Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Daughters of Izdhar by Hadeer Elsbai

18 reviews

saphfics's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

3.25

Prepare to be frustrated a lot by all the characters, and especially the men of the cast. 

I think the author did a decent job with writing a very patriarchal society and the different effects it can have on very differen  women. As well as how the (lack of) privileges different characters have will change how they approach the issue of women's right. The worlbuilding of the cityitself was quite vivid but when it comes to the religion I was left with many questions

At times it felt very on the nose with the way it handled its themes and there was a lot of repetition. Mostly to contrast the two main characters which again felt very on the nose. The story does delve I to why the two are so different and I do appreciate that. 

I do feel like the two mains were very distinctive and had their own distinctive voices. However there was an imbalance to how much screen time I felt each of them were getting. Especially in the beginning. Which kind of makes me sad because I feel like we lost some characterization for both that character and the daughters of izdihar as a whole.  

All around a pretty engaging read, mostly towards the end. I will read the last part of the book to see how it ends

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion, Gun violence, and Police brutality

Minor: War

mamaowlbear's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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

Moderate: Sexism, Sexual harassment, Religious bigotry, Police brutality, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Gun violence, and Lesbophobia

ems_rxlibrary's review against another edition

challenging medium-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Gun violence, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion

alicelalicon's review against another edition

challenging emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Hate crime, Murder, Gun violence, Sexism, Death, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Abortion

katbenimble's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

My biggest complaint about this book is that the sequel isn't our 🤣😭.
Overall, I loved the characters and the magic and also the revolution piece.  Will be very interested to see where the story goes in book 2!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Police brutality, Classism, Bullying, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Gun violence

Minor: Abortion, Sexual assault, and War

verinvaldez's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.0

I nearly DNFed this book but since it's so short and I was already halfway through I decided to finish it. It wasn't the book I was expecting, I was told it was like Avatar the Last Airbender in an Egyptian-inspired fantasy world and therefore was expecting a major focus on the magic aspect. However this is a book primarily focused on politics, women's suffrage, class and female weavers stuggling to control their abilities.

As other reviews have said, the magic system is the exact same as bending in ATLA. A certain plot point was taken directly from ATLA. 

There is a reveal where the waterweaver main character Nehal  accidentally bloodweaves and bloodweaving is highly forbidden and kept secret, I'm pretty sure the reason she gets kidnapped at the end of the book is because she is a bloodweaver and she is going to be used by the enemy kingdom as a weapon.

Which unfortunately made the magic aspect fairly dull because it was too derivative, I expected inspired by ATLA not exactly the same system.

Nehal was a very irritating character, highly stubborn and I found her impossible to like as she appears to be completely disconnected from reality, failing to understand the consequences of her actions and only proceeds to get even angrier when things don't go her way. Nico barely felt like a character, he has somewhat progressive opinions in this world but he just does whatever the plot is asking of him and most of the time he's just pining after Giorgina. Giorgina was the most interesting character to me because she is far more grounded in reality than Nehal and Nico are, however she wasn't compelling.

I am not invested enough in these characters or this world to have any interest in reading the upcoming second book in this duology. Absolutely nothing is resolved by the end of this book, it is all just setup for the next book so don't expect a satisfying ending going into this.

On the positive side, I enjoyed reading a book where the setting is inspired by Egypt, the descriptions of the clothing were fascinating and the political ideas were interesting but the themes weren't married together well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Misogyny, and Confinement

Moderate: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Violence, Classism, and Biphobia

Minor: War, Gun violence, Abortion, Grief, and Kidnapping

fromjuliereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

2.75

I have too many thoughts so will update with a review later. 

My biggest thought right now: not sure why the magic system was literally lifted out of Avatar the Last Airbender with the only change being "bending" called "weaving" instead...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Police brutality, Sexism, and Gaslighting

Moderate: War, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Abortion, Classism, Grief, Gun violence, Outing, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Stalking, and Violence

internationalreads's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Police brutality, Sexism, Violence, Alcohol, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Abandonment, Blood, Gun violence, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Abortion

ender24's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Classism, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Murder, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, War, Xenophobia, Ableism, Biphobia, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Alcoholism, Grief, Gun violence, Lesbophobia, Mass/school shootings, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Outing, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Hate crime, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, and Violence

blkbbyfem's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

3.5

3.5 stars 

To be honest, I found myself extremely annoyed for the first 60% of this book. Both fmc were annoying. Nehal was so selfish and a tad naive while Giorgina 
had a lot of internal conflict. Although I found them annoying, I thought their struggles were authentic, relevant and interesting given their family dynamics. I also enjoyed how their characters develop. The conflict they had to experience was perfectly done and I’m really looking forward to how the story continues and what’s next for the ladies. 

Other thoughts: there were a lot of characters to keep up with but I enjoyed what personality each of them brought. The men were horrible and Elsbai deserves credit for authenticity. There was also a lot of repetitive description ie “wide dark eyes”, a little variety or less description would have been okay. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gun violence

Moderate: Sexism and Sexual harassment

Minor: Abortion and Homophobia