Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Daughters of Izdihar by Hadeer Elsbai

17 reviews

bea_reads_books's review against another edition

challenging emotional inspiring tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ems_book_shelf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

3.5

 i wish i did not find Nehal as selfish as i did, but nonetheless this book was a really fun read. the politics were written well, the feminine movement was exciting to read, the SLIGHT character growth in Nico was fine but i neeeed more from him. excited to continue with the next book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Moderate: Physical abuse, Violence, and Blood

stardust_heidi'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? Yes

5.0

Holy shit. Destroy the patriarchy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

silentquercus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

sammy_nor's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, and Police brutality

Moderate: Grief and Classism

Minor: Homophobia

wishbea's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.0

I nearly DNFed this book but since it's so short and I was already halfway through I decided to finish it. It wasn't the book I was expecting, I was told it was like Avatar the Last Airbender in an Egyptian-inspired fantasy world and therefore was expecting a major focus on the magic aspect. However this is a book primarily focused on politics, women's suffrage, class and female weavers stuggling to control their abilities.

As other reviews have said, the magic system is the exact same as bending in ATLA. A certain plot point was taken directly from ATLA. 

There is a reveal where the waterweaver main character Nehal  accidentally bloodweaves and bloodweaving is highly forbidden and kept secret, I'm pretty sure the reason she gets kidnapped at the end of the book is because she is a bloodweaver and she is going to be used by the enemy kingdom as a weapon.

Which unfortunately made the magic aspect fairly dull because it was too derivative, I expected inspired by ATLA not exactly the same system.

Nehal was a very irritating character, highly stubborn and I found her impossible to like as she appears to be completely disconnected from reality, failing to understand the consequences of her actions and only proceeds to get even angrier when things don't go her way. Nico barely felt like a character, he has somewhat progressive opinions in this world but he just does whatever the plot is asking of him and most of the time he's just pining after Giorgina. Giorgina was the most interesting character to me because she is far more grounded in reality than Nehal and Nico are, however she wasn't compelling.

I am not invested enough in these characters or this world to have any interest in reading the upcoming second book in this duology. Absolutely nothing is resolved by the end of this book, it is all just setup for the next book so don't expect a satisfying ending going into this.

On the positive side, I enjoyed reading a book where the setting is inspired by Egypt, the descriptions of the clothing were fascinating and the political ideas were interesting but the themes weren't married together well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Biphobia, Homophobia, Violence, Lesbophobia, and Classism

Minor: Gun violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, and War

quinnyquinnquinn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Police brutality, and Classism

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child abuse, Confinement, Grief, Abortion, and Alcohol

fromjuliereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

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

2.75

I have too many thoughts so will update with a review later. 

My biggest thought right now: not sure why the magic system was literally lifted out of Avatar the Last Airbender with the only change being "bending" called "weaving" instead...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Police brutality, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

internationalreads's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Abortion

ender24's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism