Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

18 reviews

shadow_cat94's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted tense 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? No

3.0

Maiya Ibrahim writes with beautiful imagery woven throughout the entire book as we travel through various locations during Imani's journey to her brother. The poetic language I found quite enjoyable to read from page to page. The pacing in each location also felt evenly timed for the journey without feeling rushed or dragging.

The things I didn't like about this book was the ending and the main character, Imani. I will be as vague as possible for the ending to avoid spoilers. In the final 20 pages we finally reach the climax of the story only for it to get resolved peacefully with an exchange of a few words. It felt anticlimactic, rushed, and frustrating even after I finished the book.

As for Imani, I was hoping for her to go through more character development during her journey than she did. There is nothing wrong with starting your book with a stubborn, selfish, and prideful main character as long as they end somewhere else at the end of the book. She is also a warrior known for these great feats, but she quickly gives up when confronted with large obstacles which made her warrior characteristic feel conflicting. Her only saving grace is her love for her family, which is to an obsessive point. Overall, I think Amira - the sister - should have been the main character.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Medical content, and War

kbairbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

The growth of the main character was perhaps the most authentic and well done I've seen in a long time. I actually really liked the fierce and wise beyond her years younger sister. There were a fair variety of intense triggers so readers watch out! I'm very interested to see where the rest of the trilogy takes us.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

cinnamonandpancakes's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

3.25

Sometimes you read a debut novel and you don't notice until the end. This is not one of those novels. But there are some sparks of excellence in here, the descriptions are fantastic and the world building is really interesting. Unfortunately, the characters were just too frustrating. None of them make any steps along a character arc without taking a step back somewhere else.

For what it's worth, I think a fan of YA Romantasy would likely enjoy this much more than I.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Grief, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Gore, Racism, Sexual violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Slavery, Torture, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and War

manaledi's review against another edition

adventurous reflective 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

3.5

An interesting magic theory with a good adventure. Might have needed a little more time in Qalia in the beginning to set up the class conflict between characters and why they hold onto beliefs so strongly. Sometimes hits you over the head with the moral questions of duty versus injustice versus family with a fairly brutal look at colonialism. Intrigued to see where we go from here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

kirstenf's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Colonisation

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Sexual assault, Torture, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, and War

ashli's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.25

The audiobook version was a delight. I was disappointed mid-read to realize this is part of a trilogy and, at this time, the only book that’s out. Other than that I can absolutely say that my beginning assumptions were only sometimes right. I did wish that the Djinn featured more heavily, but maybe in future books?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Slavery, Grief, Abandonment, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Death, Domestic abuse, Torture, Police brutality, and Suicide attempt

beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Maiya Ibrahim's Spice Road - the first in a trilogy - is a novel that for me, worked best in its last 200 pages or so. 

I don't mean to say in this that the rest of it was bad, as it wasn't. Spice Road is a book that I am still trying to work out my feelings for. It took a long time for me to read it - over a month - and that may have had something to do with it.

I can appreciate Ibrahim's intent here, and for what I believe is a debut author, I think - objectively - that she has done some very accomplished work here. The worldbuilding and magic system was reasonably crafted and was well-communicated to the reader. The characters were well-drawn and developed, particularly Imani (our MC), Taha and Qayn. I puzzled over the motives of the latter two of these characters constantly, which I suspect was Ibrahim's intention. The action scenes were fast-paced and contrasted well with the quieter moments between.

Maybe the problem was despite the quality of the worldbuilding, fantasy elements, pacing and characters, I couldn't get into it enough, in a way that I'm really having trouble describing here. I did fly through the last 200 pages because it was compellingly written and really well-paced. But even then, I couldn't really warm up to it.

The ending of the book left me with enough potential to make me consider continuing the series when the next book is released, but I haven't decided yet.

Objectively, Spice Road is a good book. Emotionally, I'm not entirely sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Racism, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual violence, Torture, Xenophobia, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cultural appropriation and War

espressoreader's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Murder

marleywrites's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

5.0

Ibrahim blew me away with this book. I went in thinking it would be a book I enjoyed, but I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. The prose was beautiful and unique, and I loooved the pacing of the story. Every fight and chase scene was well choreographed and epic. I felt like I was racing through the streets with Imani. I swear I could feel the wind on my face. 

I see reviews saying the love triangle is boring, but I find it interesting. It’s not crucial to the plot at this point, but I can tell it’s getting set up to be important. I like seeing the relationships fall into place. 

There were a few heartbreaking moments that really drove home the severity of the situation, and I felt my heart break with Imani’s. And at the same time, her joy was my joy. 

And every kiss with Taha was so emotional. I felt that!

If you are squeamish, there are a few gross scenes. There’s an animal death, human deaths, and description of dead bodies. They are impactful scenes, but definitely not for the faint of heart. 

I’m excited to get to know Atheer and Qayn more in the sequels. I think Amira will turn out to be incredibly important as well, as she was quite clever and helpful in this book. I’m also curious to learn more about Taha’s relationship with his father. I’m curious about their auntie as well. 

I’m wondering what the future of this series will be, but I have a feeling it will be awesome and epic. I look forward to the sequel of this trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, Vomit, Police brutality, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual harassment

Description of decomposing bodies