Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons

18 reviews

iforgotilivedhere's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

My sibling is currently reading the ACOTAR series and that’s one of my least favorite series, so I thought that since they are going through that torture, I should read one of their least favorite books.
But surprisingly, I actually really enjoyed this book. Now, by no means is this book good. The term “mind rape” is used too much, there’s a lot of incest, and some very dumb things that happen in this book, but I absolutely loved the main character, Kihrin, especially his angst with Teraeth. I don’t much care about Janel, but I will read her book shortly so, I can’t have much of an opinion on her yet. 
My main problem with this book was how often rape is used. I did like that we didn’t just let Talon go on what she did to Kihrin. There were actual parts where we saw that Kihrin did feel grief and pain from the traumas that the D’Mons put him through and I liked that! I would like some more queer rep tho, but I know there’s gonna be more. 
I absolutely love Thurvishar. That man is amazing. 

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achingallover's review against another edition

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

4.0


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gummiefox's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

this book is complicated, but i loved it! one of the few that i feel the need to go back and reread immediately after finishing it. i'll definitely have to reread it before i start the next in the series.

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noshakira's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

Excellent world-building and intricate storyline. The dual perspectives of the story adds a unique element. I ordered the second book when I was about halfway done with this one because I knew I'd love the remaining story. 

The only difficulty is that some names can be hard to pronounce (as with most fantasy novels) and keep straight, as many are similar or characters go by multiple names for differing reasons, so it's easy to get confused and I'd have to continually remind myself who was who.

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adragoninspace's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

4.25


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anni_swanilda's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.25


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anxiousnachos's review against another edition

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dark slow-paced

5.0

Love love love love. The best of epic fantasy. It has such a huge, complex world that you really need the 800 page novel to dive into. It is so rich and detailed, you could never learn all there is to know about this world.

It has a fantastic, interesting structure. I am always one who loves a bit of a puzzle or weird structure to my novels and this definitely satisfied that urge. Told in two (and a half) POVs, to and from a jailer to their prisoner + footnotes from a third individual, this follows two different timelines as they slowly converge to explain how the jailer and prisoner ended up in their current position. The complexity of this structure is absolutely not for everyone. It is such a slow paced fantasy book, it weaves and wanders and you have to accept that you will not know what’s going on for the vast majority of this book. But I loved that about it!! I loved that each chapter ended on almost a mini cliffhanger. I loved getting to guess at what was happening and racing to read on. I found each POV section equally as interesting so even though the cliffhangers happened, I was still interested in the switching stories. It was just fabulously written. 

The characters are brilliant, as book 1 of a 5 part series I’m very excited to see how they develop. I believe the later books are poly? And the main character Kihrin is bisexual. Anyway I have the rest of the series on order, and I am horrific at reading sequels so that is truly a sign of how much I loved this! Please note, this did get very very dark though so note below content warnings. 

Content warnings: slavery (inc sexual slavery), death, violence, torture, rape, murder, blood, domestic abuse, physical abuse, child abuse, war, misogyny, incest

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andromeda_1998's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

This book took me a long time to read and the funny thing is that I didn’t mind. The book is written in a very cleaver way and I would really recommend it. But before you start reading it, beware! This is one of those books you need to finish before having an opinion. 

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roguesaw's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? N/A
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5


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anapthine's review against another edition

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

1.5

I really didn't enjoy this book, especially due to its tone. It was so boring and had so much sexism. Women were essentially 'slaves' and were property of men. Most of the time I had no idea what was going on and none of the characters were that likeable. 

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