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Reviews tagging 'Body horror'
Wings of Fire Book Four: The Dark Secret, Volume 4 by Tui T. Sutherland
3 reviews
wolfiegrrrl's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
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
4.0
After a lifetime of being told that fighting and killing are equivalent to bravery and strength and watching the rest of his friends naturally be brave in their own ways, it's Starflight's turn to discover that being brave doesn't mean not being afraid. It means being afraid and doing the right thing anyway! At the end of the day, he provides a valuable element of his own to their team in the form of diplomacy and thinking smarter instead of bloodier to outwit his opponents.
Learning more about the NightWings shows us that not only is desperation no excuse to toss aside your humanity by treating other living beings like objects but bigotry and self-supremacy is a learned bias, not an inherent truth.
Learning more about the NightWings shows us that not only is desperation no excuse to toss aside your humanity by treating other living beings like objects but bigotry and self-supremacy is a learned bias, not an inherent truth.
While the solution was always going to be a lesson in how coexistence and working together is possible if you are willing to try, given that this is a very bold allegory for racism and colonialism, it was pretty difficult for me to digest back in 2022 when I first read it. But viewing it from a different perspective in 2024, it seems to be saying that civilians are not responsible for the actions of their government and therefore should be afforded the opportunity to learn and grow. Some digs are still thrown at RainWings, but at least now it seems like that's more an effort to show that learned biases take time to correct than an attempt to still be racist in spite of knowing better.
For a middlegrade book, The Dark Secret does a decent job of showing that war criminals should take responsibility for their actions, accept the punishment they deserve for their crimes, and then make reparations and do better. Plus, it certainly doesn't try to paint the situation as black and white. Meeting others with hatred instead of understanding breeds more war and we certainly don't need anymore of that!
For a middlegrade book, The Dark Secret does a decent job of showing that war criminals should take responsibility for their actions, accept the punishment they deserve for their crimes, and then make reparations and do better. Plus, it certainly doesn't try to paint the situation as black and white. Meeting others with hatred instead of understanding breeds more war and we certainly don't need anymore of that!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism
Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Chronic illness, Infertility, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Abandonment
bean71615's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
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? It's complicated
5.0
spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler
My favorite par was whe oche saw clay
My favorite par was whe oche saw clay
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death
_kael_'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? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Loved it. Might be a tie to my fave WoF book so far, book 2. To me there were no "stagnant" moments in book 2, but for me book 4 in the middle felt a bit slow but understandable. Part of me felt a bit like the "what's gonna happen?"-type mystery trope is getting overused in the series for a bit. In the end it didn't really feel rushed which I appreciated. I love the connection of the NightWings and RainWings between book 3 & 4, and the flow of things are very clear and simple between the books. I also like Starflight's character "development", but I would describe it more as character "realization". I also like how they didn't go with the trope of not telling their crush how they felt or smth similar to that. I really liked Starflight's character overall. Based on the time gap of me reading the 4 books, my opinions of the books now might be different. I might even appreciate Starflight's character more right now than Tsunami's or Glory's. Based on my memory, I appreciate Clay, Starflight and so far Sunny. I think she is one of the best characters in the book. ππβοΈποΈπ¦β¨ I also personally think that Ma'am Tui is good at worldbuilding and describing things visually ^^ ππΌππΌπ
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism
Moderate: Genocide, Torture, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Slavery, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, and Murder