Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

The Empire of Gold by S.A. Chakraborty

14 reviews

rinku's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

3.5

Compared to the snooze fest The Kingdom of Copper was, The Empire of Gold was way more interesting and was a 3.5 stars read for me, just like The City of Brass. Instead of staying at one place and the plot barely moving forward, the story is more adventurous and brings together the open threads, even though I didn’t understand all of it. 

This book follows again the three characters from last book, namely Ali, Nahri, and (sadly) Dara. Ali and Nahri are suddenly in Kairo and have to find a way back to Daevabad. Through Dara’s POV, we learn that the magic is gone there and that Manizheh is struggling to take over the city. We get some court intrigue vibes with his part of the story while Nahri and Ali experience more adventures and immediate dangers. 

My biggest problem with the plot was probably that there were many things that I just didn’t understand. Maybe it’s because I got at some points really tired when reading the series, or maybe because things weren’t explained enough. It took me probably too long to understand what happened to Ali and Dara. Ali’s part of the story bored me at some points quite a lot, even though he’s my favorite character of the three; especially some of the Sobek parts were just weird (and all I could think about was hbomberguy, I’m really sorry). 

In comparison, the ending was quite nice, even though I had some issues with it:

Spoiler

I loved that at the end, they were all back at Daevabad and that Jamshid saved the day. It was a bit cliché that the villains argue at the end, and it wasn’t really satisfying that Dara was the one killing Manizheh. Can we also talk about the fact that none of the important characters died? Of course, I’m not a fan of killing characters off just for the sake of it, but it just didn’t fell right since the stakes were so high

. What annoyed me as well was that after the final fight, we get more pages than necessary. It’s nice that

Spoiler

that they are introducing democracy, but I doubt that there will peace since the grievances the different tribes have won’t simply go away, I believe

. 

Like before, my favorite characters were Nahri and Ali. At many moments in the course of the story, I just wanted to hug them since they deserve so much better. When we’re back in Kairo, I noticed how much I miss Nahri’s old self. I also love that we finally get the dynamic between them back that we had in the first book. They have so many great moments together, and

Spoiler

I’m so happy that Nahri chose him

. What I especially like about them is that their gender roles are kinda reversed with Ali being more emotional and Nahri being more logical. Still, Nahri’s emotions are depicted quite well. 

Besides them, the other al Qahtani’s were definitely carrying this book for me. Muntadhir is still one of my favorite characters and

Spoiler

I was so happy that he survived

. Most of the female characters were great as well, besides Manizheh. With her, I had a problem that I had with a few characters: I couldn’t understand their motivations. Would you really feel revenge for ten generations and judge the descendants of those people for what their ancestors did? Ghassan was a more interesting villain, to be honest. I furthermore still hate Dara and it’s baffling to that some people say that he carried the series. There’s just nothing to like about him; I hate how impulsive he is and how many innocent people he hurt. I’m really not a fan of the fact that

Spoiler

they spared him, Nahri should’ve killed him honestly. But I guess he’s punishing himself in the end, so that’s good

? 

I’m honestly not sure if I would recommend the Daevabad series or not. What I really liked about it were the characters, but that’s mostly it. Revenge is a big theme in this series which couldn’t catch me as much since I don’t know if it’s the right way to hate other people because for what their ancestors thousands of years ago, but oh well. Additionally, some things were just a bit too complicated, and I still don’t fully understand everything that has happened. In my opinion, this series could’ve been a duology or a trilogy with normal-length books. This whole hospital arc was so boring and could’ve been told in a few chapters. Those lengths are probably the reason why I couldn’t enjoy the series as much as I wanted to and won’t re-read it any time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Violence, War, Blood, Medical content, Torture, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Grief

Moderate: Abandonment, Dementia, Child death, Confinement, Gun violence, and Sexual content

Minor: Body horror

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

This book is somehow MORE of a wild ride than the second in the trilogy. I was worried, hopeful, invested, and a little furious the whole time. This would be an easy five stars except there’s a style change related to timing, perspective,  and a suddenly unreliable narrator that was very off putting so late in the series. There could have been a much smoother way of shocking the reader which the author had done plenty of times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Medical content, Violence, Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Mass/school shootings, Gun violence, War, Slavery, Murder, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Ableism, Sexual content, Misogyny, and Dementia

dazzle_spider_reader_1212's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Death, Self harm, Murder, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Medical content, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Dementia, Gun violence, Blood, and Animal cruelty

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Religious bigotry, Racism, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Misogyny, Grief, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Blood, War, Sexual harassment, Torture, Slavery, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Gore, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Vomit, Xenophobia, Violence, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Medical content, Gun violence, Death of parent, Cursing, Colonisation, Classism, and Child death

lauraglovestoread's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.5

A solid end to an excellent series.  I didn't quite love The Empire of Gold as much as the two books that came prior to it -- I feel like there were some aspects of the plot that were more drawn out than necessary while others needed more attention; I also feel quite strongly that

Spoiler

the suggestion of romance between Nahri and Ali should've definitely just been left out entirely because it wasn't needed + added nothing.

  I do like, though, how the series has concluded overall, and give the series 5 stars as a whole.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Slavery, Violence, Gun violence, Murder, Gore, Blood, Torture, Confinement, and Medical content

tinybluepixel's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Murder, War, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Colonisation, Dementia, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, and Suicidal thoughts

smrj's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Medical content

Moderate: Genocide and War

Minor: Death of parent and Gun violence

isleoflinds's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Xenophobia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Gore, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, and War

Moderate: Grief, Mass/school shootings, Pregnancy, Trafficking, Colonisation, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Outing

Minor: Rape

kindra_demi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.75

I said this in my last review but I genuinely am glad that I stuck with this series! The politics, the slow burn, the heartbreak and ache. I listened to the audiobooks while doing other stuff but now I want to reread it all with physical books! (Though my family would rather I listen to them again because my reactions to the twist and some of the other moments that happened had them dying laughing.) 

Empires never last and we began to see that at the end of <i>Kingdom of Copper</i>. Chakraborty continues to exploit the fine threads that barely keeps all of the groups together, sees how she can manipulate them to being stronger or into breaking. 

We get to see Nahri explore what she defines as home when she is thrown back into her childhood home of Cairo: a city that raised Nahri created the foundation for a lot of her personality. In the past books, we got to see her realize how much Cairo had influenced her, but in the beginning of Empire of Gold, we get to see her explore who she is after 6 years in Daevebad. Intertwined with the discussion of home is the discussion of family, and as a result, we see how Nahri views herself in this world. 

The romance didn’t feel cheesy or trope-ey. Characters did not just bounce from one to another because “love”. Chakraborty wrote how messy emotions can be. How we can’t just wish them away, as much as we try. 

Overall, I will definitely be rereading these in the future again when I have some time to sit down and loose myself in the world again! 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Gun violence and Slavery

rebeccajost's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Grief, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Genocide

Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Slavery, and Gun violence

Minor: Sexual content