Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

19 reviews

chaoticnostalgia's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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: Confinement, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content and Abandonment

Minor: Incest, Vomit, Grief, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

overbooked207's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

📖 The Broken Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin Book Review 📖

2nd book of April 2022 and 14th of the year:

Picking up ten years after the events of the first book and following new characters, this sequel once again has phenomenal world-building and writing, an adventurous story about strength, love, and what it takes to earn forgiveness, and if you even can in some instances, and complex, interesting characters! I also really liked the connections to the first book, and the audiobook was amazing! So far, I still enjoy The Broken Earth trilogy more, but I will read and recommend everything by N.K. Jemisin, and if you haven’t read anything by her yet, I highly suggest doing so as soon as possible! TW for murder, violence, death, torture, body horror, cannibalism, rape, slavery, epidemic, incest, sexually explicit content, infidelity, sexual violence, confinement, pregnancy, police brutality, medical content/trauma, physical abuse, suicidal thoughts, suicide/suicide attempt, kidnapping, injury/injury detail, gaslighting, gore, grief, blood, religious bigotry, self-harm, war, and xenophobia📚⚔️🎨

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

laguerrelewis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

Jemisin knows how to do a sequel. She’s refined it to an art, and her skill should be studied. I wondered at how the first installment could be followed up, but this one understands that a sequel need not confine itself, especially in a world like this. The new perspective recontextualizes and expands the world we got a brief look at in the last book, and the characters are just as rich and interesting, if not more so. With a middle entry like this, I cannot wait to see how this story is closed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Xenophobia and Pregnancy

queenie_ofthe_void's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.5

This book is even better than the first, which I didn't think was possible.

This book, particularly the ending, broke me. Emotionally. I sobbed and had to go on a walk. I finished days ago and am just doing a review, so I've forgotten details already. But Itempas leaving was too much to handle. Especially just WALKING OUT. No goodbyes, just gone. Heartbreaking.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent

seanml's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

My thoughts on the series as a whole so far are still the same: some good, some bad. But I think this sequel was an improvement over the first. I like our protagonist; they were a very interesting character to follow. There was one major plot thread at the end of The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms that I was hoping Jemisin brought back for this one, and sure enough she did! I thought the narrative really picked up in the last quarter of the book, and the author’s descriptions were definitely the highlight of the book. 7.5/10.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Incest, Vomit, Stalking, and Pregnancy

achingallover's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

Moderate: Ableism, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

woolly_moonmoth's review against another edition

emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Cannibalism

kylieqrada's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

Review to come once my brain lets me write reviews again. But I love this series 😍😍😍

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

The Broken Kingdoms is damn good. It's driven by relationships and conversation in a way that could slow down a lesser book, but here every interaction is filled with the weight of the past, whether spoken or unspoken. It knows when to rest and to move

Everyone has a past in a way that makes them feel real, like we have a snapshot of their lives and they were here before and will continue on afterwards. This, to me, is a hallmark of a well-written story with complex characters. Oree and Madding had a relationship in the past which has echoes now, but their current dynamic is clearly different than what it must have been before the story started. Shiny knows various people and gods in ways that speak to past relationships, whether casual or intimate, and we have enough information to inform our understanding of what is unsaid, but without constantly explaining backstory.

In trilogies, especially in series that are intended as trilogies by the time book two is written, there is usually a problem where book two isn't complete enough to stand on its own. Even in series I love, I've noticed this problem, and usually book three makes up for it in terms of the strength of the trilogy as a whole. But not here, book three won't have anything to atone for; The Broken Kingdoms is rich, complex, full enough to stand on its own while also building on the history from The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms.

Oree feels like a distinct voice from Yeine, in book 1. Her focus is different, her concerns are different, and her approach to obstacles is grittier, more direct. She is functionally blind, and I appreciated how her comparison between the magical sight she does have and what she guesses ordinary sight must be like made sense in context. It would have been easy for her (as a character written by a sighted person) to continually opine on what seeing must be like, but instead she only discusses it when she has magical sight and uses parts of the language around ordinary sight to try and get a better description of the unique manner of her sight.

It felt so good to read this book. I loved every minute of it and I'm very excited for The Kingdom of Gods.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Suicide

Moderate: Ableism, Death, and Slavery

Minor: Sexual assault

CW for ableism, suicide, sexual assault, slavery, death.