talking about licking Feyre 🤢) or even Mor being immediately cheerful and loving towards Feyre. Let these relationships DEVELOP before saying all this crazy shit!!!

4. The horniness!! My god. I will admit I’m not a huge ~spice~ girly but I can dig it if it is meaningful. Like maybe the painty sexy scene could stay. But all the thirsting after each other and gross flirting and the THRONE SCENE (seriously why they needed to do that for ‘appearances sake’ is beyond me). And then them having sex like 50 times in a two chapter span. it wasn’t necessary to the story. Knock out a few steamy scenes fine but it was like (paraphrasing) “we had dinner with friends then he fucked me at the table. We took a bath and he fucked me in the bath. We went to bed and fucked 4 times before dawn.” SETTLE DOWN. 

5. a lot of the things that people did wrong (how Rhys treated Feyre under the mountain) were explained away in kind of bs ways. Like the author maybe didn’t plan the justification before the person did the bad thing. Does that make sense? Who knows I am also not a great writer

6. Feyre is just kind of annoying. And like… unremarkable. I found it hard to sympathize for her. And why everyone loves her so much has me like ???

SORRY FOR THE RANT the bottom line: was I entertained? Yes. The plot and the setting was interesting. The characters were fun if a bit unrealistic. I did find it hard to follow at times but that could be me just not giving it my full attention or not remembering details well. 

BUT I do understand the memes now so for that, I am grateful. We do it for the FOMO 🙇‍♀️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Sexual content, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Xenophobia and War

This bitch is constantly vomiting. If there was a level above graphic for a warning I would use it for vomit

nkmustdie's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

natroze's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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

Enjoying these despite the heterosexuality

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Death, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and War

graceskate's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Was not expecting to like this as much as I did. The characterization of one character in particular

(Tamlin)

dramatically changes from the first book. I think the second and third books in this series work very well together but are sort of disconnected from the first book.

If there had been bigger red flags with Tamlin in the first book or moments where the mask slipped a bit him turning into an abusive prick would have made more sense. Book 1 Tamlin and Book 2 + 3 Tamlin are very different characters and makes the first book feel disconnected. I like book 1 on it’s own and I like books 2 and 3 together but when you put the whole series together the jump between 1 and 2 doesn’t really make sense.

Besides that I enjoyed the books if you can pretend

Tamiln was showing more signs of being abusive in the first book and accept that you aren’t really going to see his character develop in that direction

then it’s pretty good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Xenophobia, and Classism

Minor: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail