Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Last Sun by K.D. Edwards

24 reviews

jnb_reads's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.0

Interesting world building and I like the characters and plot. But the infrequent memories and discussion of sexual violence against a 15 yo really pulled me out of the book. Just not for me

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Torture

banannafox's review

adventurous emotional funny 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? Yes

5.0

Love this book! The world is fascinating. A great modern fantasy with magic and mystery. 

This was a reread and I loved it all over again. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Rune often uses fire attacks on enemies.

Several years prior to the start of the book Rune’s family estate was attacked. During the attack his father was killed and Rune was tortured and sexually assaulted by 9 people wearing animal masks. This is mentioned a few times in the book mostly very briefly and generally with very few details. However there is a moment towards the end when Rune and Addam are in the Westlands where they are attacked by Rurik in which Rurik casts a spell and briefly makes Rune re-live memories of that event. During this incident Rune is distressed and is getting ready to use a spell that will kill him and everyone around him so that it doesn’t happen again. He is rescued before he does so. Later, at the end when confronting Ashton, Ashton reveals he was one of the masked people who attacked Rune and gives some details of the event to prove he was there.

lanid's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Sexual harassment

tvessel's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Torture

faehistory's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A good read with likeable characters. The mystery is well constructed and the action sequences are well executed. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Eating disorder, Rape, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

startledred's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

This book is… good? I feel like my love of tarot is doing some heavy lifting, but I did like it enough to read the rest of the series. Quinn is the superior character and I love him. I do wish they would speak to Any Women

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Torture

ash2app's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Torture

Minor: Gore, Suicidal thoughts, and Kidnapping

cgn's review

4.5

Every action scene (and there were a lot) was fantastic, and the mysteries were really intriguing. Check TW

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Animal death and Eating disorder

xaniya's review

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.0

For a book so incredibly dense with action and heavy, deep world building, it felt like glimpsing a city through the window of a bullet train: fast enough for glimpses, rushing from one thing to the next.

I never got bored, but there was so much information and things moving, getting picked up and put down and thrown around, that it's a mystery I ended up finishing this book calmly instead of annoyed by all the loose ends. If anything, Last Sun feels like the longest prologue ever to an action-urban fantasy series. 

Still, though fast-paced narrative usually isn't for me, I'm tempted to know what happens next. I like the characters, as quick as I had to be to learn them all (and there are A Lot). Brand is my favorite. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

comfycryptid's review

adventurous dark funny tense fast-paced

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

1.5

I might be an outlier when I say I think this book is a mess.  From the convoluted plot to the unlikable characters to the world-building; it all felt like one giant, overwhelming infodump.  You will spend most of this book confused and not sure what's happening but not in a way that felt at all rewarding by the end.

This book is extremely fast paced but that may be it's downfall because it made for a lot of confusion and throwaway world building.  K.D. Edwards does excel at dialogue, I will give him that!  His banter is funny and it made me exhale harshly out of my nose a few times. Reading the action and the explanations of the magic system, which I STILL don't feel like I understand at all, felt jarring and overwhelming in comparison.  

Also there's some quirky little body shaming moments, misogyny, and a little racist throwaway line which was very cool of this white male author to do.

The book leaves you with a StIcK aRoUnD aNd FiNd OuT for MOST of the interesting/infuriating(see spoiler) plot points.  And there was so many untied and badly executed threads I truly don't even care to read the rest of the series.

Spoilers ahead (trigger warning for graphic sexual assault and rape of a minor):

The villain reveal barely felt like a reveal.  My friend put it well when they called it a "Scooby-Doo ass reveal." I had to go back and recheck who was who because some of these characters were so forgettable or swept away in other explanations of other things that I genuinely didn't know who they were.  

Also soulbound soulmates is my favorite trope and SOMEHOW I still hated the "romance".  They had no chemistry and it leaves you on an unexplained cliffhanger that I don't even CARE to try and read the second or third book to find out.  You literally create a universe where characters' souls are intertwined and you mAyBe intertwined the 2 characters who have 0 chemistry.  Nice.  

Then we come to my BIGGEST gripe.  The rape plot.  The rape as a plot device was handled poorly.  In fact, it felt barely handled - just thrown at you a few times.  Then it slaps you with the weirdest couple of sex scenes to drive the point home that Rune is extremely traumatized some more I guess?  It doesn't truly get resolved in this book so if you need a resolution or some sort of unpacking you don't get it in this book.  I don't need to read the next 2 books to know this plot point will get stretched out even more and that feels really inappropriate.

I do feel bad ripping into this book so hard because it is very obvious that the author put his heart and soul into it. HOWEVER, the execution was not there for me.  Maybe it's me, because I've read so many glowing reviews that I genuinely wasn't sure I was reading the same book as everyone else.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Misogyny and Racism