Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

19 reviews

scorttarius's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring fast-paced

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

4.5

I went in expecting this book to be a lot all the other fantasy books but it was more dystopian than anything and I loved it. It even got me to look past a double love triangle if you think about it and I HATE that trope 😅. It reminded me a lot of Hunger Games and even though I haven’t fully finished Game of Thrones I can see why people would relate it as such. The chapters were short and so it was easy to get through. I finished in 5 hours. I cannot read to read the next book in the series

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Abandonment, Body horror, Slavery, Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, and Physical abuse

shortsweet123's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This book is a trip, there’s a lot of intense things that happen. Without spoiling anything I’ll just say that every character in this book suffers in some way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Body horror, Death, Murder, and Blood

amandalorianxo's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective slow-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

4.5

This is the first book in a fantasy series I should have started reading a long time ago but I'm glad I was able to pick this up when it was available. The world building didn't leave me feeling lost or confused (although some titles I might have to list again so I don't get the individual groups confused.) Elias and Laia are great on their own as characters and I can't wait to see where the rest of the series takes them next :) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse and Child abuse

Moderate: Grief, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Blood, Death of parent, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Forced institutionalization

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

chloenk_1011's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Murder, Body horror, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Rape, Violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death of parent, Misogyny, Blood, Sexual harassment, and War

bookswithkoda's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child abuse, Body horror, Classism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Torture

Moderate: Abandonment

kkenna7's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

Good enough to make me wanna read book two, especially in the last third of it. Helene is an absolute nightmare of a character but I suppose that's on purpose so who can be mad, really. Curious to see how the rest of the series turns out!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Classism, Murder, Physical abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Sexual harassment, and Slavery

angstifies's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.5

i apparently did not like this as much as many people did but oh well. the world building was terrible, i was exited to read about a fantasy world inspired by the Roman Empire and except from the somewhat latin names we get none of that.

the narrators and characters were so annoying, the main characters are 17 and 21 but i felt like i was being told a story by a fucking child.

but the absolute worst thing about this book was the <b>overuse of misogyny and sexual violence against women.</b> i get it, some books’ worlds and settings are sexist but it was so overused. there are so many mentions of rape/threats of rape when it’s not even needed, and it was absolutely pointless. and the sexism was absolutely disgusting, even the male main character himself is so fucking misogynistic and constantly objectifies the “love interests”, i could not believe this was written by a woman. 

i’m gonna make examples that infuriate me about <b>Elias specifically and his misogyny:</b> using “don’t act like a girl” as a degrading insult to Helene (a woman) SO MANY TIMES, even in his internal monologue + saying things like “oh they’re women! that’s how they are!”, shut the fuck up. sexualising both Laia and Helene basically always. feeling bad for a literal abusive RAPIST. letting marcus win knowing that now he can do whatever he wants with Helene and she can’t say no to him, all for a girl with no personality he met less than 2 months ago.

the characters were almost always insufferable and the romance was shit, i at least enjoyed the overall plot and the last 80 pages were great.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Murder, Torture, Physical abuse, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Minor: Death of parent

alyssasaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Violence, Rape, Suicide, Murder, and Body horror

trazimmariju's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence