Reviews tagging 'Grief'

El Aliento de Los Dioses / Warbreaker by Brandon Sanderson

9 reviews

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I don't really know how I feel about this one...  The world building was, as usual for the author, impeccable and the magic system compelling, if a little confusing.  It was more predictable than I would expect a political intrigue ridden book to be and the romance sub plot(s) were kind of uncomfortable and cringe inducing.  There were times I was really enjoying it, but I think the overall take away was pretty mid.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

badbadwolf's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Infertility, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

bergha1998's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Utterly brilliant, such good world building and characters. The magic system was so interesting and well paced in when the reader was given more info. I liked Siri’s plot the best, but all of them were interesting. Not to mention how opaque everyone’s motives were and the mystery of that. I also liked all of Vivianna's inner dialogue about who she had been raised to be and what she had been told to believe. 

Fantasy, Magic System, Multi-POV

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

blythemind's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lakinglaze's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes

5.0

I loved this book so much! I know I said Elantris is now my favourite Brandon Sanderson novel, but this comes in as a very close second! The more I think about it, the more I love it! I really hope we get additional books! The characters are great! I had such a blast speeding through this book! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

imbored_soillread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-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: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gore, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual harassment

Minor: Sexual content

cookiecat73's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Infertility, Rape, Sexual content, Suicide, Torture, Dementia, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Child death, Grief, and Gaslighting

ldorina's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.75

The short review: In my opinion the best thing about Warbreaker is that it brings us an incredibly detailed and lively fantasy world with a mind blowing magic system you've probably never seen before and a lot of discussion about religion without taking sides. It also has a cast of realistic lovable characters and some interesting relationships (though it's true that there are some tropes too). Brandon Sanderson does a solid job with character development, as well. For the most part, there isn't much action in the book but the plot is compelling enough to keep reading. However, it's obvious that characters and worldbuilding are the stronger elements of the novel. I think there's room for a sequel but Warbreaker is great as a stand-alone.

And now let's get into the indepth review. Warning: SPOILERS ahead for the rest of the review!

We start with a prologue that features Vasher, one of the secondary characters, after he has got himself thrown into prison. I think it's an excellent opening because:
1. The reader gets immersed in the story right away as they get to know the arguably most interesting and mysterious character who is also in the middle of an action that brings up the question: 'What is his motive?' And of course there is Nightblood, the talking sword that can kill without being completely pulled from its sheet, so we keep reading.
2. It introduces the magic system which is the key element of the whole book and in the first 11 pages we learn the basics of how it works.
3. There's some action too keep us interested.
4. We don't know it at this point but the title 'Warbreaker' refers to the name Vasher was given when he returned (Warbreaker the Peaceful) so it's fitting that the book starts and ends with him as a way of framing the story.

In the first chapter we get to know the two main characters, Siri and Vivenna, the sisters from the royal family of Idris (and also their father, the king). The fact that these two girls are basically yin and yang is clear from the beginning, they are like Arya and Sansa Stark from GoT, with Siri being the adventurous younger princess who likes to be out in nature, talking to common people and causing her father a great deal of trouble by being rebellious, skipping her classes, shitting at propriety and not controlling herself at all. On the otherhand there's Vivenna, the older, more mature, calmer sister, who - unlike Siri - was born to be a queen and is responsible enough to try to live up to the task from early childhood by obeying her father's commands, studying hard and respecting the 'rules' at all times. The difference is visible just by looking at the hair of these two. Thanks to the royal locks, that show how a person is feeling if they don't focus on regulating the color (great piece of world-building by the way), Siri's hair color is always changing, letting the people around her know about her mood, while Vivenna's stay the same modest dark brown.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, and Murder

Minor: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

keepsleep's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Cursing, Infertility, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Vomit, Kidnapping, Abortion, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Adult themes are handled in a very non graphic manner.