Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

39 reviews

bforcs's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

cb1984's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Good setting, interesting character dynamics and I really enjoyed the first 2/3 of it (maybe "enjoyed" is the wrong word - it's so dark you can barely make out the words. Trigger warning: everything!). But I found the last third very disappointing. 

There's lots of twists and turns in the last third, but it felt like a lot of them just kind of happened and then we just quickly move on, or they happened off-screen, or they were just written incredibly confusingly in a dream-sequence fashion. Those were all deliberate style choices and I can see what the author was going for and can understand if others liked them, but I wasn't a fan and it really detracted from the book overall. It's probably a 4.5 for the first 2/3 and a 2 for the last third.

The epilogue was absolutely lovely though. Very nice ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

archaicrobin's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I had high hopes for this medieval horror book mostly due to all the praise this one has received, but unfortunately Between Two Fires fell short for me.

The writing style is abrupt and brash which suits the story and the setting, but it does make connecting with the characters at first a little hard, or at least it was for me.  I found it hard to feel attached to anyone until more than halfway too the book and at that point it’s too late.

The story itself is interesting and my favorite part was all the crazy demons they encounter but something was missing for me. Between Two Fires is a well written story and you can tell the writer is knowledgeable but I was never intrigued enough to want to pick this one up. I honestly don’t understand all the hype behind this novel. It’s fine, but not great.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

avalete's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

There’s so much I can say and yet I don’t know what I could. Genuinely, one of the best books I will ever read. For sure. As soon as I started, I knew this book was going to be something special, and I’ll never experience anything like it ever again.

This is some of the best writing I have ever read. All of it. This book is horrifying and I love it so, so much. The war waging in heaven, the plague claiming France, the people trying desperately to survive. Thomas, Delphine, and Matthieu’s relationship to another and religion. The literal demons of hell they have to face along the way.

It feels truly hopeless and that God has abandoned man.

And yet.

I can’t in good conscience recommend this book without also warning that there’s a long, long list of content warnings to go with it. Just about anything one can think of is mentioned in this book in some capacity.

Still, this is an excellent book and I loved every moment spent reading it, and every moment I’ll spend thinking about it after.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Incest and Cannibalism

itsjustgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

Savage, brutal, heartfelt and hilarious. What an absolutely stellar religious grimdark tale.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Incest

sofipitch'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Overall a good book. It really delivers on horror, especially on a type that I feel is more rare but to me hits hard which is engaging in something you morally object to, it's a recurring theme of "you are what you do" which was interesting. It had what I felt was a lot of Christian themes, mainly redemption, while at the same time criticizing the institution of Christianity, so I can actually see this being popular with those who do and don't believe but raised with that religion. It has considerably less to say about Judaism and Islam, doing the "it's all the same God right?" thing which may annoy some.

Plot wise it dragged at times and I felt the way the major conflict resolved was a bit weak. But it manages to be both entertaining and thought provoking. Also does it's genre fiction, historical and horror, really well. I actually wish I knew more books of that combo of genres

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Infidelity, Antisemitism, and Death of parent

marthadude's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Antisemitism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Heavy emphasis on plague. There’s also a lot of near misses of pedophilia/sexual assault of a minor. It doesn’t end up happening but the mentions/threat of it are brought up pretty frequently

hamstringy's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

Unexpectedly really emotionally resonant! Pitched via Twitter as medieval Black Plague horror, and it’s definitely horror but a much quieter and disturbing horror rather than a nonstop onslaught of Big Events. Also somehow still very vulnerable and three-dimensional when approaching characters who have lived some contradictory and not-so-great choices. 

It’s also a particularly humanizing portrayal of a pandemic & a deeply religious response to that pandemic. It’s interesting to me that a lot of the attitudes around *somehow still living during horrible times* match very closely with the COVID-19 pandemic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Torture, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, and Grief

emilyplun's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Vomit, Antisemitism, and Grief

akil_ss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Rape