Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

21 reviews

changelingreader_adrian's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Was a temporary DNF because it wasn't catching me and I had other stuff I needed/wanted to get to, but I liked this enough to pick it back up once a hold on an audiobook I forgot I placed came in. Very slow for like the first half-ish and then got really going and good. So. Medium pace is the best I can give it since it's slow and then pretty fast

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Testicles and descriptions of them are a bit weirdly there, so be prepared for that

sennaje's review

adventurous dark fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

fishkind's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

Fantasy meets Viking lore in one of the most unique and fascinating books I’ve read in quite some time. Perhaps Gwynne’s greatest accomplishment is writing a novel in which action and death are omnipresent while still having strong character and plot developments. Where most authors rely on violence as a distraction or filler, Gwynne manages to use the action to bring the world to life and propel the characters and plot forward. The last 10% of the book is extraordinarily fast paced with revelation after revelation, each of which feels earned, and which set up what I expect to be a stellar sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Vomit

booksandteatime's review

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Murder, and War

poekie9080's review

adventurous funny tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Torture and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit

seanml's review

adventurous dark funny tense slow-paced

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

3.75

John Gwynne is a wonderful modern fantasy writer, and continues to be. This series continues with his signature style of multiple character points of view that slowly weave together as the story goes on. Plus, it’s Norse-inspired which you don’t see a lot of in fantasy for whatever reason. Oh yeah it’s hyper-violent, but luckily without the usual caveat that “it’s historically accurate so there needs to be rampant misogyny!” 7.5/10. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Slavery, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, and Stalking

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Torture, and Alcohol

atalea's review

adventurous dark 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Slavery, Trafficking, Kidnapping, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content, Torture, and Vomit

silasreads's review

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Confinement, Torture, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal death, Excrement, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

This book is brutal in its description of violence. Not for the squimish.

tristen's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

In The Shadow of the Gods we follow along with 3 POV’s: Orka, a mother & warrior; Varg, an ex-thrall seeking vengeance; and Elvar, a young mercenary craving battle-fame. All this set in a Norse-inspired world of violence and battle where hesitation means death. 

 

This book was everything I could ever want from a fantasy novel and more. This was also my first John Gwynne book, and I have to say I totally understand now what everyone raves about. His writing is just *chefs kiss*. The amount of tabs I used while annotating was absolutely ridiculous, and it was purely because there were so many lines I absolutely loved. 

 

Though the most impressive thing, I feel, is that there was never a moment where I was disappointed to read a characters POV. Which is saying something considering there were 3 different POV’s going on. But I genuinely loved and was interested in them all. Not to mention the many side characters I am absolutely in love with. 

 

Besides the characters, whom I loved, I also believe the plot was insanely good. I was always intrigued with each of the story lines, and I especially loved the plot twists here and there. And the ending was just perfect. Though I will say I’m so glad and thankful to have received an e-ARC of The Hunger of the Gods because this book left me immediately wanting more. 

 

So, would I recommend? Yes, yes, and yes! Those who like an action-driven fantasy with Norse elements will especially love this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent

Minor: Vomit

meliroo's review

adventurous slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail