Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

A Biblioteca dos Livros Mágicos by Emma Törzs

9 reviews

emilywemily6's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

4.5

I really enjoyed this book, but it’s hard to say why it’s not a five star for me. It started really slow because we got to know all the characters, and while I enjoyed that, it felt like the plot on the back cover revealed the plot 50% in to the book so it took a while to learn new things about the plot. I loved all of these characters and the book/blood magic and found it all fascinating. I would love to read more about this magic world and these characters but the book tied things together nicely. The plot and plot devices felt a little YA I think even in this adult book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Torture, Kidnapping, Colonisation, and Classism

logicsmessystudy's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Medical content, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Racism, Excrement, Car accident, and Pregnancy

leannanecdote's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism and Antisemitism

wordsmithreads's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death of parent

Moderate: Gun violence and Violence

Minor: Genocide, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Classism

cozy_tea_reader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Self harm, Blood, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Chronic illness, Confinement, Drug use, Gore, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Classism

ethuiliel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

Love the characters, love the relationships (especially familial, but also friendship, romance, employer/employee, and more) between the characters and how they develop. The worldbuilding is fascinating as well. And the plot is... I'm not sure how to describe it. It slowly unfolds, I couldn't predict until near the end what the final climax would involve (unlike some books where the goal is clear just way of approaching it and whether the goal succeeds in the way the character intended are what are surprising). However, none of the several twists and turns hit me out of the blue, there were little hints throughout so I gradually saw things unfold.
The ending does leave me wanting more, but not in a "wait that's it?" sort of way. In some ways it's open ended about the future, but the arc of the story is resolved. I would love to see what happens next to these characters and this setting, but also the pieces that are open ended are fun to speculate on, not leaving me unsatisfied.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Colonisation

I listed a lot of trigger warnings but I will say that I didn't find any of it to be treated in a problematic way

readwithria's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

Ink Blood Sister Scribe is a debut I’m unlikely to forget, but not for the right reasons.

I was very intrigued by the premise of this book. Sisterhood, familial magic, and dark secrets are usually things that I enjoy in books. However, it took about 300 pages to get through the setup and to the main plot. Those first couple hundred pages were interesting, but easy to put down. The last 85 pages were much more action-packed, but almost to the point of going by too quickly.

Other than the pacing, it also bothered me that it felt like the decisions the three POV characters made were because of the plot, and I prefer books where the plot happens the way it does due to decisions made by the main characters.

Things that I did enjoy included
- the magic system
- Pearl, Collins, Sir Kiwi, and the little cat
- the themes of colonial deconstruction 
- the division of information through the different POVs

I would recommend this book to people who enjoy books that deal with family secrets, generational trauma, and objects of power. I would not recommend this book to people who are sensitive to self harm (CW: graphic bloodletting for magical purposes)

This was interesting, but missed the mark in a few key ways. 3.5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm and Blood

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cursing, Alcohol, and Classism

bencaroline's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

Not ready to write much about this yet! But I really loved this book. Extremely fun.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Genocide, Gun violence, Infidelity, Sexual content, Vomit, Pregnancy, and War

Does the [dog] die?

No animals die or are harmed!

takarakeireads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

• library guardians 
• Magic books
• Complex family dynamics
• Multiple pov
• Mysterious
• Sprinkle of romance
• Bisexual MC
• Also a cute dog and cat

This was super mysterious especially at the beginning. I really enjoyed the magic and the intertwining povs. A hint of dark academia. Really interesting characters and complicated family dynamics. Funny at parts as well. There was a lot of build up to a main kind of conflict and that felt a bit too easily resolved. But the build up was fascinating and the ending was good after that too 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death of parent

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Violence, and Medical content

Minor: Slavery and Colonisation

Medical content: Needles/syringes