Reviews tagging 'Death'

Hotel Magnifique by Emily J. Taylor

35 reviews

palmkd's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted 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

5.0

This story has spirited away and howls moving castle vibes. Definitely recommend for fans of The Night Circus or Caraval. Come visit hotel Magnifique and see if the magic is truly marvellous or what dark secrets are hiding behind it. The hotel travels around this world which features lots of interesting places. There's a ton called Skaadi which reminds me of a expensive mythical Norway.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, and Death

Moderate: Kidnapping

Memory loss, eye removal

arturo_luzen's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

katvou's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Death of parent, and Alcohol

zailun's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? No

4.0

TWS: Death, torture, gore, violence, blood, emotional abuse, death of a parent.

I have conflicting thoughts about this. I was really into the book at the beginning, but I started to lose interest and didn't care for much when I reached the latter part of the first half because of repetitive scenes and inner monologues by the mc. However, I was more immersed in the second half of the book as this is where the mysteries of the hotel and about Jani began to unfold and where the action really begins. ALSO, again with the age gap? Stop.

First of all, I adored the writing. Along with the amazing world-building and brilliantly written and extensive descriptions of the hotel and its enchanted rooms, it's the type of writing that I look for when reading fantasy because I want to be able to use my imagination, and I really, REALLY wanted to like this. It definitely reminded me of Hotel Del Luna (a great K-drama that everyone should watch), and it had the potential to be a really great story-I mean it is I just personally felt it lacking.

Jani, the mc, was the first and main reason I didn't enjoy this as much as I wanted to. She is excruciatingly annoying, like a lot of protagonists I've read, and I could've given her some slack because I understood her love for her sister, but girl wanted everything to go her way WITHOUT EVEN THINKING OF THE CONSEQUENCES. She literally cares about no one and is oblivious to the repercussions of her actions as long as she can do what she believes is reasonable. She acts rashly and its like she doesn't see the danger in that mindset. And then she regrets and feels bad after the damage has been done, but she does it again because it is something she needs to do when she could just wait??? I also didn't see any character development.

Another reason was because there were so many characters I wanted to see more of, such as Bel (even though he had the second most appearances next to the mc, I felt like his character lacked in depth), Béatrice, Issig, Hellas, and Red, who were all far more interesting than Jani. I wanted to see more of their history and their magic or what more they could do with their artéfacts. They honestly could've made the book more engaging for me which is why I also believe I would have preferred it more if this had been told in a third person's pov, because reading it in the pov of Jani was just painful for me.

Finally, the mystery about Jani was highly predictable; there's nothing wrong with it; it just felt rushed and thrown in there forcibly, and for me it felt like it served as justification for her actions since she was "lucky" or whatever. However, I enjoyed the plot twist and how the story ended, and the beautiful writing somehow compensated for the parts I felt were lacking in the story. Overall, it's a book I'd still recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Death of parent

tspice24's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

spookily's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.75

Lovable characters: "It's complicated" because, while some of the side characters are arguably lovable, the MC is intolerable. She spends the entire novel jumping to conclusions, acting impulsively, and excusing her own behavior by claiming that her stubbornness is a virtue, even when it puts her and her sister in greater danger. She's rude, self-centered, and extremely difficult to sympathize with or root for.

Diverse characters: "It's complicated" because the author has a weird obsession with showing off how many colors she can list for skin tones. Every single unnamed side character is described by some inane set of words like "the copper-skinned boy," "mocha" "olive" "porcelain" etc. etc.. It essentially feels like she is just filling the room with as many "diverse" looking characters as possible without having to put in the work to incorporate an actual sense of diversity into the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Vomit, and Gaslighting

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Sexual content, Excrement, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism

lettigirl101's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Blood, and Classism

Moderate: Torture, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Death of parent, and Abandonment

shinypurplepants's review against another edition

mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

This was an okay debut. Some bits were formulaic and I was able to see many, many of the twists coming but overall it was an interesting premise kinda like howl's moving castle minus the whimsy and with a lot of "horror" elements added via gross visuals. The romantic subplot was my least favorite part. I didn't find the two leads supposed chemistry at all believable even before the

age gap of human minor + immortal that looks young

started bothering me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

cyanscrump's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

This was a good read. The concept was very fun and I enjoyed finding out what was going on in the hotel. 

I enjoyed the unease that continued building as the hotel was explored. Yrsa's artefact was a horrifying concept to have lurking in the back of my mind the entire time.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

brokentoes's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

Perfect blend of “Howl’s Moving Castle” and “Spirited Away”

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Murder, Gaslighting, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content