Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

24 reviews

pvp_niki's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Slavery

Minor: Infertility and Vomit

klbreyfogle's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

I’m giving this a 4 for the quality of the writing, characterization, and the political intrigue. I love morally grey characters but my goodness these characters were too morally grey for me.

We hit the second child murder in the series and the violent rape scene and it was just… a lot.

I also think for all the horrible things the characters did and experienced the author could’ve leaned further into an ambiguous ending, it felt a little like the last 5 pages transferred from a more traditional happy ending after 400 pages of plotting and intrigue. Lot of trigger warnings in this one, so definitely believe those. I wanted to like the characters more than I did. If you’re really into political intrigue and like an immoral (or amoral) protagonist then you’ll like it. Normally I support gay rights and gay wrongs but this is a few too many gay wrongs for me, personally. Also… everyone is super into using sex to get what they want.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, Murder, Dysphoria, and War

Moderate: Child death, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Xenophobia, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Torture, Vomit, and Pregnancy

jesshaleth's review against another edition

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? Yes

4.5

If there had been slightly fewer moments meriting a content warning it would've been 5 stars for me, so maybe it will be for you. But yeah - I think it ticked more content warnings than it didn't, so, at your own risk.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Outing, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

helfire124's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lizzisok's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.25

much darker than the first one, but i enjoyed seeing Zhu reflect more on their choices and how it changed them throughout the book. i really enjoyed this sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Homophobia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Torture and Vomit

sofipitch's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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

5.0

Almost incoherent with how much I enjoyed this. I wasn't sure if I would like it as much as book 1 at the beginning but it really built itself up from silly adventure to pondering the purpose and usefulness of any of the character's goals. This book said self destruction is not a means to an end because you cannot undo the scars. The ending tries to undo some of the bleak Outlook and darkness that the book had built up and turn it into hope and I'm not sure it did that super well (we passed the point of no return miles ago) but overall I still loved it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Vomit, Grief, Outing, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Miscarriage and War

throwback682's review against another edition

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

As I’ll mention in the content warnings section below, this book is much more triggering and more violent in specific ways than the first book (She Who Became the Sun) in this duology. 

That being said, I couldn’t put it down. I finished this one much more quickly than the first. It was very gripping. The reason I gave it 1/2 star less than its predecessor is just because of the r*pe scenes honestly. 

Re: the title

I wondered if the title of the second book referred to the main character of the first book just with a different pronoun but this book focuses more on a different character, who was in the first book but didn’t play such a major role.

He sort of comes from behind unexpectedly and becomes a major player in this installment.

The backstabbing really gets kicked up a notch in this book too. 

I kind of thought at one point that the book was getting a bit predictable/tired and then OPE THERE’S A TWIST and then WHOOPS ANOTHER ONE. Hang in there. 

The protagonist of the first book continues to beat the odds in unexpected ways as she did before and again it’s spectacular. Also as before, I found myself rooting for and even loving really cruel, dark, awful characters. The author has a talent for coaxing out empathy for the worst baddies. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit

There is a lot more triggering content in this book than in the first installment of the duology, She Who Became the Sun. Specifically there are multiple rape scenes: - one is marital

as a punishment visited on a wife by her husband

- one is sort of in the context of a gay relationship but

first of all the “relationship” starts off as a manipulation tactic and is coercive and abusive

and secondly

the specific rape scene itself is forcible and in anger.

- another is in the context of a king/consort relationship, which already means consent can’t apply because of the power dynamic, and then

he is purposely trying to hurt her emotionally with the specific rape.

There are also numerous incidents of self harm (many of them are actually perpetrated by someone else, but still falls solidly in the “self harm” category in this context). Like the last book, there is a child who dies -

murdered by a soldier.

He also

has his blood let as proof of life to send to his father to gain his army’s compliance.

I marked both miscarriage and abortion but really it’s neither of those exactly.

A woman is happy about her pregnancy and then another woman gives her poison that ends it without her knowledge or consent.

There’s also someone who has been mutilated.

A servant has her eyes and tongue removed

so that she can be used in a specific way to test someone’s magical powers. There’s also a man who is executed by

being cooked alive in a bamboo steamer.

Yes, the first book was violent and about war and cruelty. But I think this book takes it to another level in several ways. Read with caution.

nikenacs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and War

Moderate: Infertility, Miscarriage, and Abortion

shibh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

5.0

A bittersweet end to the duology. These books look at gender and the human experience of it in a way that has left me feeling exposed and crying. In a good way though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

nemrac23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Blood and Vomit