Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

59 reviews

avalete's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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

There’s so much I can say and yet I don’t know what I could. Genuinely, one of the best books I will ever read. For sure. As soon as I started, I knew this book was going to be something special, and I’ll never experience anything like it ever again.

This is some of the best writing I have ever read. All of it. This book is horrifying and I love it so, so much. The war waging in heaven, the plague claiming France, the people trying desperately to survive. Thomas, Delphine, and Matthieu’s relationship to another and religion. The literal demons of hell they have to face along the way.

It feels truly hopeless and that God has abandoned man.

And yet.

I can’t in good conscience recommend this book without also warning that there’s a long, long list of content warnings to go with it. Just about anything one can think of is mentioned in this book in some capacity.

Still, this is an excellent book and I loved every moment spent reading it, and every moment I’ll spend thinking about it after.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Incest and Cannibalism

sophiacongdon00'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Rape, and Sexual assault

itsjustgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

Savage, brutal, heartfelt and hilarious. What an absolutely stellar religious grimdark tale.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Incest

honeypunk's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.5

I found this to be a wonderful read but with an execution that I felt sometimes let it down.
Unfortunately I feel like the action could be very confusing at times and not clear, which at very important moments left me feeling lost. 
It definitely didn't feel like a horror to me, more like a dark fantasy, which was a let down after I saw a lot of people raving about it being /the/ medieval horror. However the characters in this book hugely made up for it and I can't recommend it enough if you're a fan of complex morally grey characters, medieval vibes and father + daughter found family relationships. I never found myself enthralled in the plot due to how it was written, and moreso in the characters and what would happen to them.
 
You do need to check out the CWs before you decide to read it though, as the opening chapter starts on a heavy one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

hellsjerome's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Such an amazing read, there’s a very unique feeling to this book that I’m afraid I won’t be able to find in another work. The monsters are so damn imaginative. I am incredibly scared of eels right now. Highly recommended to anyone who liked A24’s Green Knight.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Hate crime, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

beesbookhaunts's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I was surprised by this one! Going to add spoiler tags because it’s hard for me to describe my feelings without giving away too many plot details. 

Normally I am not into religious horror that has a happy ending, God saves the day type of thing. But I loved the characters so much!  And the horror elements? Perfectly done.  Instead of it just being standard temptations for our heroes, they were faced with some truly terrifying things, which got to me a few times. Having a happy ending just felt right after all they went through!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Homophobia and Sexual assault

Minor: Sexual violence

epsyphus's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

This was interesting; I found the relationships compelling and I’m fascinated with the idea of plague and the Black Death in particular. I read the book on a recommendation and it wasn’t until after I started it that I realized I had already read a book by Buehlman. I’m kind of glad about that because I don’t know if I would have picked up the book if I had realized before I started. When thinking about this book and his other book I read, The Lesser Dead, the first word that comes to mind to describe the books is vulgar. And I don’t necessarily mean that as a criticism because I think the vulgarity does serve the themes of the books pretty well, but I did feel kind of icky after finishing both books and I think it was a main contributor to my feeling like that. I think that Buehlman is a good writer, but I don't think his books are for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual content

marthadude's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Heavy emphasis on plague. There’s also a lot of near misses of pedophilia/sexual assault of a minor. It doesn’t end up happening but the mentions/threat of it are brought up pretty frequently

zachbrumaire'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

wow

mixed feelings on this one

the first 3 parts functioned really well as environmental/climate fiction, the portrayal of society from the mundane to the metaphysical under the pressure cooker of the Black Death

part 4 was bold and weird and reorinted the narrative to more interpersonal papal court politics at the same time a shift from magical realism to a more ordered clash of capabilities and powers, and something was lost that made the first parts so weird and great. 

the end, especially the detentmont, was very neat and tidy, very just so, and while some of the surreal poetry of the earlier parts of the work reemerged the impression was one of a shift from the horrors of a heaven and earth abandoned by God to one micromanaged by  him just-cause.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

callandor19's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Right up my alley. The French side of the Hundred Years' War and the apocalyptic perception of life during the Plague were both interesting new perspectives to me. The "lone wolf and cub" setup has the potential to be obnoxiously saccharine or tropey, but I think Buehlman strikes a good balance here. Brutal and horrifying as fits the setting, plus an extra layer of brutality and horror due to the overt supernatural stuff, but the latter doesn't feel like it comes at the expense of stakes or credulity.

RE: Bingo, the POV character is a brigand who has deserted from the French army after the battle of Crecy. Even though the world is generally lawless after the plague's outbreak, he and his companions are definitely still considered criminals.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Cannibalism