Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Final Strife, by Saara El-Arifi

19 reviews

catgnome's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Drug abuse, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Hate crime, Violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Addiction, Cultural appropriation, Police brutality, Racism, Self harm, Classism, Colonisation, Death, and Drug use

Moderate: Vomit, Torture, Excrement, Grief, and Kidnapping

dani_reis's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Child death, Emotional abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Murder, Torture, Genocide, Drug abuse, and Child abuse

antonique_reads's review against another edition

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Slavery, Blood, Colonisation, Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, Violence, Torture, Grief, Death, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Gore, and Addiction

hattieosha's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Violence, Police brutality, Racism, Slavery, Addiction, Blood, and Child abuse

Moderate: Classism, Alcohol, Colonisation, Sexual content, and Body shaming

matildah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense 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

4.25

This book is a fantasy novel in which colour of your blood dictates the class you are in within society. Those with red blood  are the embers “the elites” of society, then are those with blue bloods who are the dusters and below them are those who have translucent blood who are called ghostings. The story follows our main protagonist Sylah as she enters a competition called the Aktibar a competition that takes place every 10 years. Due to a series of unfortunate events she gets sidelined and it’s forced into training a Duster raised by an Ember called Anor.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug use, Addiction, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, and Death

Minor: Excrement

bookswhitme's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.25

Definitely a solid start to an epic fantasy trilogy. I’ll admit to took me awhile to be invested. A lot of this book seems to spend time introducing us to characters and getting us acquainted with them by learning about their personalities and motives. There little hints of action here and there but the last 20%-25% was where the most action happened. The world building was very intriguing and once I really started piecing together where this was headed and making real life parallels, I realized just how well the story was set up.

My only thing was the relationship that eventually developed between Sylah and another character. I didn’t have a problem with it but for most of the book the romantic feelings seemed one sided. So to find out that Sylah felt that way too was a little jarring. I expected the friendship, but not the romance between them. I just think if that’s where Sylah’s feelings were headed, it could’ve been developed/demonstrated a bit better.

All in all, I’ll definitely check out book two once it’s released. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Drug use, Slavery, and Violence

malinhalia's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

2.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Confinement, Drug use, Child abuse, Body shaming, Colonisation, Addiction, Racism, Gore, Death, Drug abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Slavery, Genocide, and Sexual content

cozyscones's review

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Colonisation, Slavery, Classism, Gore, Sexual content, Death, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Addiction, Confinement, Police brutality, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Body shaming, Torture, and Fatphobia

Minor: Vomit and Excrement

leanne_miron'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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Classism, Slavery, Drug abuse, Police brutality, and Confinement

Moderate: Kidnapping, Blood, Child abuse, and Death

Minor: Sexual content

applejacksbooks's review against another edition

adventurous tense slow-paced

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

4.25

I really thought this was a strong opening book to this series and I can't wait to see what comes next in it. 

The Final Strife presents itself as a Middle East/African inspired world that combines a premises like The Hunger Games with Red Queen to create a terrible world on the precipice of change. 

Anoor and Sylah are some of my favorite characters I've read this year and I love that they give each other hope and the ability to believe in themselves and the world they've lived in and can change it for the better. 

I do think that the middle of this book lagged a little bit, but not enough to make me want to stop reading. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Death, Grief, Racial slurs, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Sexual content, Xenophobia, and Suicidal thoughts