Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Queen of the Tearling by Erika Johansen

4 reviews

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

Some aspects of the worldbuilding was absolutely wonderful and clever! Kelsea is a complex and compelling heroine. But all this was overshadowed by a positively glaring lack of anyone not of caucasian English (possibly a little Scottish or Irish?) descent. Despite everyone in the Tearling being refugees of Britain and America. It was incredibly uncomfortable to just pretend a couple stray POC who don’t even stay longer than a page exist in the Tearling, and only got worse when slave trafficking became a big part of the plot. In addition, every historic English caricature lobbed against the French was copy/pasted against the Mort in the laziest way imaginable. It felt like the author wanted to make a commentary on imperialism, without any introspection whatsoever on which countries have had the furthest imperialist reach or what that looks like. I wanted to like this book but too many things kept jarring me from the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

katrinarose's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful fast-paced

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

3.0

The characters are a bit predictable and one-dimensional and not a whole lot seems to happen over the course of 400 pages, but I still enjoyed it. It definitely feels like a set up to the rest of the series and I think it has promise so I will continue on to book two. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Medical content, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

abbs15norm's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Torture, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Torture, and Religious bigotry

rebecca_dt's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.5

Great character, bad world building

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Body shaming