Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Ones We Burn by Rebecca Mix

25 reviews

ethana's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Vomit, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

hellavaral's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Child abuse and Emotional abuse

arsenelouppain's review

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? Yes

4.5

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It had action, an intricate political plot, great world-building, and loveable characters. I wish more moments between

Ranka and Aramis had been shown, because their relationship felt somewhat abrupt.

I also think some of its themes were a bit heavy-handed. But, all in all, I really liked this book.

So I was shocked to see that it had been accused of perpetuating racism. I am Black, and--while I know Blackness is not a monolith--I did not pick up on any bigoted undertones.

TL;DR: I'm Black and didn't think it was racist, but I'm just one person. Read it and draw your own conclusions.

Putting aside the fact that all of the negative press I personally saw about the book was from people that hadn't read it, and had only heard about it secondhand:

The main issue people cited was that the royal twins, Aramis and Galen, were mixed, and Ranka was white. Somehow, the conclusion had been drawn that the twins were oppressing white witches, like Ranka. But this is not the case. 

It is pointed out multiple times that the witches are a diverse group comprised of various races. It is also mentioned that witches have committed wrongs against humans, and neither of the two groups was fully in control of the situation.

As an aside,

these claims are especially ironic considering that the twins weren't even ruling, so they had no hand in what was happening to the witches. And made even more ironic by the fact that their father, the former king, was white and abusing his power to oppress witches and humans alike.

While it is at first presented to Ranka that Galen is hell-bent on killing all witches, this turns out to be a lie told by Ranka's mentor. After meeting Galen, Ranka discovers the truth: Galen is a kind, gentle boy that has been made into a figurehead, much like herself.

If anything, this is less like reverse-racism and more like a white person who was raised in a racist environment meeting a Black person for the first time and realizing everything they'd been taught was a lie. Which is still an issue, but a separate one.

I feel like Mix's intentions were to create diverse characters in a fantasy story where the color of your skin has no impact on your societal standing. Personally, I like to enjoy stories like this on occasion; there's enough racism in the real world, and it's nice to get a break.

As a queer Black woman, I was also estatic to see someone like me reflected in the story. I know this is not a universal experience, but I would rather see imperfect representation than none at all because white people are too afraid of backlash to even include people like me as a one-off side character.

But this is just my opinion. And my thoughts do not invalidate the opinions of other Black people who actually read this book and have legitimate criticisms.
 
I urge anyone who is on the fence about reading The Ones We Burn because of any controversey to just give it a chance, and pass your own judgement.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Gaslighting, and Pandemic/Epidemic

monicajaylynn's review

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and War

styxx's review

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

chelseytennis52's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Child death, Death, Gore, and Toxic relationship

kodiex's review

adventurous dark emotional sad 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: Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Grief, and Gaslighting

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Emotional abuse, and Death of parent

kirstenf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Genocide, Terminal illness, Torture, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Medical content and Kidnapping

frantically's review against another edition

This book just didn't bring anything special to the table. We've read about witches, we've read about getting engaged to the prince and falling for his sister again, we've read about royals realizing their privilege and how they, too, have been exploited. We've read about

mentors who had to take parental roles dying

and

both sides showing their villainous traits

. This could've been redeemed with giving us something interesting to make the story stand out, be that beautiful writing or great characterisation but in the end, this will just end up in the trenches of stereotypical YA novels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Xenophobia and Medical content

Minor: Death of parent

quinnpjd930's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring reflective 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 death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism