Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport

15 reviews

chanlo1994's review

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

4.25

I had a good guess for the twist at the end, and I was STILL wrong. Ikenna, my girl, you're so angsty, and yet it makes you such a powerful character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Genocide, Slavery, and Toxic friendship

Assassination, death of pregnant woman, forced drugging

marinaaurelia's review against another edition

adventurous 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: Death, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Murder, and War

cass_cgallegos's review

This book details violence very vividly. I think the storyline is good, and the characters are very well written, but I can’t stomach the descriptions of mangling and death. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Death of parent, and Classism

tattooedbibliophile's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

5.0

I’m mad that this book isn’t absolutely huge. It’s just as good as The Hunger Games or Fourth Wing, but it hasn’t been promoted by the publisher nearly enough. It’s absolutely amazing!

Beware, don’t get too attached to anyone. Nobody can be trusted. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Cannibalism

hollyk's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

5.0

HOW DOES THIS NOT HAVE MORE READS???? Genuinely astounded. This is so good, it goes places other fantasy books with similar presences do not go. Some of the world-building is shaky and a bit cloudy/confusing, but with the more you read the easier it is to grasp. I would also say this is more new adult than young adult.

Ikenna is an absolute badass. She's also flawed, and I like that she's hotheaded, impulsive, and doesn't back down. Her resilience is commendable and I think she's incredibly complex. She shows a lot of growth, but I also think a lot of other characters show growth as well, which I think can often get lost in other books. Several characters have some big changes and I am glad to see that growth. 

The pacing is a little slow at first, but once the Trials start, they Start™. One of the twists is kind of obvious, but I think that the details of it are well executed and are shocking. I won't say more because spoilers. Speaking of, TW in spoilers:

racism, sexism, gore, violence, death, murder, body horror(?), cannibalism (?), mentions of slavery, death of a parent/parental figure, grief

I think that covers most of the major ones.

I loved this book and I will not stop thinking about it for the foreseeable future

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual content and Xenophobia

Minor: Pregnancy

mjdedevis24's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, War, and Injury/Injury detail

emfass's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Grief, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War

kbairbooks's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

Wow! Between this and Queen of Nothing I’ve been reading some of the most vicious, blood thirsty, and VIOLENT books I’ve ever read. It makes for a really intense experience. The backstabbing, betrayal, who can be trusted, political agenda absolute beast this book is took me by storm. I couldn’t put it down! I was gripped and at the end I was staring into space experiencing this book. Incredible storytelling, incredible challenges, incredible strength and resilience in times of adversary. Wow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

shaipanda's review

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

4.5

Ok this book is bat shit insaneeee - I absolutely loved it but definitely did not expect exactly how dark it is so keep that I mind if you read this. However despite that, I really loved Kenna and this was a superrr engaging book. Despite it being  darker than I tend to prefer I’ll almost definitely read the sequel when it comes out cause omg so well doneee :) 
However I will say I personally didn’t give it a 5 star because of how unlikeable pretty much every character is at various parts of the story (including Kenna occasionally lol) and I tend to prefer to at least somewhat like the characters I’m reading about 
Oh also reallyyyy look at the trigger warnings fr cause this book is insanely dark and has no issues killing off characters 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content, Vomit, Cannibalism, and War

Minor: Toxic friendship

thereadingskeleton's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Thank you to B2Weird Book Club and Harper Voyager for an ARC in exchange for an honest review and promotion. All opinions are my own.

Rep: Black MC, biracial LI, Black side characters

What. A. Ride.

Honestly, what else can I say?

Actually, a lot.

First of all, this book is extremely violent, bloody, and gory. It follows Ikenna Amari as she enters the Praetorian Trials, a brutal military initiation, to search for her grandfather’s murderer. With a premise like that (not to mention a name like The Blood Trials, amiright?), I went in expecting violence—but, even so, there was A LOT. I wasn’t particularly bothered by it, but if you’re squeamish, you might want to skip this one.

If I had to choose one thing about the book to gush over, it would be the blending of science and magic. I love science fantasy; it’s a genre I never get enough of. In The Blood Trials, Kenna’s home country of Mareen has eschewed magic in favor of technology—so much so that they’ve executed anyone in the country born with magic. This is a big problem for Kenna, since she secretly has a blood gift—one of the most reviled forms of magic. Throughout the novel, Kenna embraces her gift more and more, and I’m hoping that, in Book 2, that extends to the world and we get to see more mixing of magic and technology.

There were a couple of things I wasn’t as big a fan of. For one, Kenna hardly experiences any character growth. I expect we’ll see more in the second book, but it was frustrating to see her consistently making the same kinds of mistakes without learning a single thing. I was extremely frustrated with her for most of the book. That honestly didn’t detract much from my enjoyment of the story, because I was really here for the action-packed (if not always the least predictable) plot, and I’m excited to see the plot threads that were left dangling get picked back up in the sequel.

I also highly recommend the audiobook version! The narrator, Jeanette Illidge, did a fantastic job.

As a last note, this book is not YA. It is firmly in the adult category, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it for younger teens. Some older teens will probably enjoy it, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Racial slurs, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Death of parent, War, and Classism

Minor: Genocide and Colonisation