Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

9 reviews

stephanieviolet's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Addiction, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Vomit, Trafficking, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcoholism, Body horror, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Colonisation, and War

amateur_bookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense 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

5.0

Genre: Fantasy, romantasy, fiction 

My summary: Bryce Quinlan is a half-fae half-human party girl living in Crescent City. Her roommate and best friend since college is Danika Fendyr, a powerful wolf shifter that will someday lead her pack. The two are inseparable, as well as with Danika’s pack, until gruesome murders occur that rock Bryce’s world to her core. Two years later, when another similar murder occurs, Bryce finds herself pulled into the investigation to try to find the killer and avenge the deaths of those closest to her. Bryce is saddled with Hunt Athalar, the Shadow of Death, a fallen angel and a slave to the Archangels, in the investigation. In a world ruled by the Asteri and governed by the Archangels, the constant war between the Vanir and the humans set a backdrop of Bryce and Hunt trying to save Crescent City in their quest for vengeance. 

My thoughts: Wow. Just….. wow. I really don’t know why I waited so long to read this one. I absolutely loved Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses series. But then I really didn’t enjoy her Throne of Glass series so I just put off starting Crescent City, figuring I’d wait until closer to the third book coming out in January 2024. I was worried the hype around this series was too much, but, no, no, so far the first book is as fantastic as everyone said it was. This is some serious fantasy. I’m generally not too much of a fantasy reader and the world building in this is A LOT. I knew on page 20 (out of 799 pages) that I would definitely have to re-read this again to even begin to really understand all of it, which feels really daunting at that point of a book this long. I had literally no idea what was happening through the first third of the book. If you find yourself in the same boat, just keep pushing through and it is so, so worth it. The last of the book is so intense and I literally cannot wait to start on the next one in the series to keep going with it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Gun violence, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Death of parent, Alcohol, and War

mads_reads_books's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious sad 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: Death, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Suicide attempt, and War

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Police brutality, Trafficking, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ladydeathnesta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring 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

5.0

I feel like I’m cheating on Silver Flames because I don’t know if I like this one better.

I love them equally.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Medical content, Dementia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation, and Pandemic/Epidemic

kam_be's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

Minor: Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Trafficking, Car accident, and Death of parent

siennakt30's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

msradiosilence's review against another edition

challenging emotional slow-paced

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

0.25

I would’ve given this book a 0 or if it was possible. For FUCK’S sake.

Okay, first of all, I love swearing. It’s the most fun a girl can have. But dropping a fuck word, twice, on every page is excessive. And unnecessary. 

Speaking of unnecessary, I don’t think there was a SINGULAR person who wasn’t described as beautiful (female) or powerful (male). And the amount of times Hunt or Bryce were described as such?? What the fuck. Also, stop with the racial ambiguousness. Hunt and Bryce are white, not *golden*, not *tan* these bitches are white. I think the only two “brown” people were Juniper (maybe? After 800 pages you forget what happens) and another person I’m forgetting bc it was a brief encounter and I was beyond fed up at that point. It’s not hard to diversity your characters, especially in a fantasy world you made yourself. Stop being ambiguous and say it with your whole chest.

Also, the amount of “toe curling” and nonsense that was happening was unacceptable. Not that Maas knows ANYTHING about anatomy, especially writing lines like “vital arteries.” ??? You mean ALL arteries?? Because I can assure you they’re ALL vital. I’m also calling bullshit on Bryce double fisting a sword and a rifle (which, you get no details. It’s just “Hunt’s rifle.” What kind of rifle? One you need to cock *and* can use one handed? I think the fuck not). And correct me if I’m wrong, but Bryce as a half-Fae is reminded time and again she’s not as strong as the other Vanir so how is she cutting down demons (who Hunt states he fought and BARELY survived ONE) one handed? Huh?

Coming from a forensics background too, the investigation was a hot fucking mess. Nitpicky, but DNA analysts (what I’m studying to be) don’t actually go into the field. The only people at a crime scene are the police, CSI, and nosy nellys. It’s the basics, anything you can google. And this had to be the most boring murder I’ve ever read about, with conclusions that literally anyone could’ve come to in half the time it took Hunt and Bryce, who are the dumbest people on the planet.

Bryce is the reason people who know the victims/people of interest are not allowed anywhere near the case.

For a book set in ONE city, this world has absolutely no meat. If you copy and pasted any passage from ToG about any of their cities, same for ACOTAR, they wouldn’t read any different. I had friends in my undergrad who could world build so much better, and in less than 800 pages!! How can you write 800 fucking pages and not actually say a fucking thing???

Go to therapy. I know Maas said it was great and then immediately shit on it, but Bryce is in no way a role-model. If you are having thoughts about self-harm, unaliving yourself, you need to seek out help. It’s such a dangerous message to put out, especially as a well-known author, that you can just “deal” and you “deserve the pain” and “taking it away is forgetting the ones you’ve lost”. If it’s so serious

your friends are talking you off a roof

you need help. Please call a professional. 

I finished this book out of pure spite. There was ONE character I actually cared about (Aidas) and that’s bc I have a hangup about death and darkness gods, etc. Will I read the next one? Not immediately, and I won’t be buying it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

mfsquared's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense 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

4.5

I came to this book after finishing the ACOTAR series, so I'll open by saying it was somewhat jarring to go from there to here given how different the worlds are; that being said, it didn't take long for this world to completely reel me in! The similarities/analogs with certain powers and characters in ACOTAR was a little distracting at times, but I came to really enjoy this book and its characters for themselves. The tone to me felt very gritty, fantasy crime/mystery-novel, which was fun and different (and also very dark). The twists and turns were really well executed and kept me guessing, and I loved the care paid to the power of love in relationships that are *not* romantic. Those were the ones that really got to me here, especially between Bryce and Danika, Bryce and Ruhn, and Bryce and Lehabah. As usual, there were far too many "golden-skinned" characters and mainly white MCs, which seems to be a real weakness of Maas's books, as is her LGBTQ rep, although there was some in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, and Medical trauma

Minor: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Trafficking

annarose816's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, and Trafficking