Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach

5 reviews

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Police brutality, and Murder

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Blood, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Outing, Alcohol, and War

bibliomania_express's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The Dawnhounds by Sascha Stronach mixes fantasy, murder, political intrigue, and mythology to create a unique world. 

This book sucked me in, confused me, intrigued me, and made me keep reading. Yat is a bisexual constable living in a world where any queerness is punished. She is demoted and drugging herself to dull the pain and protect herself from her own memories. Then she ends up stumbling upon a sinister plot, murdered, resurrected by a god, and given new powers to see and interact with life threads. But there's still that sinister, government corrupting, spore-wielding plot to stop, so she doesn't have much time to figure anything out. 

At times I found myself confused by exactly what was happening. The narration became purposefully disjointed, with snippets of dialogue breaking in. This was something Yat was experiencing, but since it was so hard to know what was happening, it pulled me out of the story. 

I did like that the narrative moved betwern Yat and Sen, with a bit from Ajet and Sibbi to give some of the broader scope. There are also some direct-to-reader style chapters from one of the gods, which were intriguing but also mystifying. This book explores systems of power, corruption, sexism, homophobia, religious zealotry, police brutality, poverty, and what it means to be a hero. It's not subtle about its themes, but it weaves them together well. 

I do wish there had been a bit more of Yat and Sen working together, and a bit more of the worldbuilding, especially the religion/magic system, explained up front. A lot of the book rushes along at a breakneck pace, so that coupled with the narrative style made it hard to absorb all the worldbuilding. 

The setting, however, was fantastic. I loved the whole botanical engineering aspect, and how it tied into the Weaving magic and the dangerous spores. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Gaslighting, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Ableism, Self harm, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

katiequack's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Suicide attempt

augustar14's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.25

I loved the characters and their connections. I loved this world built with life itself, yet lacking fundamental connections to life and other. That was intriguing and well developed. The bin chicken insult- delightful. The characters and their relationships are well established. The world building is well done. 
Spoiler: The only thing I didn't get was

why Sibby was so mad at the main character for going back, as if the antagonist wouldn't have started releasing the spores and killing the city if she hadn't (cause he already was).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, Police brutality, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Biphobia, Sexism, Suicide, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Outing

kumquats87's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and War