Reviews with content warning for Violence - This Gilded Abyss

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

This Gilded Abyss by Rebecca Thorne

16 reviews

takarakei's review

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adventurous mysterious 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

4.0

'submarines' more like a giant cruise ship underwater
a bit of sci-fi horror
environmental undertones
queer second chance romance!

Despite some photography inaccuracies which took me out of the story for a bit (totally a me thing)... this was super fun to read! I found the world building interesting and the mysterious plot kept me reading along! I've heard this was inspired by Bioshock? which makes sense. Audiobook is good too!

Downside is it's the first in a series and the next book isn't out yet :'( but I shall be continuing once that's out!

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bucketsjen's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

Most of this author's works are "cozy". This is not cozy. At all.

Enjoyable, well written, excellent use of appropriate story mechanics and tropes... although I do wish that the badass main character had a chance to be badass on the page a bit more. Somewhat spoilery explanation:

We're told how good of a fighter she is, then she loses her first two fights and spends a chunk of the book perpetually injured.

I'd rather have seen her be a badass than be told she totally is even though she's struggling constantly.

The writing style is eloquent but clear; I enjoyed it and want to try other works by this author.

Spicy level: present but low. There is one sex scene that's fairly detailed, but vanilla.

The relationships and the story develop, but it still ends on a cliffhanger and the next book hasn't been written yet. I didn't know this was intended as a trilogy until I was about 3/4 through this book (learned via a TikTok update from the author about her writing schedule)... SOB. Because I desperately need to know what happens to these lesbians (and to the rest of the world, I guess).

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msrae89's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

3.5

Overall I liked this book a lot. The plot was interesting and the characters engaging. There were a few plot twists I really enjoyed, one of which I didn’t see coming. And the world within the book is super intriguing and there is so much more to be expounded upon.
My main issue with the book was with some of the writing in the later half of the book. This may have just have been me, but I was getting confused by the staging of the characters at times. Once a character backed onto the couch and rested on the arm only then to be sinking into a dining chair without mention of her moving in the space. Another time the MC was in an altercation and she was unarmed, but then she was gripping for her weapon, and then unsheathed it, but her weapon was on the ground, not in her hands or on the MC’s back (where the sheath was). It just lead to some frustration and rereading pages to see if I had missed something. Things also got a little repetitive with the word choice; the word “ironically,” was repeated. That kind of thing takes me out of a book, when I notice that repetition.
Regardless I did like the book and will definitely pick up the sequel!

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sundae_cone's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-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

3.75

+ A good, quick, intense read; pulls you in for it
+ May be up your alley if you're a Bioshock and/or Arcane fan
- Not as perfect for Gideon the Ninth fans though
- Inconsistent pacing
- Dull cliffhanger (but this was a bit expected as a series)

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starry2013's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

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jenpen's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.25

I reeeeally wanted to like this book. The author is a lovely person, I was excited to try out a new genre, and the plot seemed really interesting!

But I just could not get myself to like *any* of the characters. The MC in particular was supposed to be a super strong female lead, but she just cried and got herself rescued the entire book. In addition, it was slow and super repetitive, to the point that I skimmed the last half. The twist at the end didn’t excite me. The humor felt forced most of the time. Even though it’s marketed as horror, it was less scare and more gore.

The writing at a sentence level is pretty and great quality, and the world was interesting. But the lack of a single lovable character is probably what did it in for me. I guess this book just wasn’t for me, unfortunately. Still, I’ll definitely be giving the author’s cozy fantasies a try!

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n0elle's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.0

Lesbian enemies to lovers on a submarine with political scheming and a lot of death.

I am not quite sure about this. It was a quick read and everything happened so fast it was hard to put the book down. But at the same time it made everything feel rushed and superficial.
The world building was very sparse, so much that when religious lore was suddenly introduced it felt misplaced.

If you like entertaining fast paced books about adventures and murders on a submarine, set in a queer-normative world without having to think too much about the general concept then this is for you. If you’re looking for intricate world building and fleshed out characters then maybe this one is not for you.

Please check trigger warnings, this one is quite gory.

3 ⭐️ because of the lesbians and a wild ride of a story.

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building_a_bookdom's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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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dancers_and_dragons's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Thorne does a stunning job of sweeping the reader along into this world, where mysteries run rampant and are unfolded as the pages turn. The tension and care and tumult between the characters was perfect to make me feel for them through each chapter, and the attention to detail brought things to life.

While I'd wished for a less ambiguous ending, I'm definitely bittersweet about finishing this book and I'm looking forward to the next installment of this series.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing, Medical content, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, and Gaslighting

Sexual content:

Pages 247-261 on Kindle, unsure of the count on other devices (the first half of chapter 23) contains explicit sexual acts between the two main protagonists. All sexual acts are consensual, but do have a layer of trauma behind them, as they had a previous sexual relationship that ended sourly.

Colonisation/Xenophobia/War: The country the protagonists live in, Valkesh, is at war with another society, the Triolan. From what I can determine from how certain things are explained, these societies do not look different from each other or have different racial features, but they do hold animosity toward each other.

While Thorne does a good job of showing that not all members of either society are a monolith, this progress from their perspective is largely unhelped by the events of the book and there is little to no resolution. One of Nix's best friends is a Triolan, which is further describes under "Betrayal" below. But the Valkesh do hold an upper hand in the war between them and have limited tolerance to listen to alternate points of view besides Kessandra, one of the subarchs in the monarchy.

Betrayal:

One of Nix's squad, Leon, is a Triolan and is working against her and the Valkeshians as a double agent, even though she trained him up and mentored him. His betrayal comes as shock to her and is described with a significant amount of grief and concern. He does attempt to kill her near the end of the book.

Classism: There is a clear hierarchy between civilians and the monarchy, with aspects of wealth and privilege that are mentioned heavily throughout the book and occasionally used as a power play between characters. Emotional abuse/child abuse/confinement:

Kessandra, one of the main characters, does reveal that the primarch/head monarch has kept her confined for years, gaslighted her and the country about the illness they're investigating, and has attempted to kill her multiple times since she was young. While this is not explicitly labelled as abuse by anyone in the book, aspects of it are explicitly described.

Confinement: At various points, the main characters or side characters are confined in rooms for quarantine or in attempts to barricade themselves from others. Also, 90% of the book takes place in a vessel that is travelling beneath the ocean.

sylsbookcorner's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

Oh my GOD this book grabs ahold of you from the start and doesn’t let up til the final sentence! I am emotionally destroyed and I need the sequel immediately! Rebecca has a way of writing characters that you immediately fall in love with and this book is no exception, Nix and Kess are complicated, messy, and I ADORE them. This book had everything, it has suspense, action, horror, spice, and one hell of a cliffhanger. I can’t wait for the second book!!

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