Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin

13 reviews

chasinggrace's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

What do you even say about this book, the ending to this trilogy? All I know is that it is cemented (get it?) as some of the best writing, storytelling, and character building that I’ve experienced. 

This story explores a breadth of themes: motherhood (reluctant, surprising, unfortunate, all-encompassing), oppression, climate change, revenge, found family, survival, hatred, guilt, and GRIEF. 

So much grief, so much love. My heart absolutely shatters for the main character - we follow her entire life in these three books and I don’t know if I’ve ever truly understood a character more than I have come to understand her. You fall in love with her broken, imperfect self. 

But I also deeply understand the other main POV in the second and third installments. I get her - she demonstrates the consequences of experiencing endless tragedy and oppression in childhood. Her decisions make perfect sense when you know her, just like the decisions of the main character. I saw myself in both characters time and time again. 

I’m also pretty sure I’ll never ever ever get over the “love interests” (questionable title) of these books. Innon, you will ALWAYS be famous to me!!! Lerna, you were too pure for this story. Baster, you bastard, I love your crazy ass. Any time I read about these men I was close to tears! 

All of this being said, there are of course have imperfections in this trilogy that I want to state:

• Hoa’s POV frustrated me in this book - I found myself not caring enough during his chapters, even though they are the most important to understand what the fuck is happening and why. I feel like the author could have explored literary devices other than lengthy flashbacks to communicate Hoa’s purpose. 
• The literary device used in Book 1 made me obsessed with the series, and I found myself missing it in Books 2 and 3. 
• I know this is ultimately a story about motherhood, but for a girl who never actively wanted children, this bitch gets pregnant a LOTTTT. By the fourth one I was OVER IT and I found the last one to be so unnecessary. We already know that Lerna is a great guy, we didn’t need this emotionless realization of procreation.
• It took 3 books to understand what the fuck the whole war is about, and even now I don’t think I get Steel’s POV or reasoning for manipulating Nassun. I couldn’t explain to you all the sides/motivations of this war if I tried. 

This trilogy is fucking emotional and I can say now that I get the hype. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and War

dkamada's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy

maryellen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

kalagrace's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.5

A very satisfying ending to the trilogy. Sad but hopeful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lipstickitotheman's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

5.0

Sobbed my way through the last chapter. 
This author is a genius. The world-building is wildly thorough. I know that I need to re-read this series so that I can understand it better because I do feel like some of it went over my head. She has such a powerful understanding of humanity and families that keeps wrecking my shit. 
This last book was honestly hard to want to read--because I just didn't like reading Nassun's POV (it's still excellent! I just wanted to spend time with Essun, but I know how important Nassun's POV was there)--but every time I picked it up, I didn't want to put it down. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Genocide, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Cannibalism, Murder, and Pregnancy

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

A truly strange and wonderful story. The themes of exploitation, community, bigotry, and fear were carried through with a clever nuance that will have me thinking about this world for weeks. There was a fairly large plot hole (

if Hoa can take Essun, or anyone, through the Earth to a known location of another, why didn’t he just do it in the first book, or after Meov?

) that was quite distracting. Overall it came together in a satisfying and frustrating conclusion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Pregnancy

emilymia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Body horror and Suicidal thoughts

jessthanthree's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Genocide, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Sexual content, and Cannibalism

abbyschalupa's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

steveatwaywords's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

The conclusion of Jemisin's work faces the problematic trope of any fantasy novel or series: how to end without staging a predictable "magical" monumental climax where good triumphs over evil. While the plot walks markedly towards this climax, I was relieved and grateful for her staying true to the characters and methods she had established in the first two books: and in doing so she creates a conclusion which is satisfying and (fairly) unpredictable. And this is what I appreciate from Jemisin, the first fantasy or SF writer I have found in decades who understand how people function: that we are complicated, conflicted, and rarely wholly rational. Yes, we believe in principles, in ideals, but how easily our choices (and our mistakes) feed and compromise them, even while we feel we are walking a certain course. Jemisin creates heroes, but not ones that fulfill their quests by subscribing to external conflicts of good and evil, creation and destruction. What a rewarding read from the genre!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Genocide and Racism

Characters and races in the novel are systemically poorly treated and abused; in the background it is clear that genocide has been conducted upon one group for centuries. It is fairly easy to see parallels to our contemporary history. However, all of these issues are treated sensitively and with an appropriate sense/discussion of injustice.