Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

32 reviews

jo_lzr's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I liked reading this book and I'd definitely like to read the second one, especially for Naranpa's story as she is my favorite. Iran and Xiala are also characters I care about. I like Serapio and I hope that he can find a way to escape his destiny, but I don't like The Crow God,

though I am grateful that he killed Abah and Eche!

The worldbuilding and the magic system are very intriguing and well built, even though there is more to the magic system that we haven't seen yet and I'd definitely like to see more.

I want to see Iktan's perspective about what happened after xe realized that Naranpa was kidnapped. I like xir as a character, especially after seeing that xe wasn't like the rest of the traitors. 
I also thought it very ingenious how the traitors ended up unknowingly saving Naranpa's life by scheming against her. 
Furthermore, I loved the scene when the Crow God realized that Eche didn't have the sun's essence and that the real Sun Priest was somewhere else. I would love to see Naranpa discovering her potential, though I'm guessing that she might have to share the same fate as Serapio.

 
TW: If you're sensitive to images of body horror, please read with caution as they are graphically described.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.25

This is a book I picked up because I got a recommendation of the second one and then realised I needed to read this one to catch up. Oops. 

There are three main characters. In a harsh world, a young boy is taken from his life to be turned into the vessel for a Godform. The whole story starts in abuse, physical mutilation, and sacrifice, and that's pretty harsh. Although his life is harsh it is not without love. At least the kid has his crows.

A young girl is brought up in poverty in the back streets, and through savvy and devotion she is elevated to the head of her religious sect, but her underlings aren't happy about it.

A woman of an Amazon-like minority culture, and who are said to have magical powers, is the captain of a ship that takes a strange cargo on a tight deadline,  at the wrong time of year, and she has to deal with an unruly crew, and dangerous weather.

The plot is just an underpinning though. The characters are really fun, and through the narrative there are many characters of many different genders and sexualities. There are at least two obviously NB characters with xe/xer pronouns and one side character is a trans woman. It's normalised, but not all cultures have the same attitudes toward sex, gender roles, or even nudity.

Although there is some combat and training-montage type scenes I was not bored and it was not blow-by-blow or glamorizing. The pace was good, the character interplay was fun and I bought in, and I've always been a sucker for prophecy stories... This one is hopped up on monk juice, scary mermaid energy and seriously full of crows (and crows are cool). Some of these babies are riding size.
Where's MY crow mount?? ok I'm off to read the second one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Genocide, and War

Minor: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Death of parent

ebp'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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War

ash_ton's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Homophobia, Suicide, Vomit, and Alcohol

alichan459's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Minor: Alcoholism, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

ayvie's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Suicide, Torture, and Death of parent

nicnevin's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I found the book very interesting but some bits more interesting than others. Xiala and Serapio were my favourites tbh. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

llyfrauginger's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cursing, Genocide, Sexual content, Suicide, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

lolajh's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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

Such a beautiful and interesting book that had each chapter being in a different place of the world in the book and a different point of view for each character, with the point of views being shown being Xiala (a queer woman), Serapio (a blind man) Naranpa (another queer woman) and a few minor chapters from Okoa’s point of view. 

Xiala was an amazing character to learn about throughout this book. A pirate captain who had to work hard to gain the respect of her peers due to her being a female captain as well as a Teek, which is a female-only race in this world. She is targeted by racism, sexism and homophobia and is very confident and accepting of all her identities. There are minor flings and attraction between her and women throughout the book, and the highlighted romance being between her and a man. Seeing a heterosexual relationship with queer characters was really interesting because of how different love is experienced compared to typical heterosexual relationships. Xiala is also so strong independent from her love interest with her own goals and ideals. Her character arc was wonderful and relatable. Loved it 

Serapio’s chapters were of great interest because of how the author describes his perception of the world being blind. This is done so well that when the chapter ends and switches to a different character I am still experiencing Serapio’s blindness and get confused on why appearances of things are being described because of how immersed and realistic his blindness is conveyed. Serapio’s disability also does not in any way weaken him; he is a strong physical fighter often underestimated by his opponents and him being able to see again is never a goal of his - it’s just accepted which was lovely to see.

Then Naranpa, my beautiful underrated queer ball of sunshine. In many reviews she is described as naive, which she can come across as at some points, but I just think she is a person trying to see the best in everyone and just has a lot of bad things happen to her. I love her very much. Naranpa’s chapters were also interesting because of her assassin ex-lover Iktan who is nonbinary and goes by xe/xir pronouns that are never disrespected by the characters except for

at the end where Okoa describes xir as a woman which I personally think took away a lot of xir character and I can’t really understand why the author decided to put that in

Iktan is  my absolute favourite character of this book. Xir character was so interesting because of how badass and talented and feared xe is and if ONLY we got an Iktan pov so I could know how xe thinks and seeing xir having a character arc with different ideals that aren’t just what Naranpa thinks xe is thinking. There were also several more nonbinary and trans characters in this book going by they/them or xe/xir. One of these characters, Powageh, explained xir identity as being a “third gender” which wasn’t my favourite wording of it as it puts a binary onto something that is literally not binary. Something like “neither man nor woman” would have been better phrasing, but gender can feel different for everyone and if “third gender” feels like the right wording for xir then to each their own. Anyway, still loved this book and the diversity of the poc and queer characters all in a fantasy and science fiction world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Transphobia