Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Crier's War by Nina Varela

16 reviews

sssssoup's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing, Infertility, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and War

starccato's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Colonisation

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Infertility, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol

kyliereichert's review against another edition

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Abandonment and War

k_aro's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

It was good.... I definitely enjoyed the slow burn enemies to lovers, but I'm not sure if, as a whole, it'll be particularly memorable for me. Like, it was good, but not life-changingly good.

Crier and Ayla are... good? Characters? I'm definitely not categorically opposed to them but I don't think they're particularly compelling in and of themselves, they seem kind of standard.

It was pretty gripping, though. It took me a little bit to get into it but it was definitely exciting after that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Misogyny, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Police brutality, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Infertility, Self harm, Death of parent, and Alcohol

It's sort of hard to talk about the more social aspects of this book, given that it's between a fictional race and a real one, so when I say "cultural appropriation" I'm unsure whether it would realistically affect someone, given that it is largely the king appropriating human culture (such as, marital traditions).

bentenuala's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Murder, Abandonment, and War

morganish's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Crier's War started off a little slow for me, BUT. The book very quickly overcame my doubts, and I found myself really looking forward to picking it back up every night! It's fantasy of the YA variety, which doesn't deviate too much from a lot of the themes, stylistic choices, and characterization of other YA stories.

Yet even as I've been leaning away from YA fantasy and more toward adult recently, I found myself really absorbed in this one. The prose was straightforward, but sometimes unexpectedly beautiful; the worldbuilding wasn't dense or complicated, and yet the central conceit works well and there's a surprising amount of effective mystery. All the untold secrets yet to be discovered ultimately worked to hook me in. The romance is a kind I like but don't often find executed this effectively: angst-heavy, with lots of pining. It's a true slow burn, with outstanding threads still left hanging by the end of this installment, the first of a duology. Even though I'd heard others say this book was really good, AND even though I was excited by the idea of AI creations in a traditional fantasy setting, I was still surprised how good Crier's War was.

If you like your slow-burn romances to actually feel like something slow and aching and epic, this book probably has what you're looking for. (Especially if you're looking for more sapphic fantasy.) If you like the feel of YA fantasy stories, but sometimes wish the worldbuilding had just a little bit more mystery or intrigue like adult fantasy, this might serve, depending on your tastes.  But if you're just completely done with YA fantasy and all the aspects that come with it, or don't like romances that build across multiple books, OR don't like the enemies-to-lovers trope, this book probably won't do much for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Genocide, Sexism, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol

A lot of the elements I include about the content warnings are specifically fantastical, like fantastical xenophobia. Most of the other content warnings have some level of fantastic to them as well. It isn't a direct reference to IRL events and doesn't include IRL bigotry, for example.