Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Court of the Undead

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Court of the Undead by F.M. Aden

4 reviews

isabyrne's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

The Court of the Undead is a gothic story set in the Ottoman Empire about two sisters. When one of the sisters is kidnapped by a court of vampires, the other runs away to train with a group of vampire hunters in order to find and rescue her. This book is fraught with relationships, politics, and scheming.

Read this if you are looking for a:

Historical setting
Love triangle
Court politics, but with vampires
Angsty romance, enemies to lovers
Sister bond

Thank you to Northern Light Press, NetGalley, and the author for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Atmosphere and Setting: The historical atmospheres was my favourite part: from Turkey to Italy to a vampire court. I feel like it is rare to see historical fiction + fantasy, and would have wanted a whole book set in fantasy Turkey. We don’t get to see a lot of gothic book set in this setting/region of the world, and I really enjoyed that.

Characters: I loved the relationship that the sisters have in this book and would have wanted even more from it (or maybe that develops in book 2). I was also drawn by the love triangle, and curious to know how it will resolve. The romantic tension on all fronts was engaging, but I wished we could have had more details and more payoff to let us sit in that tension even more. It does feel a bit confusing that Yara goes from loving to hating the brothers scene to scene without warning, too.

Prose: My biggest challenge with this book was the prose and pacing. The stakes are often established what feels like too late, after the action has started; as a result the way that tension escalates feels a bit out of order or makes it feel like you are missing information. Occasionally the perspective changes abruptly and sometimes it is confusing or disorienting. In the dialogue, I wasn’t a fan of the banter between characters: sometimes it moved too quickly or was a bit stilted. At several points the dialogue was a bit strange, like one character could read what was going on in the other’s head without having spoken it. Sometimes it feels like the characters are spelling out their “big evil plans” detail by detail in dialogue rather than letting the reader gather them through inference.

Overall thoughts: This book was conceptually strong, especially in the atmosphere, the settings, the tropes, and the pairings. I know that this book was written for YA, but I think might have done better if pushed into adult fantasy with even darker themes for a more mature audience, more explicit romantic tension, and more developed prose. However, the plot twists and ways the book turned at the end were surprising, and set up well for the sequel. Those who really enjoy this book will be itching for the second one immediately.

Content Warnings

fervent_faebles's review

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

Okay but I think this book deserves some more hype! I just spent the last four hours reading it, and finished it within just over two days. Thank you to NetGalley for a digital arc in exchange for my honest review.

This book is DEFINITELY for the Damon girlies. If you need to know more, please continue. But I think that alone says enough!

You have two sisters, who are opposites in many ways aside from their unrelenting bravery. When one is kidnapped by vampirs to be a blood slave, the other and her childhood friend run off to save her.

The morally (dark) grey men in this book really have me questioning myself… (I had written “sexy in a Stockholm Syndrome way” in my notes) and there are more than a couple of them. LOTS of tension in here. Enemies/rivals to.. enemies? Lovers? Idk… but for a book without any *actual* spice (if you know what I mean) it was still VERY spicy. I think it would have been nice to give the readers a little more somethin somethin as far as you knowwww goes just because it’s so tensiony.. but it’s okay, because the vibes.. the *essence* of the spice, was still scrumptious.

I mean dayum- we are given MULTIPLE “he’s obsessed with her”s.. “you’re mine” “if you hurt her again I’ll k— you” AND “Good girl” moments. 🥵 for a book that didn’t have anyone getting freaky, it was still very much so giving for the girlies. I shouldn’t be feeling this way about these bad-bad men, and yet! 🫣

Oh and you have a morally good guy, he cute too.

Aside from that, you have high stakes, bipoc representation- the main characters are women of color and in general there is a lot of blending of other cultures/some discussion on prejudice, Muslim representation, body representation both for a curvy thick character and a more “boyish” one (if you read the book you’ll get it), deception, enemies/friends with tension, love triangles, bravery, court life/politics, jealousy, spies, and of course.. vampires.

I’m not a fan of “dark romance” as it has come to be known on social media, but this definitely edges along there just enough to be like adjacent to that vibe, without fully going there. I’m down with that.

I’ll be reading the next one!

I will say I had a hard time finding the author on social media, and I think they’re putting out a well written and entertaining story, it would be beneficial to be more active on there to help build more of that hype!

Content Warnings

tors_tomes's review

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adventurous dark

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Content Warnings

trippyotter's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A dark and twisted tale during the time of the Ottomon Empire with Vlad holding the crown of the Undying King.

The Court of the Undead is not for the squeamish, and there's no way this could be a standalone. Though there hasn't been a mention of a sequel yet, but that ending? Oh, I can't wait to see how the debauchery and treachery ends!

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