Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi by S.A. Chakraborty

34 reviews

laguerrelewis's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring reflective 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

Chakraborty conjures a truly epic tale of adventure, weaving a tale that feels both fresh and wistfully nostalgic. Amina Al-Sirafi is a pirate worthy of legend, she and her crew are an utter delight to follow through this mystical tale of thievery, seafairing, magic artifacts, and good old-fashioned swashbuckling. For all the grandiosity, this story’s greatest strength is it’s emotional heart. The fears and hopes and loves of Amina Al-Sirafi are so palpable, you cannot help but empathize with her and want to see her succeed. What a wonderful read!

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temperamentalprotagonist's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny informative mysterious 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

4.75


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sunnydale's review against another edition

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adventurous funny informative inspiring 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

what a delightful read. the world was so rich, i immediately wanted to learn more about the historical context, and fortunately the author provided a bibliography! the audiobook is very well-produced, with two voice actors, sound effects in the "present-day" chapters, and adjustments made to address listeners instead of readers. 

i love that the protagonist's faith is central to her character, and we're also able to see how it's developed throughout her life. her faith is sometimes messy, sometimes self-contradicting, but she also never doubts her core beliefs, and she's a more authentic character because of it.

irrelevant to the quality of the book, i noticed that "midnight" is the author's favorite adjective for anything dark. "midnight beach," "midnight ocean," "midnight fabric," etc. it felt like a scavenger hunt trying to find the word in each chapter, lol.

i would recommend this to fans of fantasy, especially those who are looking for non-western fantasy settings. i definitely recommend the audiobook, although you might want a print or ebook copy for the helpful bibliography.

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kappafrog's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny informative 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? Yes

4.25

The historical setting was 10/10. I loved how rich the details were and how immersed I felt in the world of the 12th century Indian Ocean. Amina was also a great protagonist, very complex and easy to root for. The choice of setting and characters was exciting and refreshing.

The book got too violent for my tastes at times. Some of the plot armour the main characters had got pretty convoluted. Still, I look forward to seeing more in this series.

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anni_swanilda's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny 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

5.0


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darthchrista's review

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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? No

5.0

Immersive and beautifully written!  I kept picking this one up and not wanting to put it down. I drug out the last few chapters cause I was not ready for it to end.  I’m so happy this will be a series cause there are some characters threads and arcs that I’m super curious to see how the develop.  This was a joy to read.  I did skip a few graphic pages regarding things happening to bodies and the author did a great job leading into those scenes so it was easy to dip out and back in and get the sense of what happened.  As a squeamish reader I appreciated that. 

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bel017's review against another edition

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adventurous
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Excellent world building, fabulous characters, a theatrical plot. Exactly what I needed to read right now. There's magic and faraway lands mixed with real historical places, and thoughtful contemplation of being a working mother.

I adore Amina's pragmatic voice. I relate so much to that mentality of getting on with the job in front of you, even though you'd really rather have a lie down. Her competence, humor and practically, and the way she accepts magical forces as just another idiotic thing she has to deal with was a delight.

I loved Amina's pull between motherhood and her own desires, though I would have liked to have seen that more resolved. And the plot points put in to make this the first book of a series felt forced; this is a complete tale, why does everything have to be a series now?

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hannahbailey's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.0

Thank you to NetGalley for a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review! Because this was an e-arc, I'm unable to share my kindle notes but here are a few highlights that stood out to me:

"For while the pious claim money doesn't buy happiness, I can attest from personal experience that poverty buys nothing."

"I pressed my knife where his legs met. 'The first offense costs a tooth. The second, something far dearer.'" what a legend

"People may call my kind sea rats, but let me tell you, rats know when to fucking run"

"This man could manifest as a beam of celestial light, and he chose to use that power to spy on a naked woman?"

"You plague of a woman, if you could just listen to reason!" I too would like to be referred to as a plague of a woman 😌

I really enjoyed this epic tale of a female pirate coming back from retirement for one last adventure -- the reward so high she couldn't turn it down. The blend of religion and magic was really well done, the sense of mystery and unanswered questions throughout was also really compelling. I liked that many of the magical creatures were humanoid in nature, meaning the MC could converse with them with her trademark wit and swearing!

Whilst the front cover (both US and UK) suggests a world of magic, high seas and adventure, be prepared for graphic scenes of violence, injury and death. There's also blackmailing, demons and a queen of poisons too so definitely not for the faint-hearted. I always love characters exploring motherhood, sisterhood and the found family trope. The novel has all this and more with a diverse cast of characters and exploration of gender identity (although MC is cis-hetero-female). Lots of action and battle scenes as well as more tender moments of powerful friendship. Fans of Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree and Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows would enjoy this. I love learning through fiction, and with this novel I learned more about Islam, Arab culture and the pre-colonial world of the Indian ocean. Read the Author's note for further reading on these subjects!

As a 500-page book, I really struggled at the beginning to stay interested as it felt a lot of pages had passed before the adventure really got going. However, it's worth pushing through as the plot quickly ramps up.

TW: violence, blood/gore/injury, death, threat of sexual violence, torture, body horror, kidnapping, alcoholism, misogyny, slavery

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lizcastner's review

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adventurous challenging dark 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? It's complicated

5.0


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stormeno's review

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adventurous funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0


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