Reviews tagging 'Police brutality'

Children of blood and bone by Tomi Adeyemi

32 reviews

jodean's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, War, Confinement, Genocide, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Racism, Torture, Death, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Grief, and Murder

robinks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.75

The world-building was a bit slow in the beginning, but once our characters’ stories started intersecting, the book moved so quickly. Inan’s character was a bit confusing to me (though I think he is also just confused generally), but I loved watching Amari & Zélie’s growth and relationship development.
Also, the complexities of revolution against oppression were present in the characters’ struggles and conversations, which inspired me to consider these same complexities in reality. I want to know more about this world, and I want to know what happens next!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Genocide, Kidnapping, Racism, Torture, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Police brutality, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Grief, Slavery, and Stalking

Minor: Trafficking, Vomit, and Sexual content

grets_reads's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Genocide, and Death of parent

Moderate: Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Racial slurs, Violence, Death, and Child death

Minor: Slavery, Trafficking, and Injury/Injury detail

lunep's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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: Animal death, Child abuse, Violence, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Slavery, Blood, Grief, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Police brutality, Torture, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content and Alcohol

Another TW: Colorism

alyssasaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, War, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Racism, Racial slurs, and Torture

beldaran1224's review

adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

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

3.25

This was a fun read with an engaging premise...but it wasn't as good as the hype led me to believe.

One issue I had is the pacing of the book - the characters visit multiple locations and little effort is made to create a transition from one to the next. A chapter will end with them in place A, and the next chapter will start with them in place B, with a single sentence further down the page indicating how much time has passed. This is a particular issue because there is a clear countdown/timer to the quest, and the lack of transition and sense of time passing leeches some of the tension from the narrative.

The characters were interesting, but the prince

Spoiler

waffles back and forth between the good guy and the bad guy

and it just gets old by the end.

All of that said, it really was a fun read, and I enjoyed the lore & magic that we see. I will be reading the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Torture, Death of parent, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

Moderate: Murder, Police brutality, and Violence

mlphipps1991's review

adventurous challenging emotional sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Slavery, Physical abuse, Blood, Violence, Racism, Police brutality, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death of parent

durrareadsstuff's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective fast-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

4.75

Such an amazing book! The world-building was done so well, I'd say it was quite complex and yet easy to understand at the same time. So many themes were covered in the book, mainly oppression, racism, grief but also friendship, understanding, honestly, I learned so much from reading this. The characters were so well developed. At first I kind of hated them, but then as they grew, I found myself rooting for them (well, most of them anyway) and it's just so brilliant.

I have never found a character to be so relatable like Amari. Reading her povs, I mean, I don't know if I should laugh or cry.

Spoiler

I mean, she was practically useless on that ship. And the way she kept telling herself to freaking move and do something but remained frozen and how she kind of made everything worse, I FELT THAT. But it was so much watching her grow, seeing her embrace the "lionaire" that was inside her all along. It kind of made me have hope in myself. So, I owe this book one.

I think the character development is my favourite thing in the book. I mean, the characters have come so far. Like how Zélie went from someone who constantly doubted herself to becoming someone so strong she was a force to behold.

Spoiler

And Inan? *sigh* I was really rooting for you man, and I'm sorry to say this, but I'm kind of relieved thar you died. Cause to tell you the truth, you were freaking stupid. And after you've come so far! Such a shame. I originally wanted to give this a 5 star, but Inan angered me so much I just can't. But you know, it was refreshing that the enemies-to-lovers crashed and the love interest died cause he was being an idiot anyways. Okay fine, I might give this a 5 star later. All that aside, I can see how Inan represents someone who grew with a horrible parentage, someone who was taught, from a very yound age to hate and be scared of the maji, and it was so nice to watch him fall in love with Zélie, and to discover his own powers which made him re-evaluate his upbringings. But sadly, the fear crept up on him again, and yeah, it was pretty devastating that he was killed by the one person he worked so hard to appease.

Besides that, the writing style is so genius! I mean, I'm not and english or literature major, but the way she describes abstract things like feelings using physical symbolism(?) It takes my breath away every single time. 

Now chaos surrounds me, pulsing through every breath and heartbeat. It sings as blood splatters through the air, screams as boats explode into oblivion.

Reading this was like watching a movie, and for a very long book, I can say for certain that I never got bored. Loved it ❤️

Bonuses - multi-pov and the chapters are super short! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, and Death of parent

Moderate: Torture, Child death, and Slavery

Minor: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Police brutality, and Infidelity

martereadsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious sad 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: Murder, Death, Blood, Child death, Violence, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, Racism, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Gore, Gaslighting, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death of parent and War

idogrocker's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense fast-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: Murder, Police brutality, War, Violence, Racial slurs, Grief, Death of parent, and Blood