Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Une braise sous la cendre by Sabaa Tahir

242 reviews

sadhbhprice's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? Yes

5.0


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alyssathinkstoomuch's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This book read to me like someone was given a YA novel and told that they had to keep the plot the same but make it rated R. The simplicity of the worldbuilding (the nation called Scholar is the book one and the nation called Martial is the military one) and the plot (whoever wins these 4 trials is the new emperor because a prophecy said so) are at odds with the violence depicted (a child is beaten to death in the first few chapters, among other things-- check the triggers on this one). 
The themes of fear, destiny vs choice, which boy to smooch, etc were all very standard YA fare, but the maturity level of the events did not read like YA. The main characters are 17 and 20, again straddling the line between YA and adult.
I was, overall, disappointed. This book got rave reviews, but I just couldn't lose myself in it. The main characters felt flat, and the interesting side characters (Cook and Helene) don't seem like they'll play much of a part in book 2. The romance is entirely founded on physical attraction, which is apparently enough to make 2 deeply traumatized characters trust each other with their lives. 
Also, the names absolutely sent me into orbit. There's standard fantasy fare names like Keris, Mazen, Sana. There's some names that are in our world but aren't super common like Elias or Helene. Then there's Keenan, Marcus, and Zak, which are the most frat boy names I could imagine and completely took me out of the story. 

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katrinarose's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This was an unoriginal, poorly written book. To start, the world-building was extremely lacking with names that felt like placeholders the author forgot to change ("The Empire", "the Resistance", "Masks" for the bad guys who wear masks). There were "factions", which gave me 2010s YA dystopian vibes, in a bad way. These factions were just "Martials" (read: evil) vs "Scholars (read: good), plus some Tribesmen (?). The only history we get of the world they live in comes during a single conversation about 60-70% through the book. There were jinn and other fantastical creatures that barely got any page time and were hardly a threat at all. There was a random group of somewhat religion-coded immortal mind-readers that were evil Martial "bad guys" until they randomly decided for some moments that they wanted to help the "good guys". I could not figure out their purpose in this book at all. 

I put "bad guys" and "good guys" in quotes because it was abundantly clear who is meant to be good and bad, there is no moral grayness here whatsoever. The bad guys are so incredibly bad that they weren't even scary, because I was rolling my eyes at their mustache-twirling, over the top antics. The author heavily relied on shock factor for her character development and world building. Why make a morally gray character when you can just have her beat a 10 year old to death (not a spoiler, it happens in the beginning)? Why make an complex political background when you can just have the entire story take place at a school that raises children to be murderers/torturers/rapists?

All the characters are extremely flat, which made it annoying to be in their heads because they only had 1-2 topics of thought each. And we had the pleasure of having not one but TWO unbelievable love triangles, one for each main character we were stuck with! There was absolutely no grounds for their interest in each other besides some eye contact (with the exception of one side of one love triangle).

I haven't even gotten to the plot yet, but there's not much to say besides it was predictable and boring. Then again, it's hard to have a good plot with no world-building or character development to build on. The main plot was meant to be about Laia spying in the school and Elias going through trials to become emperor, but the trials were all pretty short and unsurprising, and Laia's spying attempts left much to be desired.

I imagine the remaining books will expand on the love triangles and the world will expand too. I went into this book planning on reading the entire series, but for my sanity, I will not be continuing. I gave it 2 instead of 1 stars just because it was readable and that's a somewhat redeemable quality. Also, as annoying as Laia was, it was nice to have a heroine in YA fantasy who was not a bad-ass, fearless assassin from the jump. If I had read this 10 years ago I probably would have eaten it up.

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meganders22's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

4.75


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greys_aaa's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0


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shananigans's review against another edition

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My biggest issues with this book is how Tahir uses rape and sexual assault as a device for how "dark" the world is. It was an inescapable reasoning at every turn. It felt unnecessary.

I tried to stick it out, but finally with Helen, I decided I couldn't. The story starts out fairly strong with a rotating POV and it's easy to get sucked into at least one of their stories. The pace of the plot for Laia is as slow as molasses, and there was little to no build up as a reader to bond with Laia's desperation to be like and/or save her family. It was a lot of creepy sexualization, which to me, felt a bit out of place for the lore of the world. I'd expected more violence from how wicked cool the Masks are described to be... But instead got creepy rapists and violators of women. On the other side, we're given this hella cool Mask woman, Helen, who is pretty solid up until halfway through the story. Then her strength is torn down by jealousy. Extremely unfortunate. Someone in her position, logically in this verse, would not be as petty as jealousy over a boy. The Commandant is the only one who felt she fit into this sadistic violent world; she's a badass antagonist. It's a real shame because I wanted to finish it, but it felt that at every turn of the story a poor literary device was used to change course.

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luckykosmos's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Late to these books, but I appreciate how Tahir doesn't shy away from the brutal reality of this society while making it exciting for a YA audience to dive in. 

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otterforce's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

This book is a bit more graphic than my usual reads. There are some serious streaks of violence and sadism. If you’re concerned, check out the first chapter and know that it’s kind of light compared to what’s to come.

The story and characters are both strong though and the very bad guys doing very bad (and sometimes graphic) things never feels gratuitous. It often reinforces the tension and stakes or serves the story. There’s are so many good people to offset the bad. I wouldn’t say the story is hopeful, but it’s also not overly bleak or dark.

I can’t wait to see how this series unfolds in later books.

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readinabyss's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.5


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apple_atcha_reading's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful 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

5.0


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