Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

O vampiro Armand by Adalgisa Campos da Silva, Anne Rice

13 reviews

5ambe11's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.75

Had a bit of a hard time going through certain slow sections but I love the world of the vampire chronicles and ate it up anyway. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Murder

Moderate: Sexual violence and Slavery

bordino's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Murder

cecilyroseceillam's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed the vampire armand a lot, I do have a few criticisms though. It has quite a few weird pacing issues where the first half is extremely extremely slow and then the chapters get shorter and more stakes are involved and ideas/themes feel slightly rushed and then it becomes very slow paced again. I also feel like some things needed to be expanded on and or edited as some things feel very out of place. I also didn’t like the amount SA and CSA on the first two chapters even if it’s meant to be historically accurate. I loved the descriptions of Venice and Italy and Italy began to feel like a character itself which I enjoyed a lot. The way Anne described armand finding new technologies and clothes from that time period was beautiful to read also. I also loved the descriptions of the paintings armand and Marius did, it feel like you had climbed into the paintings and were a part of the colours and egg tempura. I also really appreciated the way this book clarified Memnoch the devil more, and linked back up to the vampire lestat in more detail and added some extra things to them as well as interview with the vampire. Overall I’d recommend the vampire armand if you want a quicker recap like story telling of a lot of history and don’t connect as much with Anne’s much longer, more historically depth work. And I also like that this book has some mystery elements too from armand history and some previous books which get uncovered. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Cannibalism

raybudbury's review against another edition

I may come back to this one but I hate Marius so bad I can’t get through it even though I love Armand.

I found out I HATE master/slave as a trope so I guess that’s nice to find out.  But the amount of grooming. Also this is supposed to be the good time in Armand’s life yeah 🔫 Marius I have a gun at all times pointed at you. Like I get it it’s the Venetian period BUT Anne could have written this in a more critical way but she chose not to and you can see in this book and other books her feelings on that shit. I’ve been thinking about what I would’ve thought as a young teen and I’m lowkey glad I stopped reading after the third book because I should notttttt have read this book as a teen. Good job teen me.  Anyway I’m being critical w it by not finishing this one cause I don’t have a gun to my head and I like to have fun

Bianca’s comment on Marius and his boys slayed though. Get that freak. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking

socialpsysteph's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

Well this book was a DNF but Chapter 4 and I am actually going to be DNFing the entire series since I haven't enjoyed the last 2 books I've read in it. This one I just couldn't continue. I have absolutely no desire to read about sexual relations between a grown-ass man and a child. No, thank you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Slavery

tobyvamp's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery

Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia

shellfish's review against another edition

dark funny reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Confinement, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Suicide attempt

While there isn't literal incest, a major relationship does have a pseudo-incestuous dynamic, i.e. a relationship between a minor and a father figure.

moreau's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-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

4.5

probably my favorite book in the series. very disappointed in the lack of daniel and how shit the one mention of him was, him and armand are the best together. other than that, loved this book.
literally tw everything though its atrocious but i love that its funny

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Addiction, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide, Grief, and Death of parent

vir_abelasan's review against another edition

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Trafficking, and Suicide attempt

armand's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense

wow. this was easily one of the most devastating books i’ve ever read.

armand is my favorite vampire of the series, and it was very painful to get through this book. although i wanted to read more about his backstory, story ripped my heart to shreds. i disliked marius before, but he is now one of my most HATED literary characters of all time. i’ve seen many people demonize and bash on armand’s character for being Strange and Offputting… and while i understand why some people can find him to be uncomfortable, why is he the way he is? he was a child when he was made and he suffered, while being a human child, repeated CSA, physical and mental abuse and grooming, by the hands of his immortal maker marius and mortals alike. he never got to have a childhood, and was thrust upon a world full of sick individuals that twisted his perception of the world and those around him. 

and throughout the series, we see how the abuse that he suffered affects his relationships with other people throughout the series.

he didn’t achieve a deep, long-lasting romantic relationship, but he found love in his two “adopted children”, his brother and sister, sybelle and benji. and it makes me very glad! this little family is just what he needs. i feel for him, and this book only deepened my appreciation of the character.  

on another note, anne rice’s purple prose in this is lovely! loved the philosophical monologues, and how descriptive it was. her writing is beautiful to me, but i did have MAJOR issues with how graphic the sexual content was in this depicting the life of a teenage boy, and how romanticized the dynamic between marius and armand was (although i understand that this was in the victim’s pov… but it could’ve been handled better) for a book about how predatory adults traumatized a person forever in a teenage body, the topics surrounding this could’ve been handled WAYYY better (didn’t have much hope bc this is an anne rice book but geez)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Trafficking, and Sexual harassment