Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Spear Cuts Through Water

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

9 reviews

city_girl_writer's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Words cannot capture how much I have felt while reading this amazing piece of literature. Simon Jimenez became a new all-time favorite and auto-buy author for me. Check out the content warnings though because this is a dark story.

This is a love story to its blade-dented bone.

Content Warnings

crochet_dinosaur's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

Content Warnings

emzhay's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective 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

This book completely altered my brain chemistry. There are so many things going on in this book, and they’re all executed flawlessly.

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paytonwileyp's review

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adventurous emotional inspiring 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? Yes

4.75

I struggled with the decision to give this rating. It is not perfect, and there are some things I did not particularly love, but it was so unique, emotional, and so grand in scale but yet focused enough to center your attention. I could hardly put it down. This is definitely a book that I want to revisit in the future and it is one that I am very happy to have read.

Spoiler

My least favorite parts of the book were the second terror, he really bothered me and I didn’t like the way that he was written or the way he used his power. At times it felt cheesy.
Also the description of the third terror’s *parts* made me very uncomfortable and it just didn’t feel necessary to me.

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bittennailbooks's review

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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

This is a love story to its blade-dented bone

This book changed my DNA. A frustrating, devastating, and blood soaked love story dedicated to fantasy lovers everywhere.

Two warriors are tasked with the impossible as they haul a dying mother god through the corrupt lands of her tyrannical children in hopes of stopping their reign once and for all. It holds no punches as it drags you hog tied through each gory act written like a play and told through the ever changing proverbial "I". As gory as the "Poppy Wars" and lyrical as "The Starless Sea", this is your next read for fantasy lovers everywhere. I repeat, read this book now!

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blueshime's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional slow-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

5.0

best book ive read this year and definitely one of the best ive ever read. literally changed the way stories can be told for me, i will never be the same after seeing how first, second and third person can be weaved so cleverly like this.

i read this via audiobook and the narrator did such an amazing job i was never lost or confused when we switched perspective but i can see that it might be different reading it traditionally.

i cant explain how like ?? raw and human this book is even tho its a fantasy ? some of the elements were also just weird but it worked so well for me i absolutely loved how things were told as they were.

loved loved LOVED. cant wait to see more by this author!

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madamenovelist's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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poetry_shaman's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

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mugs_it_is's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.5

As its blurb warns, this book will be like no fantasy you’ve read before, and that’s far from a bad thing. I thought The Spear Cuts Through Water was excellent, and rated it 4.5 stars. I also think it’s very hard to describe. Imagine a story told in a theater, and you are a member of the audience (yes, a portion of this book is told in second person, but even if you aren’t a fan of second person I urge you to suspend your distaste; it works here). The subject of this play is the story of an ancient myth, and that myth is real and forms the basis of the tale. It’s told both as the main story and as ‘you’ remember it being told by your grandmother, against the backdrop of some nameless war that takes place centuries after that tale. The whole thing is enlivened by a chorus of ghosts. There are talking animals, fantastically realized mythologies, and world-building so detailed you feel like you’re traveling within the tale as you read it. It’s not for the those who like their fantasy glossy and warmhearted; when Jimenez introduces us to the Emperor and his terrible sons, he does not hesitate to show us, again and again, how terrible they and the machinery of their power truly are. There is a lot of violence. But it is also a hopeful tale; epic and at the same time contained, giving a lot of credit to the ordinary, the day to day. It does not sweep human tragedy under the rug, either. If you’ve ever read a fantasy epic and wondered: How can an entire army just go poof? Jimenez’s chorus of ghosts is there to remind you at every turn that the characters whose deaths merit mere sentences are as living and as real (within the story world) as any person who gets a tale told about them. Perhaps if you like second person (Harrow the Ninth), or story-within-a-story narration (The Night Circus), you’ll like this. But I struggle to compare it to other books; I think only that it’s worth picking up.

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