Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Defy by Sara B. Larson

3 reviews

laurenevlyn's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

2.75

God, this was so annoying to read. To be fair, I dnfed about 70% into the book, so if the writing style and the characters miraculously increase in quality in the last 30%, I wouldn’t know. What I do know is that Rylan is an annoying “nice guy”, Damian is an overly secretive brat who only cares about himself, and Alexa has no chemistry with either of them. In fact, the only characters I actually enjoyed were Marcel and Jax, one of whom dies not 10% into the book. The book tells you nothing about this “fantasy” world, if you can even call it that because the only fantasy elements are sorcerers and one single magical plant, both of which seem very important to the plot but are barely given any background or lore whatsoever. As another reviewer pointed out, we know nothing of the religions or cultures of this world, although we get many descriptions of skin color in relation to chocolate, like a lot of them. In fact, Alexa remarks on people skin tone at least once a chapter. There’s also hints of homophobia sprinkled throughout, as a treat. Additionally, the main love interest, Damian, is 23 and our main character is 17, which is pretty creepy imo. Basically every part of this book annoyed me, so I would not recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Body shaming, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, Murder, Violence, Kidnapping, and Confinement

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, and Misogyny

Minor: Homophobia, Racism, Xenophobia, Medical content, and Child abuse

frankietheavidreader's review against another edition

adventurous emotional relaxing fast-paced

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

3.25

Generic. It's like Mulan but more focused on the Romance. I like reading romance but the author just made it the main point. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, and War

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexism, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Death of parent, Murder, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, and Rape

A lot of content warnings.

egurgens's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Although a very short book, this mulan-esc story includes magic, woman-disguised-as-a-man, loss, and love. Alexa, or Alex as she is known to her other soldiers, disguised herself as a boy to avoid being sent to the breeding house, like all other female orphans. The male orphans are sent to the barracks to serve in the war. Her twin brother came up with the plan, as she was already a better swordsman than him, and was easy enough to pull off, when she was initially 14. As she makes her way through the ranks, she and her brother get placed in the prince-guard, to protect the crown prince from harm. Her body has continued to develop, resulting in her struggle to bind her breasts, hide her curves, and lower her voice. She is the best of the elite guard, and the time comes when the prince is threatened, and she is responsible for his watch. Through her years of guarding him, Prince Damien has always seemed lazy, smug, and pretentious. However, she gets to know him better, and actually begins to not hate him. When enemy sorcerers come to kidnap him, Alex finds herself and fellow guard Rylan taken as well, as prisoners of the sorcerer state, Blevon. Not everything is as it seems, and everyone has secrets that they are desperate to hide. Damien isn't who Alex thought he was, and it seems that everyone knows her secret. What does she do when both men in her life express affection for her? Who will she pick? How will she get Prince Damien out of Blevon and back home? What will she have to do to protect herself, and those she loves?
My only complaint is that I can’t really see how there can be a whole other book in this series. Everything seems to have been tied up in a pretty bow. The only thing left is the romantic situation, and I don’t think that requires a whole book to fix. To be determined if the other books are any good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Trafficking, Violence, and War