Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

King of Immortal Tithe by Ben Alderson

10 reviews

akinnunen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

The author does a lot of telling without showing, which spoils the enjoyment of getting to know the characters. The idea was original and interesting, just poorly executed. I also did not enjoy

when Arlo literally turned into a vampire. I felt like the vampires didn’t fit well into this Fae and Human world. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if it was just a sickness or the author came up with a different name for them. (Yes I realize this is the second book in a series, but this one is advertised as a stand-alone mythology retelling)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Child death and Death of parent

jneverland's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Genocide

mrshays's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit and Death of parent

kimduindam's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Loved it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Vomit, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Death of parent

notpresent22's review against another edition

dark medium-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

4.0

I really enjoyed this book. Even more than the previous instalment in the series and was fascinated to have the original plot be so relevant to the story of this book. 

All I have to say is pages 270-272 I may have read multiple times already 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Sexual assault

Sexual assault is implied

fanboyriot's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

Read For:

🖤 Dark Romance

💘 Forced Proximity

😘 Enemies to Lovers

🧚‍♂️ Fantasy (Fae and Vampires)

🥀 Hades and Persephone Vibes

Absolutely such a cute book.  I love the characters, the plot, and the world building.  It was all so good.

Usually I struggled to read high fantasy but this was such an easy and entertaining read I read this in two days.  It was such an enjoyable book.

Grumpy touch starved fae that kills everything he touches (literally) meets a dying human who is able to get away with touching death himself.  Faenir was such a lovely character, Arlo was his perfect match for sure.  Their dynamic was written so perfectly.

Release Date: 26, March 2024

POV: Switching, First Person

Spice: 🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️

Rep: LGBTQIA+ Characters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Chronic illness and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Grief, and Death of parent

20sidedbi's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Alcohol

jaydarjoker's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

don’t use spit as your only lube, even if you’re fictional creatures. practice safe sex kids.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Terminal illness

Moderate: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

sammysammsam's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Terminal illness and Injury/Injury detail

FYI, my tags i marked for this story err on the side of assuming the reader is sensitive to

graphic description of real time dead and decaying human bodies, callus and emotionally abusive lovers (not our main pair), and to descriptions of what is considered a terminal illness with no real cure.

mallorypen's review

dark slow-paced

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

Just, no.

The narration was AWFUL. Same inflection for every single sentence, weird pauses, strange choices for character voices … awful.

Even had the narrator been fabulous, though, the book itself was a hot mess. The premise was so promising - queer, fae retelling of Hades and Persephone? Hell yes! Main human character fighting a terminal illness by drinking vampire blood? Hardcore! And yet, this book was all over the place.

I couldn’t figure out Arlo’s character. He starts as over-protective and desperate (makes sense given the circumstances) but then doesn’t spend any time at home with his sister, the object of his desperate protection, because he’s having a situationship with a man who he doesn’t care for and who doesn’t care for him, either. 

Then, he actively hates/plots against/attempts to assassinate the person who kidnaps him AFTER killing three people in front of him without remorse … which again, makes sense … until all of a sudden he’s like “but he’s hot and the sex is good” and then all seems forgiven. Arlo goes from swearing to never touching Faenir and denying him the one thing Faenir wants most, to having him over every surface in the span of a chapter. I think the author tried to have the sister give the tragic backstory to be the point where Arlo changes his mind about Faenir, but it was all tell and no show.

Faenir’s motivations also oscillate wildly, though not as badly as Arlo does. But the trope of only being able to touch one person and that person being the one you fall in love with can be well done, but it just felt yucky in this case.

The family dynamics were tired; there was never an explanation of how the other humans were compelled to kill Arlo; and there was no payoff or repercussion for Arlo keeping his illness a secret from Faenir. Faenir’s sudden ability to touch living things safely after assuming the throne - a significant change, given the entire plot leading up to it - was brushed over as an afterthought. 

All in all - good concept, horrible execution. This felt like sloppy writing with poor characterization and low narrative payoff. The weird narration did nothing to help the  quality of the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

Moderate: Terminal illness and Murder