Reviews tagging War

The City of Brass, by S.A. Chakraborty

48 reviews

breadwitchery's review against another edition

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Child death, War, and Slavery

Minor: Vomit, Rape, Cursing, Child abuse, Ableism, and Pregnancy

avabarham's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Murder

Minor: Slavery

nabecker13's review against another edition

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Police brutality, Grief, Death, Child death, Trafficking, Terminal illness, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Blood, War, Violence, Sexual violence, Self harm, Homophobia, Outing, Kidnapping, and Genocide

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/injury detail, Xenophobia, War, Slavery, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Colonisation, Child death, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Racism, Misogyny, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence

stephaniemcuervo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Injury/injury detail, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Medical trauma, Slavery, Murder, Hate crime, Grief, Torture, Death of parent, Blood, Genocide, and Death

Minor: Rape

foxonabook's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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

Synopsis: During an exorcism, known as a Zar amongst the religious of Cairo, Nahri, a talented conwoman, accidentally summons  the djinn warrior Dara. Never one to believe in magic, Nahri is forced to reconsider what she understood of the world, and of herself as Dara takes her to the magical city of Daevabad where she forms an unlikely friendship with Alizayd, one of Daevabad princes with an affinity for the human world. But tensions are brewing and Nahri will have to make a difficult decision between the djinn warrior who saved her life and the new home that has so much to offer.
🧞‍♀️
Review: This has been on my TBR for over a year since I bought the trilogy with a Kobo gift voucher I’d received. I’m ashamed it’s taken me this long to finally read it because I didn’t know how much I needed a book inspired and influenced by the Middle Eastern culture until I’d read this.
🧞‍♀️
The world building is great, the characters are well rounded and the plot is not short of any action, twists or turns. I did feel like sometimes things or a character’s mood/motive shifted a little too quickly, but that’s just a minor detail.
🧞‍♀️
The only reason I’m not giving this 5 stars is because at points you could tell that this book wasn’t written by someone from the Middle East, and that broke the immersion for me. Though there is no denying that this is very well researched and clearly a labour of love, and I may be more sensitive to these things because of my own background 🤷🏽‍♀️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/injury detail, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Trafficking, Classism, Kidnapping, War, Medical content, Slavery, and Violence

relin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Medical trauma, Slavery, Violence, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, Kidnapping, Grief, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Murder, Medical content, and Genocide

Moderate: Classism, Colonisation, Hate crime, War, Outing, Alcohol, Cursing, and Self harm

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, and Xenophobia

growintogardens's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

I'm pretty sure that other than Emma (which took years before picking it up again), this is the longest I've ever taken to read a single book. I struggled with what to rate this and I know I'm in the minority, but the bad outweighs the good for me. That said, I'm invested enough to see how the tale continues and might read the next book. 

Good: Muslim characters and setting that aren't often seen, okay worldbuilding, interesting ideas. Nahri and Ali's interactions really made the last 35% of the book for me. 

The Okay: The ending was solid yes, but a lot of it was foreshadowed or predictable so I'm not sure why many reviews are raving about it. I disliked Ali a lot in the beginning, but I think he went through the most change in the end and I warmed up to him a bit. There's a hint of lgbtq rep. Nahri's background and beginning of the tale was interesting, far more interesting than the neverending travel chapters. Nahri was a bit of a mixed bag for me.

Bad: I disliked the "romance" and despite the length, it still felt like instaromance. I had a lot issues with Dara and liked him less as the book continued. This book dragged like no other book I've ever read. It feels like at least 80 pages could have been scrapped or edited down and it wouldn't have really changed the story. The war and the background I felt like should have been explained better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death, Blood, Slavery, and War

jess_yasmyn's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, War, and Sexual violence

laurenkimoto's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I do love some political intrigue fantasy 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Death, Slavery, Colonisation, Genocide, Hate crime, Murder, and War

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Injury/injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Animal death, Blood, Drug abuse, Grief, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Police brutality, and Racism