Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

Il risveglio by J.R. Ward

12 reviews

witcheep's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.0

I've first read this book about ten years ago (and it was written almost 20 years ago!), and on this reread the story was as captivating as I remembered. Nowadays it might be put into the spicy romantacy genre, and as such it fits multiple popular tropes (e. g. mates, touch-her-and-die) and feels delightfully multidimensional and fresh: the FMC isn't a helpless damsel in distress even though she is introduced to a whole new world of vampires and needs guidance.

The worldbuilding is interesting and the plethora of characters is well-rounded with interesting multidimensional personalities. Especially disability is written very respectfully as a normal part of the characters' lives into the plot. I think I'll reread the series further soon.

It is worth mentioning, though, that some of the wordings and mindsets especially around lgbtq+ community (

brief mentions/slurs in dialoque

) and women's standing in the society (both in human and vampire ones; women characters are either

innocent as virgins, mothers/spouses or whores

) feels very prejudiced and condemnatory at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use, Gun violence, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

whiskis's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

The first book of one of my fav sagas ever, what else is there to say? It's just so unique the way JRWard tells this story, the complexity of the world and the way it develops it's just awesome in a full new way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use and Alcohol

Minor: Police brutality

jamiebrito's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

glutenfreemaggie's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

scarlet_frost's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This is a great classic 90s PNR, It has action, multiple POVs, A love story, and a HEA, while leaving room for many many sequels. If you like early Dresden files or other similar books, you’ll enjoy this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Murder

elwyn_k's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual violence, Police brutality, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Drug use

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

I don't really know what to say about this book.  It's the first one I managed to pick up and finish in a while so it had that going for it but part of that might have been that I wanted to see where the trainwreck go.

So many things were conveniently coincidental.  It was full of tropes that I hate, like fridging, dubious consent, insta-lust/love, etc...

The take on vampires was different I suppose but the secret society based enemy was decidedly wacky.  Will not be continuing the series.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infertility, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

marareading'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I really enjoyed this. It is a fun vampire romance. I loved the new take that the vampires don't feed on humans, I haven't seen that in a vampire story before. I also liked that there were the cops, the humans,  the lessers, and the vampires. All balanced and all had a different part of their story. They all came together we'll. It has a great balance of plot and spice.

this story is mainly about Beth. She is an orphan. Half human, half vampire. Yet she doesn't know it. Wrath has been charged to look after her and protect her as she goes through a potential change to a vampire, which is 50/50 at this point given her parentage. As the story escalates, we learn more about the brotherhood, Wrath, The lessers, and the history of the vampires. 

I really enjoyed this and I will definitely continue the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, and Murder

pvbobrien's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Drug use, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Torture, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

kalira's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail