Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Gloam by Lily Mayne

15 reviews

tragicgloom's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? No

4.25

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angelsowllibrarian's review

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adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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midnightstory's review

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dark emotional sad 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? No

4.25

my heart fucking breaks for gloam :(
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wardenred's review

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

“Why are you so concerned with freeing them? They’re not your problem. They’re not our problem.”
I bristled. “That’s the point. No one else is going to help them.”

Full disclosure, I didn't expect to like this book all that much and just braced myself to power throw it on my way to the one installment in this series I really want to get to (Moth, because I fell in love with the titular character back in The Rycke). I just didn't want to miss out on the overarching plot! I totally didn't expect Gloam to become such a strong contender for my favorite book in the series, but somehow, it snuck up on me. The further I read, the more invested I became.

I love how the series gets plottier and plottier as it moves along. This book is so different from Soul Eater with all of its slice-of-life-ish walking through the Wastes. Stakes! Tension! Seriously messed-up villains! The journey kept getting more and more exciting, and the resolution was pretty satisfying while still living lots of cool threads to follow later in the series. I also loved getting so much lore, both about life in the Wastes and all the tidbits about the monster realm.

The romance took its time to grow on me; on one hand, I enjoyed seeing the bond between Adam and Gloam grow and appreciated how the power imbalance that went both ways between them was handled. And all the communication through notes added an interesting touch. On the other hand, the spark for me just didn't seem to be there (the spark between me and their story, not between the characters themselves). But then in the second half of the book I found myself really shipping them. That tender scene next to the villain's corpse being eaten by the monstrous pet is going to live in my head rent free for a while, I'm telling you, and not just because of the stark contrast.

I am also absolutely enamored by Adam/Rig. I liked him in the previous book, too, but as a narrator he really opens up, and I love love love his personality. He's the best kind of good guy: the sort who will do the right thing even if he knows it's beyond the scope of his abilities, because it needs to be done, damn it, and no else cares to do it, so might as well be him. The world would honestly be a much better place if more of us adopted that outlook. That's my hill and all.

So, yeah, I've had plenty of fun with this one and I'm excited for what comes next!
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inadequacyinabucket's review

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

4.0

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hariboreads's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? No

5.0

Wow what an amazing read. Loved the love story of Adam and gloam. Adams willingness to do such risky things to free him and act so selflessly. Was a hard read in places due to the treatment of gloam by his captor. You learn a lot about the darker side of the wastes in this one and definitely some stomach churning moments. Top July read for me
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whatthefridge's review

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dark emotional hopeful medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

Every time I think I won’t be into the dynamic or characters, I’m proved wrong. Rig and Gloam make an interesting combo, with Rig not being as annoying and Gloam not being as stoic as I worried they’d be. Plus all their sex scenes had some weigh to them, with anything extraneous or wrong-timing being avoided. 

Beginning is slow because its retreading beats from the previous book. Considering I just finished the previous book, it felt repetitive even though I understand why it was necessary. Once it got past that point, my interest was piqued again.

I was half expecting Ghost and Aury to come swooping in to help Rig and Gloam. But I’m glad that their paths didn’t converge until after the fact. It gave room for Rig and Gloam to shine on their own, which they thoroughly did.

I'm very much enjoying all the pairings in this series as well as the worldbuilding. 

Admittedly, my biggest nagging thought about aytorins as a species
could come off as gender essentialism, but hear me out. The whole concept of "male" and "female" is created by humans. So having Gloam describe how female aytorins impregnate the males defeats the purpose of why humans differentiated “male” and “female” in the first place. Even with seahorses, the one we label as female has its eggs fertilized by the one we label as male, who then carries the eggs to term. It would make more sense for Gloam to describe himself as functionally a female of his species, but I think the author was just trying to flip the script without digging into the implications.
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smuttymcbookface's review

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adventurous 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

3.75

Although the start and middle of this book is just as good as it's predecessors, there's something about the latter half that was a bit of a let down.

I loved the backstory to Gloam; finding out, piece by piece, that he's a caring being who can't the situation he's in. It was Adam that I found a little too much.

Additionally, the epilogue for this one felt quite detached from the romance, and Gloam's retelling of his past would have fit better into one of the dialogues, such as when he was explaining things to Aury.

Despite all of this, it was still an adorable read (or reread in my case), and a solid 3.75/5.
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onlyonebookshelf's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful slow-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? No

4.0

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unsuccessfulbookclub's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

This is maybe the sweetest but also scariest in the series yet. I enjoyed the mix of raider camp and journey story lines and I loved how Rig and Gloam worked together to face all of the obstacles they encountered together. Gloam is the sweetest smartest boi and Rig is so happy and dedicated to him. Love love love.

The dystopian hellscape vibe is super strong in this and there are a lot of really gory scenes so just be ready. Lily doesn’t pull any punches with this installment. The body horror and blood/trauma is especially graphic.
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