Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

40 reviews

taratearex's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective 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

4.0

First read 2023
Reread 2024

I really enjoy this little novella! Despite being a novella, it's dense with worldbuilding and strong characters, the world feels fully realized, yet leaves so many questions that it could have easily been a full length novel delving deeper. The writing is also dense, at times a bit hard to follow or doesn't quite flow, but still quite enjoyable and I look forward to more from this author. I absolutely loved the queer normative world and nonbinary and trans main characters, would love for a this to be a series of novellas in this universe. 
The audiobook is excellent, read by one of my favorite narrators Fajer Al-Kaisi. My first read was the audiobook alone and given the dense worldbuilding, I preferred having the physical book this time, but I still listened to the audiobook because I just love the narration. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Gore, Racism, and Xenophobia

zydecovivo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I started seeing this book on tons of list for it's asexual and nonbinary representation, so I decided to read it. 

 

The story follows Firuz, a refugee who seeks to become a healer due to their magical abilities. However, Firuz must hide their main magical talents, which is blood healing. Firuz and their family's struggle to get by in a society that hates and fears refugees. There are also mystery illnesses spreading among the patients that Firuz is desperate to find the cause of. 

 

I will admit that it took me a lot of reading to get into this story. While the world seems interesting, I found it difficult to read due to the blatant xenophobia the characters face. And the climatic mystery does not really appear until the final section of the story. This was a very short novel, but I wonder if it would have benefitted from being expanded since I already found the novella length difficult. I did not really understand the magical systems or history that I felt was required to empathize with both our protagonists and antagonists. However, after reading the author's description of the story, attempting to imagine a place where the colonizer is displaced and colonized, I feel better about the story as a whole. Firuz is explicitly nonbinary and asexual, with supporting characters that are also queer and this is one of the few LGBTQ stories I've read that is not a romance. It was a good start and I would be interested in reading similar stories. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Bullying, Genocide, Hate crime, Violence, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War

flyinglark's review against another edition

dark informative 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

3.75

The Bruising of Qilwa is a snapshot into the queer-normative fantastical Persian-inspired world. Naseem Jamnia always intended it to be a novella, but their worldbuilding left me hungry for more. The magic systems were easy to grasp and rooted in the science we know. 

I enjoyed how Firuz was a relatively "normal" protagonist, a thirty-year-old provider for their family who fled from their home country and does not rock the boat. Jamnia also highlights the nuances of immigration and being prideful of one's culture, as they mention, "[w]hat does it mean to be oppressed when you were once an oppressor."

I look forward to future work from this author, especially future works in this world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Racism, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Genocide, Physical abuse, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

alwaysairie's review against another edition

mysterious fast-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

3.25

This novella was my first brand new read as I'm getting back into it and it was great for that purpose, I think it's a small intriguing read that's a good debut for the author and I'm very looking forward to reading more from them! The characters are very loveable and the dynamic especially between Faruz, Parviz, and Afsoneh is delightful.
It is basically a murder mystery with magic and disease as a focus. The story is nothing revolutionary and the resolution is quite predictable. This said it wasn't something displeasing! In fact, it gave a lot of space to be with Firuz which was a great character to follow throughout the story.
It will also  serve as a good representation for queer folks of Persian background, I'm very happy that this story exists for them

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, and Vomit

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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, Death, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Genocide, Self harm, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and War

Minor: Animal death, Vomit, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

bea__reads's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Genocide, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Minor: Child death, Torture, and Dysphoria

rhi_'s review against another edition

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Colonisation

toopunkrockforshul's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Really well executed book that engages both magic and empire in a way I haven't often seen done! I'm always excited for magic-as-science and this definitely fit the bill. Also really liked how gender and transition was handled with this, where it was relevant to the characters and the story but not necessarily the point. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Racial slurs, Self harm, Police brutality, Medical trauma, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and War

nessynoname's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

This book has a lot of things going for it, but I found myself wanting it to give a little more. I really do think it could have used an extra hundred pages at least. 

The concepts are all fantastic: a medical-fantasy story set in a queernormative Persian inspired world, with themes of immigration, xenophobia, conquest and class struggle. It is clear that the author writes from such a informed place as a person with a medical background and both Persian and queer identity. I just wish they would take more time with their exposition and character building. 

I feel like I still don't have a very firm grasp on the history/geopolitics of this region because it is all delivered in very quick little spurts throughout the narrative. The characters too, feel... alright, but I don't know that I would really say that I really came to know any of them deeply. 

I picked this book up for its asexual representation, and this is definitely an instance of the "it's not a big deal" kind of representation, where main character Firuz has a moment of internal narration noticing their brother acting flirty and sheepish to another character and Firuz ponders the contrast to their own disinterest to romance and sex, and that's all that's made of it. This is perfectly fine and an important form of representation, though I am personally currently hungry for some books of characters exploring their ace identities more at length. For those who are maybe not ace/aro but who prefer books with no romantic themes this will do nicely. 

This is a good book, and worth the time, it just needed a bit more to be a great book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Gore, Blood, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, Vomit, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Racism and Injury/Injury detail

trips's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A beautifully written novella about extremely current topics set in a very interesting magic world. I appreciate the inclusion of non-binary and trans character in a setting where others are fine with whatever you see yourself as but who/what you want to be perceived still very important to the identity of the characters themselves.
The other themes of the book, facing oppression as someone who's people were previously oppressor's, is not quite expanded as much as I wish it had been. Honestly I think this novella needed to be fully fleshed out into a full novel. The author has good ideas, just would have liked more of it to really understand the world and feel more invested in the character motivations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Racism, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore and Racial slurs