Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

22 reviews

takarakei's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.25

If you like books where no one is who they say they are and you don't know who you can trust... this is it! It's very dark, honestly I am surprised this is labeled as YA. Besides it following young adults and them all being horny teenagers, the subject matter that this deals with is very adult (see TW). I really enjoyed the dual POVs, world building, and the mysterious qualities. It is very attention grabbing and interesting right from the get-go, and it was a very unique concept. I can feel a much more intriguing plot line to come in the rest of the series...

You have a soul. It's damaged, but it's there. Don't let them take it from you...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Torture, Physical abuse, Death, Child death, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: War, Rape, Colonisation, Trafficking, Sexual assault, Genocide, Misogyny, and Grief

Minor: Abortion, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Death of parent

This is an extremely dark book hence the long list of TW Rape/SA - there is none graphic on page, but rape is referred to a lot (seems to be common occurrence in this world) and

Spoiler

a main character nearly is raped on page

shalladin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Torture, Trafficking, Blood, Child abuse, Cursing, Sexual violence, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Classism, Death, and Misogyny

andie13's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Slow start where I really didn’t like it, but then it got really good after I kept reading

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Blood, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent

nabecker13's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Abandonment, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Trafficking, and Violence

Minor: Abortion

josefinemartensson's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Torture, Slavery, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Grief, Trafficking, Death of parent, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

veeronald's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Colonisation, Violence, Rape, Child abuse, Grief, Sexual assault, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Police brutality, and Confinement

Moderate: Classism, Torture, Blood, Sexual content, Suicide, Trafficking, Genocide, Child abuse, Murder, Vomit, Bullying, Colonisation, and Death

Minor: War, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Injury/Injury detail

yagoar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? N/A

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death of parent, Slavery, Trafficking, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Rape and Abandonment

griffinthief's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Blood, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Vomit and Trafficking

bookish_kori's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

3.5

The book has a ton of high quality commentary and, though I’m not quite sure it’s in line with the booktok hype, the premise is really interesting and I’m excited to see if it gets better as the series progresses. Overall I felt it had a really strong beginning and a fairly strong ending with a lull in the middle. The focuses on the complexities of motivation, nature v. nurture, questioning those in power and their methods, and being close to people who end up forming completely different opinions and views of the world than you was super in-depth and a great read. The fact that *both* POV characters somehow required a love triangle and the way those relationships developed throughout the first book was off-putting for me, but I may be alone in that. I will be reading the rest of the series and I’m sure these characters will more than exceed my expectations from here :) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, Violence, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Torture

Moderate: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Rape, Trafficking, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Abortion, War, and Confinement

If you read modern YA or NA fantasy, this isn’t really out of line with that. Check out specific trigger warnings because there are a few that are more unique to this book than others but overall I’d say if you’ve read Stalking Jack the Ripper, Throne of Glass, A Good Girls Guide to Murder, or anything like that then this won’t be much of a stretch. Some of my trigger warnings were a little bit like “oh yeah this happened” but I didn’t notice it at the time as that thing. Specific events:

Spoiler

there’s a child whipping/execution, a description of an attempted abortion and subsequent abandonment of the infant, semi-detailed description of torture involving a knife, and two fairly detailed descriptions of loved ones being murdered (also involving blades)

It’s dark of course but not horrendous.

g4bby's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Cursing, Blood, Hate crime, Violence, Trafficking, Slavery, Murder, Genocide, War, Police brutality, and Death