Reviews tagging 'Death'

Dark Water Daughter by H.M. Long

13 reviews

abby_can_read's review

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? Yes

4.0

📱
I had a great time reading this book. I loved the worldbuilding and the magic system. The storm magic was awesome. I liked the fighting and action scenes, both on the ships/in the ocean and on land. The characters were great. I liked how Mary developed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Slavery, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual assault, Vomit, and War

persephonefoxx's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Slavery, Kidnapping, and War

Minor: Sexual assault and Vomit

misterwisp's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted relaxing 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? No

3.0

The ideas within the setting are neat. The characters feel strong and distinct. There is a bit of fun high seas piratical action to be had although not as much as I was hoping for. The story was a bit of a mixed bag and some parts were fast paced and others slow. There was more of a romance subplot happening than expected. So overall it's mostly fun although slow in parts and there is less action than you might think from the way the book presents itself. Not bad overall and an easy read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Confinement, Vomit, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and War

madradstarchild's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Sexual assault, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Minor: Body horror, Slavery, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, and War

lizziaha's review against another edition

• Strong character development? It's complicated

3.75

Ultimately, I just disliked Samuel, one of the main POVs of this book. Because it’s the first book in a series, I’ll give Long the benefit of the doubt. This could be laying the foundations for an incredible villain arc. But it just didn’t hit in this book. I felt like the relationships between the characters were underdeveloped, and it was just missing some of the pirate charm that I expected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, and Murder

ijustreallyliketrees's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Slavery and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual assault

jenpen's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I loved this book, even though I really did it a disservice by taking so long to finish it. Her writing is very descriptive, making it a slow read, but with such beautiful prose I am not complaining. I especially enjoyed all the foreshadowing and hinting at things to the reader without directly saying it, as this book is absolutely full of mysteries that gradually become unraveled. Even brief lines from the first few chapters hint at plot twists at the very end, making for such a satisfying read. 

Funny thing is, there really isn’t much of a plot - I struggled to figure out any character’s motivation for what they were doing. It was the weakest part of the book overall, but by far the strongest would be the world building. The magic and history of the world were extremely well thought out, and the snippets of lore between chapters help immerse you and explain details that would have been unnatural to fit into the main story itself. 

The characters were loveable (and I especially loved all the funny lines), but again, not much development going on there since not much happens plot-wise. I hated how Mary seemed to fall in love with every single male character she met, and even the main romance didn’t make sense. As such a heavily character-driven story, this actually makes me more excited to read the sequel to see what happens with the characters from here on, even though this reads as a satisfying standalone. Overall, I found the book immersive, creative, and very fun. Who doesn’t love a good pirate story!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Addiction

katievallin's review

adventurous dark hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Vomit, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Suicide, Torture, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

readwithria's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.5

Dark Water Daughter wasn’t quite what I expected, but not necessarily in a bad way.

I went into this book blind with only two things in my head about it.
1. There are pirates
2. There is magic
I was right about both of those things, but I don’t think I actually learned much about how the magic works. Our main POV characters are both mostly untrained, and they didn’t learn a lot about their magic throughout the book. It feels like that might be where book two is going, but in this book it wasn’t as fleshed out as I would have liked.

I also don’t love that our main characters’ choices weren’t what was pushing the plot. The plot was happening to them, and they made choices in reaction to that, but it didn’t feel very active to me.

That said, I did find the world intriguing. I think the pacing was good, and the hint of romance was well done. I also really liked the different cultures, and learning about the ghistings (spelling? I read the audiobook). 

I’m not sure that audio was the right format for me to read this book. I might have preferred it in print, as it was easy to get distracted or space out while I was listening.

If the second book were already out I would probably read it, but I don’t know if this has hooked me enough to come back to. 3.5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence and Violence

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Sexual content

takarakei's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

Positives: world-building is super interesting, immersive, unique and well described. Wanting to learn more about this world is what kept me reading.

Negatives: pretty much everything else unfortunately. The characters were lacking in complexity and interest. Mary is just kind of along for the ride, rather than driving the story which is boring as a main character. The relationship between Mary and Samuel, which I've heard has been described as slow burn, is nonexistent until the end and as they spent most of the book apart, really what is this romance based on?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Gun violence, Slavery, and Kidnapping