Reviews tagging 'Car accident'

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

12 reviews

stick2theplan's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed this book and will probably read the sequel, but it’s not without its flaws. Foundryside required me to actively suspend my disbelief and hold it at bay. My foes in this task included an

ancient, sentient key

, whose anachronistic manner of speaking most closely resembled the “hello, fellow kids” meme, and a magic system that made less sense the more it was explained. And it was explained a lot.

Once I forced myself not to think too hard about it, I did enjoy Foundryside for what it is: a heist novel. The plot itself was solid and the pacing was good, though the ending felt a little abrupt. The book was laden with twists and reveals, some of which were very well executed. I also found the lore interesting. Because none of the POV characters understood the lore, it didn’t suffer from the over-explaining that hindered the magic/technology of the present. 

As for the characters, they were mostly likable but satisfyingly complex. There was appreciable, earned growth from all the secondary characters. I think I was most underwhelmed with the main character’s arc. I’d like to have seen more of her development manifest throughout the novel; it was sort of spelled out for her by a literal deus ex machina. So much telling, not enough showing in this book. Still, the characters did feel fleshed out. The tropey stock characters were few and far between. That said, Bennet uses the antagonist-to-ally bait and switch one time too many for the eventual antagonist reveal to have much shock value. 

At the end of the day, this is still a novel I’ll recommend to my friends. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Vomit, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Minor: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, and Car accident

brep23's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Slavery, Blood, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Death, and Sexual violence

Minor: Child death, Dementia, and Car accident

e_claire's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and Blood

Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse, and Car accident

lira_the_recluse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

I love a well conceived magic system and Foundry side has that in spades. Characters and the central mystery/plot were exquisite. 

If I had a nickel every time I read a book in the last two months where

the villain was really the brilliant cast aside and assumed weak woman getting her revenge

I would have 3 nickels.

I do have some qualms. 1) occasionally the book equats being fat with being evil / greedy / lazy. 2) page breaks that don't change POV or skip any time. 

Something like:
"Sancia reached into her pocket and threw the scribed sphere. A brilliant white flash lit up the room

...

When her eyes recovered, Sancia dove rushed the guard to grab his sword arm".

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Misogyny, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual assault, Torture, and Car accident

kriti's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Slavery, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Cannibalism, and Car accident

jessthanthree's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, War, and Classism

Minor: Mental illness, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Car accident, and Alcohol

rossandhissandwich's review against another edition

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Vomit, Car accident, and Classism

Minor: Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, and War

spacecurl's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

4.5

I picked this book up because I loved the cover, it's stunningly beautiful. It has been a while since I read a fantasy book with a lot of world building so it took me a little bit to get into, but the magic system was really interesting and the highly flawed characters that learned to work with each other over the course of the book was really fun to read. 

It was a bit gruesome in parts which took me by surprise, but it matches the overall story and atmosphere of the book so it was tolerable to my soft heart haha

All in all I really enjoyed this book and will be reading the other two in the series in the future.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Vomit

Moderate: Death, Gore, Excrement, Car accident, Murder, and Classism

Minor: Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, and War

jurizprudence's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

“Reality doesn’t matter. If you can change something’s mind enough, it’ll believe whatever reality you choose.”

so the merchant houses and their scrived tools' main thing is that they gaslight gatekeep girlboss their way into altering/manipulating objects and reality. that was interesting.

this book's biggest strengths lie on its magic system and world-building. if it were not for those two, i think i would've not continued reading, because i'm not the biggest fan of the characters (see, a character saying: "With his blood, the damned thing should open for her like a schoolgirl’s legs!" wth was that i seriously wanted to stop reading when i read that) and the writing style. also the middle took forever to read and i almost always found myself bored throughout the entire thing, which is weird, because i do love action and heists and this book has plenty of those—so maybe my problem is in the author's execution of plots and descriptions. i was also debating whether to pick up the next books or not because i really have complicated feelings about this one, but since i kinda liked the second to the last chapter and somehow i got attached to an actual key, i think i'll be continuing with this series. but not so soon, i guess. i might need a palate cleanser first.

i think if you liked six of crows, you might enjoy this, though that was not the case for me so i really don't know lol

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Blood, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror, Confinement, Genocide, Sexism, Sexual content, Car accident, and War

eegekay's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Torture, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Child death and Car accident