Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai

34 reviews

saphfics's review

adventurous tense medium-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

3.25

Prepare to be frustrated a lot by all the characters, and especially the men of the cast. 

I think the author did a decent job with writing a very patriarchal society and the different effects it can have on very differen  women. As well as how the (lack of) privileges different characters have will change how they approach the issue of women's right. The worlbuilding of the cityitself was quite vivid but when it comes to the religion I was left with many questions

At times it felt very on the nose with the way it handled its themes and there was a lot of repetition. Mostly to contrast the two main characters which again felt very on the nose. The story does delve I to why the two are so different and I do appreciate that. 

I do feel like the two mains were very distinctive and had their own distinctive voices. However there was an imbalance to how much screen time I felt each of them were getting. Especially in the beginning. Which kind of makes me sad because I feel like we lost some characterization for both that character and the daughters of izdihar as a whole.  

All around a pretty engaging read, mostly towards the end. I will read the next book to see how it ends

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual violence, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Gun violence, Police brutality, and Abortion

Minor: War

silentquercus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

ems_rxlibrary's review

challenging 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Abortion

cardanrry's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Abortion

alicelalicon's review against another edition

challenging emotional fast-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and Lesbophobia

Moderate: Abortion

smoore236's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Violence, Xenophobia, and Police brutality

Moderate: Death, Hate crime, and Misogyny

Minor: Homophobia, Outing, and Sexual harassment

sammy_nor's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Grief and Classism

Minor: Homophobia

wishbea's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I nearly DNFed this book but since it's so short and I was already halfway through I decided to finish it. It wasn't the book I was expecting, I was told it was like Avatar the Last Airbender in an Egyptian-inspired fantasy world and therefore was expecting a major focus on the magic aspect. However this is a book primarily focused on politics, women's suffrage, class and female weavers stuggling to control their abilities.

As other reviews have said, the magic system is the exact same as bending in ATLA. A certain plot point was taken directly from ATLA. 

There is a reveal where the waterweaver main character Nehal  accidentally bloodweaves and bloodweaving is highly forbidden and kept secret, I'm pretty sure the reason she gets kidnapped at the end of the book is because she is a bloodweaver and she is going to be used by the enemy kingdom as a weapon.

Which unfortunately made the magic aspect fairly dull because it was too derivative, I expected inspired by ATLA not exactly the same system.

Nehal was a very irritating character, highly stubborn and I found her impossible to like as she appears to be completely disconnected from reality, failing to understand the consequences of her actions and only proceeds to get even angrier when things don't go her way. Nico barely felt like a character, he has somewhat progressive opinions in this world but he just does whatever the plot is asking of him and most of the time he's just pining after Giorgina. Giorgina was the most interesting character to me because she is far more grounded in reality than Nehal and Nico are, however she wasn't compelling.

I am not invested enough in these characters or this world to have any interest in reading the upcoming second book in this duology. Absolutely nothing is resolved by the end of this book, it is all just setup for the next book so don't expect a satisfying ending going into this.

On the positive side, I enjoyed reading a book where the setting is inspired by Egypt, the descriptions of the clothing were fascinating and the political ideas were interesting but the themes weren't married together well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, Violence, Lesbophobia, and Classism

Minor: Gun violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, and War

quinnyquinnquinn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, and Classism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Grief, Abortion, and Alcohol

ellieanor's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, and Police brutality

Moderate: Violence and Sexual harassment