Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

21 reviews

purplepenning's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Sexual content, Trafficking, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and War

louisebullock's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infertility, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and War

earlgreyjedi's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

This story was absolutely incredible and I can’t wait for book 2. A diverse and interesting cast of characters mixed with unique and compelling world building makes for a hell of a tale. Kissen, our scarred but strong bi (or pan) queen, was an excellent foil to Inara, a sweetheart with more secrets than someone so young should have ever amassed (including a small god named Skediceth). And then enters Elogast who is also dealing with trauma of the past while trying to figure out what it will take to mend. All of our heroes are somewhere on the “neutral” scale, with Kissen being chaotic, Elogast lawful, and Inara true (although she could potentially be considered neutral good too). Skedi’s alignment is a little more complicated and is what makes his plot so interesting. Watching all of the characters interact with one another is such a treat. Their growth throughout the story as they slowly become found family is really what I loved the most. I also wanted to add that I adored the food descriptions. Please release a cookbook!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual content, Slavery, and Trafficking

Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Physical abuse, Self harm, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

peggyluwho's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

reddeddy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Torture, and Pregnancy

thewillowwood's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense 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

hear me out: this is basically if the Witcher books were actually good. sorry not sorry. this book slayed, looking forward to reading the next instalment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

emmagreenwood's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

kjm19's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.0

Godkiller is a great display of character driven fantasy that includes so many fun tropes and colourful characters. 

It is possibly the most diverse/inclusive set of core characters that I’ve come across in any novel, let alone a fantasy one, which was really refreshing. Several characters have disabilities that add depth and context to their lives and shows us just how possible it is to be inclusive in the fantasy genre. Authors, take note!

The characters are loveable, funny, and relatable. It’s great to see how relationships blossom between our core characters, I do admit that it happens rather fast, but it’s a fast pace story with high stakes. Of course they will form immediate bonds if they have to. 

There are convenient elements to the plot line, I must admit, like how quickly Skedi changes his mind about things and how his actions are forgiven etc. But fantasy is all about people coming together to join in one an epic adventure, and I feel that this was crafted very well. 

I see how the world is building for a sequel, and I am intrigued to see how the wider context, such as archivists and the role of the King, will play into the future plot. 

Kissen is one of my favourite protagonists of recent reads - she is bold in every way possible. Need I say more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Godkiller is a great display of character driven fantasy that includes so many fun tropes and colourful characters. We are first introduced to Kissena (goes by the name of Kissen) when her family and their estate is burnt to the ground. Her father sacrifices himself to his lover Osidisen, a water god, to save her life. Montage! We are introduced to Inara, a young girl of noble birth who belongs to the House of Craier. She has this attachment/bond to a small God of white lies, Skediceth (who also becomes a POV character). Their bond is not understood and they wish to break it without killing each other so that they can live their separate lives. Inara has special abilities gifted to her, unwittingly, by Skediceth where she can see people’s true emotions in colour - pretty cool. She is sheltered (hidden away…) for reasons Inara is initially unaware of, and runs off to seek answers for herself and Skedi from none other than our favourite veiga. Ser Elogast completes the lineup of Godkiller’s POV characters and he is a baker who used to be a knight with a close fraternal bond with the now King Arren.

s_teichman's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence and Abandonment

amelianotthepilot's review against another edition

3.5

a fun dnd style high fantasy story with interesting world-building.  I loved that we got so much diversity and disability representation, the book was queer and had a physically disabled main character and characters using sign language.  

The story follows four characters brought together on one quest, Kissen grew up in a coastal town that worshipped the sea god but when the sea was not providing any longer the townspeople sacrificed her and her family to the fire god leaving her badly scarred and missing a leg. Years later she is now a grown woman and has made a life as a god killer, a sort of mercenary hire that kills off local problematic gods since the King has since banned all gods after ~the war~. Meanwhile Inara, has a god problem. She is a young highborn teen who has somehow become attached to a small hare-like god, Skedi, the god of white lies. They seek Kissen's help in becoming detached from each other without killing either Inara or the god. On their journey to the old lands, they end up on a travelling group with Elogast, a former King's knight now turned baker. After a series of unfortunate events in the royal family, his best friend and charge became the King and they went to battle together against the gods, but after the war, Elo quits his post and retires only for the King to come knocking on his door one night to ask for assistance for an old friend, and of course, loyal Elo will do anything for him.

i don't really know why there were POV switches since the characters were mostly all together the whole time, I also felt that the different POVs all had similar sounding voices so it was hard to tell apart. I think maybe it would have been better from an omnipotent 3rd person POV.

I also felt that the plot was maybe not the most interesting story, I was more curious about Kissen's backstory and also the war story. I was more interested in how these character's got here. The plot we got was very obvious 

although the story had various queer characters and two of the main characters were bi, ?it somehow felt like queerbaiting? we love bi rep but i feel like lesbian rep is so far and few between and was excited when it seemed the MC was lesbian- I've never been disappointed until now for a character to turn out bi lol. Also the king and Elo seemed really homoerotic just saying...😂

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail