Reviews tagging 'Hate crime'

The City of Brass, by S.A. Chakraborty

15 reviews

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

The world building is rich and the characters are complex. Hard to put down! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Hate crime, Gore, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, War, Child death, Torture, Medical content, Violence, Racism, Abandonment, Blood, Alcohol, Slavery, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Alcoholism, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Child death and Rape

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

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

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

linluvsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

Fun and adventurous and well written. 
Many complex themes are explored and the perspectives of several sides are presented. This is a smart book, more than an adventurous romp (which would’ve been great as well). 
I keep telling myself not to fall into any more trilogies but then I return to fantasy and they’re inevitable… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Slavery, Classism, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Religious bigotry, and Police brutality

Minor: War, Addiction, Hate crime, Infidelity, Cursing, Infertility, Kidnapping, and Self harm

isleoflinds's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, Classism, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Toxic relationship, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, War, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Rape, Xenophobia, Body horror, Gore, Genocide, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Animal death, Colonisation, Incest, Sexual content, Torture, Infertility, and Infidelity

mjwhitlock18's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

The first in an adult fantasy trilogy about djinn set in the Middle East, and I absolutely loved this! POV switches between a con-artist protagonist new to this magical world and the religious second son of the king who disagrees with his father’s political moves. The political intrigue, royal palace betrayal, fight for the subjugated mixed-race peoples, difficult clan dynamics, all was engaging enough to keep me interested through the worldbuilding, and you know I also love a Royal and the Guard trope

Spoiler

which I get with Dara and Nahri, even though I don’t love Dara and yet to see how that turns out, but also maybe Muntadhir and Jamshid?? A girl can hope. Anyways.

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I feel like I want to read the next one soon so I don’t lose all the wonderful details from this one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry and Hate crime

Moderate: Injury/injury detail and Violence

Minor: Rape

readwithria's review against another edition

adventurous tense 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? Yes

3.0

I want to preface this review with the fact that I enjoyed this book. I think the world is very interesting and - for the most part - well built. However, there was a significant lack of plot for a large portion of the book.

Nahri and Ali’s viewpoints give the reader an insider and outsider view of Daevabad. The series is clearly meant to have Nahri as the main protagonist, however Nahri’s POV chapters have little to no plot in them. She is unable to make choices for a large portion of the book due to lack of knowledge <Spoiler> she spends the first 48% of the book traveling </Spoiler> and when she finally does make a decision it happens off page.

Ali, on the other hand, does seem to have more of a plot going on. It’s more of a plot via purposeful lack of action than a plot of action, but it’s definitely there. I found Ali hard to like at the beginning of the book due to his hardcore religious biases, but that gets easier to deal with as the book progresses.

All in all, City of Brass felt like a lot of exposition until the last point of action. Many of the main characters lacked agency, and the pacing was a little weird. I think that for a debut novel it did a great job of introducing us to the world, and I will be continuing to read the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Injury/injury detail, Racial slurs, Violence, and War

thoughtsontomes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

5.0

I was entranced from the beginning of this book. Politics, schemes, magic, brutality, and beauty all wrapped into one. I cannot wait to continue with the series. 

I’ll be doing a full review and discussion on my channel.


Re-read 2022: I adore this book and it was just as good on re-read as there were many things I had forgotten. The scope of these themes, wrapped up in the immersive setting and with characters that you both love and hate, this remains one of the best books I have ever read and I'm excited to read this whole series this year.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Religious bigotry, and Blood

Moderate: Injury/injury detail

beccadamb's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Hate crime, Murder, Racial slurs, Rape, Slavery, and Torture