Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Une braise sous la cendre by Sabaa Tahir

147 reviews

meganders22's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Grief, and Sexual harassment

moonyleo's review against another edition

2.0

if i had to describe this book in one word, it would be disappointing 

it had a slow start, sure, but once it picked up i really enjoyed laia's storyline
and thats about it
i didnt like elias, hated helene, the villains, honestly i didnt care about anyone other than laia and izzi
and dont even get me started on the romance
never thought id say that (as it is my favourite genre) but the romance ruined this book for me
it felt so forced, artificial and so clearly thrown in for the sake of having a romantic plotline
it was so painfully insta-love and lacked any substance, i didnt buy a single one of the relationships, and whenever the romance came on i just cringed and skimmed to the more interesting parts

also, this book is filled with threats of SA, so please be aware of that going in because its a lot

all in all, i liked laias pov and the final 30-ish pages, but not enough to make me want to continue on with the series
to be honest, if i hadnt bought the physical copy, it would have been a dnf

at least i got my reminder that i shouldnt pick up popular books based solely on their hype when i wouldnt have read them otherwise

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

otterforce's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Abortion

Minor: Suicide

apple_atcha_reading's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

seforana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

bwgwave's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Torture, and Abortion

tabea1409's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

marlene_suntie_helton's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

notapenguin's review against another edition

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Suicide, Abortion, and Death of parent

roseandivy's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

1.0

okay so. i really wanted to love this book. i really did. i'd heard so many good things about it from so many people that i was sure coming in that this would be a 3.5 or higher. unfortunately, there were a myriad of things that i absolutely couldn't stand.

the first was elias as a character. listen, i like a morally gray mc, i like complicated people, i like characters rebelling against the systems they were raised in, but everything about this man fell so flat for me. he was boring, and the attempts at making him seem complicated were lackluster, and i couldn't buy the fact that despite being raised in blackcliff for the majority of his life, he somehow clung to the values he was taught as a five year old and became the sole mask to want to oppose the empire. he felt stilted and unrealistic, and i couldn't stand the way he talked about both laia and helene. his constant objectification of the both of them (especially when laia was enslaved) grossed me out so much,

as well as his insistence upon "protecting" helene from marcus by having his classmates follow her, and acting like he knew better than her when she told him to stop

. he's posited as the "good" man, but i feel like he still falls into the same misogyny as all the other male characters, just in less violent way, which would make sense if we had an arc of him unlearning the misogyny he's been taught, but his actions aren't ever really recognized as wrong or something he needs to change, just part of his "protective: and "dominant" character.

which leads me into the handling of misogyny and rape in this book. it feels like rape is used as a plot device or for shock value so much. every other chapter one of the female characters is being threatened with rape, or is scared of being raped, or a male character is joking about rape. as a survivor i think having depictions of and discussions of rape culture in books is important, but this felt less like a genuine attempt to engage with the weight of rape as an atrocity and more like the author was just using it as a tool to demonstrate that certain people were villains, and the fact that this is a young adult novel just makes it more uncomfortable. i certainly could've done with mature and meaningful discussions of rape in books as a child and teen, given that that aligned with my experience, but i've seen this book recommended as for ages 12+, and i think reading this book that young would've been more damaging than helpful for me.

there are a lot of other things in this book i could critique-- the one-dimensional villains, the fact that i found laia so boring, the lack of care given to the inclusion of magical elements (so many things just come out of absolutely nowhere with no warning or explanation seemingly just because it's convenient, especially

helene's magical singing

)-- but the one thing i did like was helene herself. i've seen mixed opinions on her amongst various people who've read this book, but i actually found her far more nuanced and interesting than i ever found elias or laia, given her unique position within blackcliff as the only female mask. if the two main characters had been helene and laia (with or without the romance component) i would've been much more excited to see their interactions and watch the two of their stories intertwine, as well as the arc helene would've gotten.

unfortunately, my love for helene only made the end of this book even more disappointing.

i cannot stand how illogical and ridiculous elias' decision during the final trial was-- if he's motivated by a desire to minimize the damage the empire does, wouldn't it make more sense to ensure that he or helene won, therefore giving him a chance to enact change? wouldn't letting helene kill laia and then going on to save the rest of the scholars from further brutality and oppression be more in line with his goals? why does he condemn his lifelong best friend to servitude to a man who's threatened to rape her multiple times in order to save a girl he's known for a fraction of that time? wouldn't letting marcus become emperor and continue to slaughter thousands of scholars be doing far more damage than sacrificing one life for the sake of an entire population?

throughout the entire book, helene is presented as an accessory to elias, there to support him rather than to have her own autonomy or wants and goals--

her being in love with him really only hammers this in. and why can we never have a man and a woman be best friends without one of them being in love or wanting to have sex with the other?

i found this so incredibly frustrating, because it felt like such a waste of a character with so much potential.

overall, very disappointed, but it gets one star for helene. i considered reading the next book just to get her pov, and i might still do it, but at the moment it doesn't seem worth my time.

edit: i forgot laia is seventeen and elias is 20. yikes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Xenophobia