Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

The jasmine throne. Il trono di gelsomino by Tasha Suri

13 reviews

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, and Pregnancy

Minor: Homophobia, Suicide, Vomit, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol

quintopus's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

A powerful maidservant with a forgotten past and a princess stripped of everything for refusing
 to be burned. The two main characters alone already make an amazing story. Add a beautiful prose, and amazing world-builing and you get something truly special. 
The author has an amazing grip on character writing: There are a lot of POVs in this book. Still each of them adds something meaningful and even the non-POV characters are very distinct, with clear personality traits, and (mostly) understandable reasons to act the way they do. Even the romance worked well for me which doesn't happen often. 
The non-western fantasy world is fantastic as well, very thoroughly developed, and showcases an impressive mixture of different cultures bound by a crumbling empire. Interesting messages especially concerning colonialism and armed resistance. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Confinement, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Drug use

muffycantread's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad 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

4.25

Really liked a lot of the writing in this book, it suffers from something a lot of trilogy starters do- which is that it spends a lot of time setting up and world building for the whole scope of the trilogy. Some of the resolutions happen pretty quickly towards the end and the foreshadowing is pretty heavy handed at times. But it's a pretty good read! Just not as satisfying as some other series' starters.

 
Feel like this is good for Kehlani and Kali Uchis fans?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexism, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

noramartn's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

jodes003's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Grief and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Child death, Homophobia, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Lesbophobia

Starvation, homelessness, brothels.

kelseeraine's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.5

wlw, clean, fantasy, magic

Tasha Suri writes a story quite unlike any book I've ever read before. Her prose and the inventive use of multiple POVs truly create a multi-layered world the encaptures the reader. I can honestly say I've never read a book quite like it, in the absolute best of ways. The world building was so in-depth, so meticulously thought out, that I felt I completely understood the world Suri created. Reading this was like solving a puzzle without meaning to. Suri's writing guides the reader along a truly incredible path that allows the reader deepen their understanding of the world without having to consciously try to decipher it. This book is what I would consider the very best of the high fantasy genre. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Misogyny, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Homophobia, Terminal illness, Murder, and Lesbophobia

izzysreading's review against another edition

I don't want to read about an all-consuming pandemic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use and Pandemic/Epidemic

flowingleaves's review against another edition

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Terminal illness, Blood, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, and Pandemic/Epidemic

dragonwriter's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.5

Priya barely escaped being burned on the pyre with her fellow temple children, escaping to the city with her temple brother to beg for survival. When her brother falls ill, he takes her to Bhumika, another surviving temple child, who takes her in to her household as a servant. Now, Priya has returned to the temple, to serve the imprisoned princess, Malini, who refused to walk into her own sacrificial pyre. Though loyal to Bhumika and trying to protect the people relying on them, Priya finds herself sympathetic toward and falling for the princess, who is being slowly poisoned by her vengeful caretaker. As Malini gets sicker and rebels seek to take the temple and steal the secrets of its magic waters, Priya must decide which of the three sides to give her loyalty: the rebels who want to retake her land, the princess who wants to escape her prison, or Bhumika, the temple sister desperate to keep what few people she can safe.

This book was much longer than the books I usually read, and was targeted for a older audience. That gave it the time to go deeper with the world building and character development, and there were several characters that benefited! I especially loved Rhuk, the little beggar boy Priya saves, and Bhumika. I did like Malini, and how she fought to keep herself through the poisoning and the manipulation and isolation. 
The religious misogyny was absolutely frightening! The emperor’s fetish of burning women alive to purify them was terrifying! Especially at the end, when he’s daydreaming about burning his sister 😱 it’s disturbing. 
I will say there were three different religions mentioned/explored in the book, and I thought that level of variety was pretty cool! My favorites were definitely the tree-spirits of Priya’s religion, though they were quite terrifying in their own way.

CW: blatant misogyny, religious trauma, childhood trauma, family trauma, horrific death, plague

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, Terminal illness, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Pandemic/Epidemic