Reviews with content warning for Death - Gild

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Gild, by Raven Kennedy

90 reviews

bangiebangs's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This was dark. Darker than I expected tbh, so heed the CNs - this has a lot of uncomfortable elements.

Spoiler

The fact that the king's harem are called "saddles", or that this is also the term for any sex worker ("wh*re" is used a lot) isn't the worst, but there are scenes very close to rape, and one that is a quite detailed rape scene).

The one thing that bothers me the most is the relationship between Auren and the king tbh. I'm not on bord with seeing this as anything but exploitative.

Spoiler

In the backstory, we learn that they started their relationship when he rescued her from an abusive situation (sexual trafficking is implied), and they start a relationship when she is 15 and he is "seven years older". Even if the story picks up 10 years later than that, this still makes this something that starts as an adult/minor pairing... so her sexual desire for him... ew.

I found the pacing a little uneven as it takes a long time to set the scene: I was more than 100pp in before I felt this picking up steam or having much of a story- this is an issue throughout. While there are some nice minor twists in there I think this book mainly sets up the second one and does some basic world-building. Also some serious emotional gut-punch moments, so yeah, this one is not exactly uplifting.

This is also not a romance, dark or otherwise. There is no romance in this book. Maybe the next? But if you're looking for dark romantasy spice... this ain't it.

Be aware that this ends in a cliffhanger.
Spice level wasn't there for me - there is a lot of sexual content, but the way it's described doesn't really do much for me. Not that every book needs this, but in this one the sex is so often mixed with abuse or dubious (/absent) consent that it's not exactly something I can enjoy.

All in all, a dark but enticing read, though one that will might make you uncomfortable at times. I'll continue with the series and see how it goes.

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clemway's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

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midnacine's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny 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? Yes

4.5

Third time reading the series, first time listening to the audiobook. My initial review is somewhere on here. But can I just say the male narrator (Blake Lockhart) is absolute perfection. He only read one chapter and yet I'm in love with him. I can't wait to hear him as [redacted] in the later books.

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jordanez's review against another edition

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challenging medium-paced

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

2.5

No plot in sight with this book.

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kiirsekrein's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

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

1.0

God, those ~400 pages had been the most boring ones so far because nothing really happens. The majority of the book is Auren's musings and ramblings about being Midas' pet and snippets from their/her past.

Did I feel sorry for her and the other "saddles" (I still wonder why saddle when nothing else has to do with horses or riding in Midas' kingdom.)? Yes. Was I still absolutely annoyed by them? Hell yes.

After 80% something happens because the Love Interest appears and of course he’s fae. Why is every dude in a fantasy novel a fae nowadays?

Also, it’s rather blatant that it isn’t Midas who holds the power over the gold but Auren. I mean the girl is already named after the chemical symbol for gold (au).

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regent_ace's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark medium-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

3.5

I did enjoy this book and I really did liked the main character and found it easy to empathize with her plus I thought the world building was well done.

However this book is pretty intense and graphic in some parts where it kinda made me ask why the author added it especially the sexual assault being really graphic was unnecessary.

Spoiler

As well as I found the way Midas treated Auren really gross and I do understand from what I heard is that he isnt the love interest so thank god cause if he was I would've definitely dropped the series due to me not wanting to read a toxic/abusive romance

Spoiler

I will continue on cause I overall did like the story and lots of reviews I've seen says that it only gets better. But I definitely agree that this book is not for everyone

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micaelamariem's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

This book was well written with an intriguing plot and great worldbuilding that had me flirting through chapters. However, there was too much on page sexual violence that we were only sometimes supposed to abhor as readers. The main character definitely has Stockholm syndrome and I don’t think that’s going to be addressed. I’m just so afraid we’ll see more toxic relationships develop as the series goes on but perhaps something will surprise me!

Content Warnings