Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Truth of the Divine by Lindsay Ellis

28 reviews

iamtheland's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.5


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_shaybiebaybee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.25

This book isn't really for the faint of heart, and I wasn't sure if I liked the two-character-perspectives thing because I had an immediate hate-on for Kaveh. He did eventually grow on me. 
As someone who has gone through
somebody extremely close to me dying
, the end of this book is very raw and painful, even though I saw it coming. 
The portrayal of mental illness and post traumatic stress by Lindsay Ellis is meaningfully done, and well executed. It puts to words just how awful that kind of experience can be while you're going through it without the right help. I truly felt for Cora. My heart broke for her. 
I have a lot of love for this series so far and I'm looking forward to reading book three after being eviscerated by book two. 

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notbambi's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense slow-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

4.0

I love Kaveh Taherian as a podcaster, but man, he is not a great audiobook narrator. He reminds me of my high school students reading aloud for the class. Luckily, Stephanie Willis and Abigail Thorn are great.

This book rakes Cora and Ampersand through the coals emotionally. Cora is dealing with PTSD, and she self-harms a few times in the book. Early on, the focus is on the pair having very different perspectives on relationships and mental health, which was a very cool and effective way of exploring how alien Ampersand really is. 

Later in the book, the emphasis shifts to new characters, Kaveh and Nikola, who have a similar getting-to-know-you arc as Cora and Ampersand in book one, although less antagonistic to start. It also shifts to the broader political debate around whether aliens should be extended human rights. 

I like the way that this book explores the idea of just how alien an alien can be while still being somewhat relateable and knowable to humans. I like how it argues that the way people treat the aliens is a reflection of our worst impulses and fears being used to justify the stripping of rights in the real world. 

I really liked a lot about this book, but it wasn't a five star for me. For me, some of the writing got a little cringey. The pop culture/meme references were a bit much and didn't always feel natural. This book is quite long and I can't help but feel like some of the subplots could have been trimmed. I didn't need Kaveh and Cora's date at the club. 

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aglimpseinto's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

3.25

The story goes into some dark spots and it led me on a spiral regarding humanity and our worth. Not recommended to someone who might be struggling with their mental health but it's an engaging story that kept me wanting to know what would occur next. 

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mikkiokko's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • 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
I think I liked most of this book more than Axiom's End. When the book was discussing the aliens and the whole world's reaction to them I was hooked and interested. I also appreciated the authors unwillingness to shy away from the fact that Cora would not be okay after everything that happened in the first book.
However, the biggest problem for me in this book was Kaveh and Cora's relationships. I had a lot of problems with it. I understand that Kaveh is a flawed character and there are certain aspects about him that I do empathize with. But, I felt like much of the time he was too emotionally immature to be in a relationship with Cora, especially while she was struggling severely from PTSD and self-harming tendencies. He often neglected her feelings and well-being completely so that he could have sex with her all while having an insane savior complex. And look, when he got died at the hands of some psycho redneck fascist I did feel bad for him, but I also wished that instead of him dying being the exit of his character it would have been something more along the lines of Cora leaving him or them both leaving each other that way his serious flaws could've been acknowledged better. Instead it felt like much of that was glossed over.

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kanonkita's review against another edition

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

4.75

Very well written. I had some issues with the slow pacing of the first book in this series that I felt this one largely managed to avoid. Some aspects of the main character were a bit grating at times, but in one sense that was the point. She was struggling with trauma and mental health issues related to that, and I think Ellis did a good job portraying how these things can make someone difficult to deal with or be around. 

That being said, maybe avoid the audiobook unless you really enjoy listening to tremulous female voices shouting "No no no" over and over again ever few minutes. The computerized sound effect that was put over the Amygdalans' voices in the audiobook could also be grating at times and made it difficult to hear them if there was any background noise while I was listening.

Overall, I would recommend it, but do pay attention to the content warning Ellis provides at the beginning of the novel. 

Also, a note that I have not seen this book listed as LGBTQ+ in many places, which I can only chalk up to bi erasure. Cora is bisexual, and it seems unfair that this gets overlooked just because she has a heterosexual romance, especially given that it occurs alongside her very queer relationship with an alien who only uses he/him pronouns out of convenience.

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strawberrydaydream's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

4.75

A gripping sequel to Axiom's End. Thoroughly enjoyed Cora's ever evolving journey with Ampersand. Interesting exploration of the moral and political conflict that could arise from extraterrestrial refugees.

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seullywillikers's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

This was much darker than "Axiom's End," and as such, a bit harder to read. I love the premise of Extraterrestrial personhood being debated on the American political, and world stage. The new characters were interesting and I really got invested in them. Towards the end, I was feeling like "okay geez, how much more is there actually" but I'm pleased with where the ending takes us. I'm hoping there's another installation in this series.

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libras's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Well, that was depressing.

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ling_prof's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.0


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