Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

441 reviews

kirstinlwx's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

2.0

From Blood and Ash tried to interrogate important topics like

corporal punishment, consent, propaganda, and agency,

and failed at doing so in very entertaining fashion.

After struggling to get through the first half of the book - it was like each page included one of either:
1. nothing of actual plot- or character-progression, or,
2. a cheeky sort of "tell ya later!" that was only to be underwhelming when later revealed - the plot picked up excitingly, and kept my attention. I scoffed through some of the reveals and references, but I was brought along pretty effectively - feeling as though the author was guiding me to the realizations alongside or just before Poppy came to them herself. However, I was tired by Poppy's simultaneous lack of interrogation of big concerns and histories, and her over-thinking and inner-monologuing about her experiences.

Similarly, Hawke's explicit seeking of consent in some situations was funny to look back on, considering he never recognized or seemed to grapple with his lack of understanding around the foundation of the concept (i.e. the informed part of informed consent).

There was essentially a lot of flat hypocrisy throughout the book, with over-explanation and under-exploration running hand in hand through the fairly jumbled plot.

With all of those conflicting feelings and reflections, I might still pick up the next book, because the story is fun even with its wild leaps and gimmes, and the e-book is free/included in my subscription. Do I feel a little guilty about that, given my issues with the writing and handling of sensitive topics? Yes. Do I sometimes want to read a book just for fun, with part of the "fun" being that I can complain about it? Also yes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence

antidietleah's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

char_borg's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

octopus18's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Domestic abuse

elkfr's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Blood and War

justagremlin's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

Poppy is very bland in my opinion. Her only real trait is “being trapped as the Maiden” and that’s it. That’s her only trait. Hawke is just as bad. The only character trait he has for like 75% of the book is that he’s…hot. That’s it. 

And they have no chemistry. The whole chemistry between them is how “FoRbIdDeN” their love is.

Hawke try not to bring up their forbidden kiss challenge: impossible. But seriously all of their banter is just that over and over and over again.

 

The last 25% of the book is just plot twist after plot twist and a LOT of them felt very forced. They weren’t exactly well set up and came out of left field.

The only one that was slightly good in my opinion, was that the ascended were the real vampyres. That one had some plausible setup. But Hawke being “The Dark One”??? Poppy being half atlantain?? Where the hell did those come from?

 

So overall, a miss for me 

1.5/5 

Recommend For: Easy read for forbidden romance lovers. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Child death and Domestic abuse

child death:

couple recounts the death of their two children but not in graphic detail, depictions of children being raised to be blood supply for vampires.

Death/violence

Typical fantasy violence and fighting

Death of parent

a parental figure dies before MCs eyes.

Domestic abuse

briefly implied to have happened to a side character

physical Abuse

MC is often whipped by a cane as "punishment"

sexual assault

someone tries to assault MC, however, he is interrupted

Sexual content: Chapter 30 Chapter 33 and Chapter 39 are just smut scenes with no plot relevance besides maybe some emotional heart to heart. Chapter 38 has a little bit of plot relevance but also its not the spiciest of scenes

katlin_nelson's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The book progressed really well. It raises questions and leaves the reader wondering while answering them piece by piece at an enjoyable pace. I was able to predict the main gripe and revive/guess the identities of characters based on tropes but it was very enjoyable. The character banter was top tier.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

hailey_sar's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

vixairy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Torture

kittykels's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

3.75

What I liked:

• The MMC; wanting to know what happens next with him is the main thing convincing me to read the next book.

What I don't like:

• The intense focus on the FMC being THE Maiden and most of the book being her introspection. I'm okay with introspection, but there was more of it than of action. The most interesting parts of the book were when we got to see the "consequences" of being The Maiden in action. I wish we would have been shown more rather than just being told all of her thoughts. Thoughts are so boring. 
• Many things were predictable 
• Mentioning her brother a lot but never meeting him and it not being clear if we will ever meet him. I'm sure we will since there are multiple books in this series, but it's really frustrating to have to hear about characters we've never met and having to take the main character's word that not only do they exist, but that they are at all the way they're being described. (I'm like, 20 minutes away from actually being done with this book as I'm writing my review so I'm gonna be mad if we meet him at the end lol)
• Idk how the term is spelled in the book or how it's supposed to be pronounced, but in the audiobook, the narrator is saying "vamprees" instead of "vampires." I'm not saying this is wrong or anything since I don't know what the author intended, I just really don't like it. It's grating to my ears and brain. 
• Atlantia is starting to seem very Velaris-esque. If the parallels continue, I'm going to be disappointed. Not because I think there's any copying going on, I don't think that at all, I just don't love SJM books and I don't want this series to end up being as big of a let down as those were. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Death, Violence, and Death of parent