Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Seven Devils by Elizabeth May, L.R. Lam

21 reviews

relin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Genocide, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, Outing, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Transphobia, and Kidnapping

allisonwonderlandreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

4.0

Seven Devils features an undercover team of women seeking to bring down an empire and maybe go to a ball while they're at it. There's a great heist moment as well as battling in space, commandeering imperial ships, and investigating secrets be they hidden on backwater planets or in imperial palaces. This was a smooth, cinematic reading experience with snappy action scenes and the vivid, unfamiliar locales that make space operas so enticing.

All our leading ladies have their voices heard in this adventure. The POVs are distinctive and well-developed, providing insight into how each found the resistance and what wrongs the empire did to bring them to this risky endeavor. There's one pleasant sapphic romance just starting to blossom, but the majority is focused on the found family bonds that form among the crew. Each connection point is poignant and delivered convincingly. I also want to shout out the ace representation in Ariadne, hacker extraordinaire, genius, and absolute ray of sunshine. There's also a badass trans woman who I think we'll see more of in the sequel.

In terms of world-building, I think fans of the genre will find it light and approachable. The book makes use of science fiction standbys like AI and mental conditioning/brainwashing to add some further moral questions to the struggle against a massive, dominating imperial power. I look forward to seeing how the plot develops in the sequel, and I am excited to get to know the two late additions to the team much better. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Slavery, Transphobia, Blood, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and War

breadwitchery's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Suicide, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Medical trauma, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Cursing, Genocide, Rape, Sexual content, and Alcohol

lycanhood's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Torture, Xenophobia, Grief, and Colonisation

jlstein's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

starccato's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Violence, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, and Gaslighting

Minor: Drug use, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Vomit, Death of parent, and Alcohol

wondereads13's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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? No

4.5

This has been described as a feminist space opera, and that's pretty much it. The characters are all women (except the villain and one guy who shows up at the end), they all have their own skill sets, and there's some pretty crazy backstories. I can't believe I have to wait at least another year for a sequel!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Violence, and Grief

One of the characters is a former concubine (essentially a sex slave), but the actual contents of her job are kept vague

nerdylari's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

nakutski's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful 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

3.75

Mixed feelings about this one! So a 3.75 rating overall from me.

Things I liked: 
1) Variety of characters and POVs.
2) The fact that the writers managed to maintain a clear and cohesive narrative despite the many POVs. 
3) QUEER REP. All the unashamed queerness and friendship and camaraderie. 
4) A very readable writing style.
5) Intricate but not overcomplicated world building.

The pace was a bit hit and miss for me. (I may be in a reading slump.) At times I found it quite slow. At times I also wished for a little more depth and detail, more hooks to really get me in there to connect. I found the first 2/3 interesting but eventually started to think that it was all a bit... too easy? The last third of the narrative really picks up and surges. So on the back of that, I look forward to the second book. I want to see how things unfold.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, and Medical content

Minor: Sexual content

olivialandryxo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

3.5

Though Seven Devils was my introduction to Lam’s work, I was excited to read it after reading and falling in love with May’s The Falconer trilogy. I’m not even a Star Wars fan, but I’ll read nearly anything if it’s sapphic. I haven’t read enough gay space books, and I had high hopes for this one. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as good as I’d hoped it would be.

I will say that I quite liked all of the characters. A few took longer to grow on me than others, but ultimately I was interested in each person’s story. May and Lam did an excellent job developing each character. They also did the found family trope—one of my favorites—justice. The dynamics between the characters in this squad were top notch. I especially liked the way everyone treated Ariadne as a younger sister, and the sweet romance that blossomed between two of the women in the gang.

My favorites in the squad were Eris and Ariadne. Both had extremely rough childhoods but in different ways, for different reasons, and I felt so bad for them. I admired their perseverance, as well as their dedication to both missions and their friends. I really want to give Ariadne a hug.

I also liked the world-building. Or should I say galaxy-building, since this is set in space? Anyway, May and Lam created such an intricate galaxy for their story to take place in. I enjoyed learning about the planets and species and cultures, even if the last two were scarce due to the greedy, vicious Empire. There was no info-dumping or confusion; everything was explained well, and fit together like puzzle pieces. This can be difficult with just one world, one planet, so achieving it in a book set on multiple planets is, in my opinion, quite the feat. Kudos to the authors for that.

This book’s downfall, for me, was the plot. Although the pacing was consistent and the first half of the story intrigued me, that intrigue was absent for most of the second half. I was able to predict all of the major events and reveals, with two, maybe three exceptions. None of it felt very original.

I thought this would be a five star read,
but I was wrong. The plot’s predictability was quite disappointing. If this had been a contemporary or a romance, it wouldn’t matter so much,
given that some books within those genres are a bit formulaic. But a science fiction? That’s a genre I always want to keep me on my toes, as is fantasy, and that sadly wasn’t the case here.

I’m not sure whether or not I’ll pick up the sequel when it’s released. While I’m curious about what might happen, I don’t know if I’m curious enough to read another 400+ page book, no matter how much I like the characters.

Representation

• sapphic protagonist with a prosthetic leg
• sapphic romance (f/f)
• queer characters (includes bisexual, asexual, and trans rep)
• some characters of color

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror and Drug use

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders