Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

48 reviews

barda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

3.75

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and diversity of characters in this book, though it was brought down by some flaws and overall tone.

I broadly liked the charactres, with Hassa being a standout in particular. I do wish she had more POV, but she was a delightfully mysterious character and her friendship with Sylah was heartwarming. The autocratic world that the author created was also very interesting, if not the most unique; I found that the twist regarding the map really opened up the world more and makes me eager to learn more in the next book. 

In terms of what I didn't like, it's a pet peeve of mine when the author switches POV's multiple times in one chapter with no breaks in between characters, and this book has tons of it. It also had some random characters that had only one or two POV's in the whole book and these seemed unnecessary. The romance(s) also seemed very abrupt and tacked on, and I wonder if the book would actually do better by removing romance entirely (though the book was very good at developing the overall friendship between Anoor and Sylah, if not the romance aspect). I also found the tone at times to be a bit too grimdark for my tastes; I can completely understand why the author wanted to show the horrors of slavery and discrimination, but the inclusion of sometimes graphic descriptions of death and torture made the happier moments between characters seem incongruous.

Overall, it was an interesting book to read and will be reading the next one, but I do hope that the issues with multiple POV's in particular are fixed in the next instalment.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Drug use, Slavery, Drug abuse, Addiction, Self harm, and Blood

Moderate: Violence, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, War, Vomit, Sexual content, and Rape

avisreadsandreads's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Murder, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Confinement, Gore, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Fatphobia and Body shaming

bookstarbri's review

dark sad tense slow-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

2.75

I wish I loved this :/ Idk, I think a big problem was that I didn't like one of the main characters, so it was a rocky start. I also didn't like that it took SO LONG for things to happen. I'm all for slow burn, and even prefer it in fantasy, but it felt like a lot of scenes could've been cut to move the plot along faster. Since it was a training kind of book, there was a ton of that, but then what they would be training for ended really quickly so the buildup didn't really feel worth it? For me, things didn't start getting really interesting until around page 400, and that was just too long to wait. There were some slight surprises before that point, but nothing that was super shocking. The ending is interesting and part of me is considering reading the sequel because the ending was so good, but I'm not sure. I will say that it did have a promising start for me and I LOVED Hassa, Anoor, Kwame, and Gorn. Though this wasn't for me, I can definitely see why it's beloved by so many. There's a lot of intricate thought put into this world and I did love reading that aspect of this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Slavery, Addiction, Blood, Drug abuse, Body horror, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Kidnapping, and Self harm

Minor: Rape

caseythereader's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Death, Drug use, Abandonment, Ableism, Child abuse, Classism, Gore, Vomit, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, Death of parent, Murder, Drug abuse, Addiction, Child death, Medical content, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual content

zaqlovesbooks's review against another edition

challenging 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

5.0

Even though the book is definitely published and has a freaking sequel out. I would love to thank the publisher for giving me early copy on netgalley to review. 

In a world where everyone is segregated by their blood. We’re following Sylah,  whom I can’t recall her blood type is someone who struggles with keeping a job and her addiction to drug known as joba seeds. In the aftermath of finding out someone whom she thought was dead, she finds Anooor. The daughter of warden of strength. Making a deal we’re following the both of them as they navigate trying to help one another accomplish their goals.

So far I really love the world building, the characters and overall how rich the descriptions are. It just screams living and breathing. Even the characters feel like people who you meet in real life. I love realistic characters in a non realistic world.  I also like how it’s handled with our mc having to find a way to get her stuff done. I’m really into this book.

And don’t like I can’t believe it took so long to get to to this book. There’s literally a whole sequel out. I’m not requesting for any arcs until I finished the ones I have. 

My favorite character has to be Hassa, she literally has to put up with Syrah like a lot. Of there’s so many characters who I find interesting but definitely she stands out.

I’m surprise how in depth and interesting this book was. From the characters, the lore, its world, and overall how everything affects one another.

I definitely recommend this to anyone who loves really high fantasy novels with so diversity that i can’t describe this story in one word. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Violence, Slavery, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Torture and Child abuse

dreyy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Addiction, Confinement, Abandonment, Blood, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Drug use, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Violence, and Xenophobia

lycanhood's review

challenging dark funny 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Murder

beldaran1224's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

4.75

This is a fantastic book. The first part goes a bit slow as the world and the characters are being set up for us, but once the plot picks up, I couldn't put the book down until I finished it (no, really, I kept taking little breaks at work, I stayed up way too late, etc.).

One thing I loved about this book is that the setting - which is otherwise brutal and filled with oppression, is completely queernormative & gender equal. Additionally, though the world is highly stratified according to a blood-based caste system that is an allegory for racial inequities in our own world, there is no anti-blackness in this book. All of the characters are Black, and you'll find no negative language about features associated with Black-ness at all. It just goes to show that you can engage with real-life oppression without re-traumatizing those suffering from those systems of oppression - I have a lot of respect for el-Arifi for managing this.

The characters are fascinating, and we continue to learn more about them and their pasts, while exploring the ways in which they are changing and responding to the events of the book. You'll find multi-faceted characters here. Both of our main characters have their flaws, but I was invested in them from the beginning. There's a surprising amount of mystery in the book, which I think is handled better than average for an epic fantasy book.

I think el-Arifi manages to juggle the personal stories extremely well with the epic, sweeping political events taking place, and this reinforces the book's core message about inequities - that the personal IS political. The setting is fascinating - we don't get to see much in the first book, which takes place almost exclusively in the city we start in, and I'm excited to (hopefully) see more in the second book.

In short, the moment I finished this book, I decided I couldn't wait for my library to receive the recently published second installment and went out and bought it myself. (And I'll still check it out when my library gets it, because this author deserves the circulation!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Violence, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Drug use, Genocide, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Child abuse, Addiction, and Blood

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Vomit

moonchild_cos's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Classism, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Ableism, Alcohol, Genocide, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Slavery

Minor: Grief, Vomit, War, Body shaming, Bullying, and Sexual content

bookcaptivated's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Confinement, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Drug abuse, Murder, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Colonisation, Slavery, Ableism, and Alcohol

Minor: Medical content and Stalking