Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

22 reviews

perfectcupoftea's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Torture

reddeddy's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Racism, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Genocide, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Grief, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Minor: Biphobia, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Pregnancy, Outing, Cultural appropriation, and Sexual harassment

bobbyeight's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I am unwell. Just couldn't put the book down, it's 1am and now I don't know what to do with my life 😂 (thankfully I have book 2 to jump into)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Trafficking

Minor: Rape and Death of parent

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

When I read this one, I was convinced I found the next best epic fantasy featuring people that may look like me and I hadn't had that since Sabaa Tahir's Ember of Ashes series and I was right. I loved this from the very start, completely hooked with every fiber of my being. The characters are immensely flawed and complex and I admit getting annoyed with a few of them probably more than others but that didn't make me love this series any less. Hell, even with my least favorite trope (a potential love triangle/corner), I couldn't put this down. So glad I started to read this when the whole series was finished because this does have a cliffhanger ending and I was screaming into the void when I got to it and went straight into holding the next one at the library. S.A. Chakraborty has become my new favorite of 2023. This is sure to be a reread in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Racism, Religious bigotry, and War

Minor: Death of parent

ka_ke's review

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Body horror, Cursing, Misogyny, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Rape, Death of parent, and War

mdbresh's review

adventurous emotional funny 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

4.0

Adventurous and exciting. Love the whole trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

inez_hunter's review

adventurous emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Death of parent, War, and Classism

Minor: Misogyny

bessadams's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Classism

kat1105's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

CW: violence and war and emotional anguish and things.

I tackled this book as part of a book club (Lighthouse Library thicc bois :) ). It wasn't something I had heard of before that. It starts off set in Cairo with a young woman of unknown origin who is a theif, swindler and survivor, and who has a mysterious healing talent and the ability to understand languages, which she hides to avoid people thinking her a dangerous witch.

Her world is upended when she utters some words of power while doing a faith healing scam, and unexpectedly summons something to her. This leads to her and a big scary soldier guy on the run from murderous ghouls and ifrits. She learns of the world of Daeva and Djinns and journeys to find sanctuary in a magical hidden city, all the while being hunted and tracked by mysterious forces and magical creatures.

Having read a children's translation of the Persian epic Shahnameh, some of the creatures and names were familiar to me.  I did keep wondering if Nahri's uncle had an epic warhorse called Rakhsh. I find that I clearly have a lot more grounding in the myths of the Pacific Islands, the Mediterranean, Europe and the British Isles, and need to read more mythic stories from other parts of the world. This story weaves together myth from many places in Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, South and East Asia. Thematically it pits Tradtions, family, individualism, duty, and survival together in a story that sets up a world that I feel is yet to be explored and played in. That's quite a big book for an intro!

The main character is antiheroic. She is a thief, a liar, and a con-artist. She is used to not having a lot and needing to swindle what she can, and so she is out of her depth when she is cast into a palace with opulence at all turns. She is under no illusions that everyone has their own agenda, and that appearances are often skin-deep. It can make for slippery footing as you try to come to grips with a story where there are centuries of history, of alliances and rivalry.

As far as the elemental magic goes, it's generally coherent. The story has some curiosities but non of the "surprises" are overly so. I'm interested to wade into the world and see a little more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Cultural appropriation, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, and Excrement

Minor: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Homophobia, Dementia, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Classism