Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

28 reviews

cepbreed's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-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

3.75

“We belong to each other. ”

So atmospheric and each description is as fantastical as the last. I was particularly impressed by the witch in the sod house. The sudden switch to the grotesque and horrifying caught me off guard and was truly immersive. The world building is like no other but at the same time it is convoluted and hard to keep track of. I won’t pretend that I could name a single place or character besides the main two despite dedicating days to reading this book. 

The one thing occupying my mind during the duration of my read was the fact that Gáspár is basically Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. The evil royal father casts him aside, abuses both him and his mother, and most strikingly delivers a prominent eye injury. Just like Zuko Gáspár has to become a warrior and complete an unsavory mission. He’s forced to work alongside Évike, an enemy of his determined by the wars of men that came before them, aka she represents Katara/the entire Gaang. Similarly to Zuko losing his firebending Gáspár becomes incompetent in the art of battle when he’s forced to use an axe as a woodsman rather than the sword he was used to as a prince. In both scenarios, the change in power is due to casting aside their family.

Spoiler

Even the final battle is similar. Gáspár/Zuko face their overly powerful dark sibling Nándor/Azula with the help of their former enemy-turned ally Évike/Katara.

Spoiler

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE LEFT ME WITH SO MANY THOUGHTS. As much as the act of Gáspár kneeling in front of her was sexual it brought me so much relief. Nándor constantly made lewd jokes about Évike on her knees which were meant to demean her. In the one scene where someone is on their knees in that context, it is not Évike. Even more importantly it is an expression of love, a plea for forgiveness, and a promise from Gáspár to her. So wonderful.

I can’t help myself. Whenever I read something with any remotely religious undertones I have to put on Ethel Cain. This is no exception, hence the songs I feel represent the novel.

Songs:  

• Strangers - Ethel Cain
• Compass - The Neighbourhood
• Take Me to Church - Hozier 
• Not Strong Enough - boygenius
• Dear Arkansas Daughter - Lady Lamb
• mad woman - Taylor Swift 
• The Exit - Conan Gray (“the shape of our wounds is the same” - Évike)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Classism, Death, War, and Sexual content

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Confinement

chrisljm's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

1.25

Meh. Not a fan of the narration, which read like poetry but in the way where I just don't know wtf they're talking about sometimes. The folklore is written well but it became repetitive and too drawn out, making the story drag. 

Also for all the people who recommended this book because of the romance, you had to be making shit up because the romance sucked. Not to say the romance came out of nowhere, because I knew it was going to happen, but there was absolutely no build up at all. I didn't care for any of the characters, which is besides the point because they also had no chemistry at all. I truly don't understand what Gáspár liked about Évike because she was honestly dumb as fuck. She had no common sense and no sense of self preservation. She absolutely refused to think before any of her actions, even when Gáspár explicitly explains how she'd make the situation worse. She also spends majority of the book belittling Gáspár, and constantly attacking him on how she thinks he's ashamed they've laid and slept together, even though they have so many other things to worry about. He literally tries to get her to think before doing something rash and getting them both killed and she accuses him of fearing people will found out he's no longer pure. Like be fucking fr. 

The book also touches on religious/ethical/moral themes but honestly with the messy plot and execution, flat characters, and confusing narration, I honestly don't know what the take away was supposed to be. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Antisemitism, Blood, Religious bigotry, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Abandonment, Bullying, Genocide, War, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Fatphobia, and Vomit

maresuju'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Religious bigotry, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Animal death, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Death, Genocide, Gore, Self harm, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and War

e_gracereads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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 DEVOURED this book. It is a BEAUTIFUL fantasy set in a very vivid, gorgeous world based on medieval Hungary. I love our main characters, Evike and Gaspar, despite the fact they both have very evident negative traits (very refreshing in a book!) and I felt truly seen by them both. The conflict of not only two religions but two entirely different ways of life is portrayed beautifully here, and there is so much thought provoking imagery, as well as beautiful storytelling that is utterly central to the plot and emphasizes the importance of storytelling and myth in our lives and culture. God. I could go on and on. I loved this book and I will be reading more from her. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Xenophobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, and Death

katievallin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Xenophobia, War, Vomit, Blood, Child abuse, Genocide, Death, Racism, Religious bigotry, Torture, Grief, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Gore, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Antisemitism, and Bullying

Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, and Alcohol

anastasiadreaming's review

challenging dark tense 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? It's complicated

2.0

I really wanted to love this one, and unfortunately it didn’t work out. I’m granting one star for the atmosphere, and another for Gáspár, but I’m stripping three for how nonsensical Évike’s decision-making was. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Self harm, and Lesbophobia

fuitfortuna's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

2.75

Mixed feelings on this one. 

I really liked the world building, it was interesting and I could tell that the author was really knowledgeable about the folklore that inspired the world and the magic system was intriguing.

My problems lie everywhere else. While Reid certainly is talented I often found some of the writing repetitive, the author would find a phrase she liked and rinse it multiple times within 5 pages and at times i found it very difficult to power through - i actually put the book down for almost two months when i reached the halfway point because i had no motivation to continue. 

And that’s not even to mention how this almost felt like a YA masquerading as an adult? Evike is supposed to be 25 but spends most of the book acting like she’s 16. I have no real basis for this but there were multiple times where the vibes were just incredibly YA.

The pacing was also a large issue for me the first half of the book almost moved too slow and the second half moved way too fast.

Spoiler

The book really started to pick up once they reached the city and then it felt like events were flying by. This was really unfortunate as once we meet Katalin once again and have the big battle (for some reason?) it feels so unearned that I just didn’t really care.

I also have some conflicted thoughts on the romance. I’d heard it was more of an enemies-to-lovers type of deal and to not expect it to be the main focus of the story. And while they were certainly enemies at the very start by virtue of their backgrounds, the romance actually felt very insta-love to me,

Spoiler

with little development as to why they’d grown to care for each other. Though I agree that the romance should not be the main thing you focus on, it’s difficult not to when Evike is horny for Gaspar on like every page.

Spoiler

The epilogue left me very unfulfilled, while I could understand how Evike longed to belong somewhere and loved Keszi despite her difficult history I do not understand why she would have chosen to go back there when like every single person there was terrible to her at best and actively abusive at worst.

Overall I was quite disappointed as I expected to like this a lot more than I actually did, perhaps I just built it up too much in my head. However I did still enjoy most of the book and would read some of the authors other works.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Animal death, Blood, Death, Self harm, Body horror, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Racism, Antisemitism, War, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

brianna_moye's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, and Animal death

Minor: Sexual content and War

adonis_march's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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? It's complicated

3.75

The Wolf and the Woodsman is a debut novel. It’s got the clunk of one. But by god, is it a good debut novel. For all my issues with some of the tropes in this book, and it’s pacing, and occasionally meandering plot, the latter half of this novel had my heart pounding, my stomach doing turns.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Religious bigotry, Violence, Death, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Blood, Murder, Gore, and Hate crime

Moderate: Classism, Torture, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Bullying, Self harm, Body horror, War, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Animal death, Xenophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Animal cruelty, Confinement, and Kidnapping

This is a book very much about the horrific history and acts of Christian zealotry that caused both pagan and Jewish communities to be wiped out, and echoes the centuries of fear and grief that the Jewish community has had to endure since.

r_a_bell's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

The perfect example of what a stand-alone should be! You get all of the story of a trilogy in one book. The beginning journey did seem a little pointless in the end, and I kind of wish it had been a bit shorter if it wasn’t really going to go anywhere. However, it was still enjoyable to read and didn’t feel unnecessarily drawn out. I love how realistic it was its depiction of social structures and relationships, especially in regard to religion. I also really liked the end! It didn’t wrap everything up in a neat little bow just because that’s what the author thought readers would want. The ending was realistic and true to the story, yet satisfying, and it left that little kernel of hope that everything would end up as a “happily ever after.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, Violence, Body horror, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Sexual content, Hate crime, Misogyny, Torture, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Death of parent, Physical abuse, and Antisemitism