Reviews tagging 'Torture'

What the River Knows by Isabel Ibañez

13 reviews

schweibertsm's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

This is a mysterious and fascinating story about a young woman, her family and Egypt. The author does a great job painting the scenery and the story is elaborate. I felt like there was too much and I'm undecided whether I want to read the 2nd book and conclusion to the story. I'm wondering if maybe this type of book isn't quite my cup of tea

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Torture, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Emotional abuse

Minor: Infidelity

avidreader5678's review

adventurous emotional mysterious sad 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Torture and Sexual content

stormeno's review

adventurous fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Abandonment, Violence, Confinement, Gaslighting, and Gun violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Torture, Cursing, and Kidnapping

kimmer99's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

You can read my thoughts here: https://www.whatireallythink.net/what-the-river-knows/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Torture and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Kidnapping, and Infidelity

andra_mihaela_s's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative mysterious 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? No

4.25

 From me, What the River Knows gets 4.25 stars 🥳

This is a first book in an Egyptian inspired historical fantasy duology targeted to a young adult readership that tells the story of Inez Olivera, a bolivian-argentinian young lady of the upper society of 19th century Buenos Aires, as she embarks to Egypt in hopes of finding out how her parents died and why.

CW : death of parents, grief, violent murder, mentions of drug use, alcoholism, abandonment, colonialism

This book is correctly marketed as rivals to lovers, thank God 🤭, but I didn't find this aspect of the story taking over our MC's every thought and action.( More like 30- 70 ratio for plot).

In my opinion, the author has talent in portraying such an acute feeling as abandonment, grief, denial and coming face to face with who your family is/ was. I cannot express how happy I was that Inez was constantly denying her parents forgiveness while also understanding why Egypt was soo magical to them.

The atmosphere was on point, quite nostalgic and mysterious, with an undertone of sadness.

Our characters were pretty well defined. Inez is vivid on the page, you cannot mix her up with other heroines! 🥰 While her coming to Egypt might seem a little bit too easy...let me tell you, is not impossible for something like that to have occurred! She is feisty while smart about keeping her cards close to her heart; she's suspicious of everybody but not overly so; and she's barely a young woman who's trying to grapple with her new reality. I deeply connected with her story and genuinely liked her.

The love interest, Whitford Hayes, or Whit, gave me #historicalromance book vibes from the start ☺️🤭
..and that's not a bad thing! After all...we are in that period....sort of....
He's full of secrets, charming, useful to those he deems worthy and in search of something...the end of the book left me gasping! 🤯 is he the bad guy????👀 🤔

Another 2 characters I want to mention are the uncle, Ricardo, and Elvira, the cousin. Well I liked Elvira...and that's that 🤧. As for Ricardo...I had sooo many doubts! 😤 the author really wrote a good mystery!
Sooo yes! This book is a good mystery! At least for me😂 Inez's suspicions grew and morphed as she found out more about her parents and what happened. I really enjoyed that!😌

Quick note before i forget : this book tackles colonialism and oppression in subtle ways of native people! We also discuss #artifact robbery and the morality of letting the world know about history through the specific lense of #archeology !! I really enjoyed this!

Back to the plot which is carefully mixed in with Inez's emotional journey and ancient magic 🥰🪄

Although this is a low fantasy ,the plot being based in our history with a twist , it really feeds your imagination!

In the end, the summary on Goodreads says it all, Inez needs to find out the truth , or risk becoming just a pawn in a much larger game!

So, why only 4.25??? I found the middle to be a little slow and towards the end of the book, something happened that changes Inez's course of action..and although is appropriate for a ya, logical and a bold move for the author..I still saw it coming. :( ...but don't mind me! this book is great!

I highly recommend you try this! ☺️ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, and Colonisation

Moderate: Racism, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Death, and Abandonment

Minor: War, Trafficking, Sexism, Drug use, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

sunny_bumblebee's review

emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Alcoholism, Racism, Animal death, Blood, Colonisation, Infidelity, Death, Torture, Sexism, Misogyny, Gore, and Gun violence

Moderate: Confinement and Abandonment

lakinglaze's review

adventurous mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

First off, thank you so much to St. Martin's Press for the ARC of this book. I’m so grateful and have now bought two separate editions of my own and the audiobook because I loved it so! Isabel Ibañez did such an incredible job with this novel! 🥰

I absolutely loved everything about the story. As a trained archaeologist myself, it hits very close to my heart! Inez’s strength drew me to her side and never let go. Whit’s charisma and ‘wit’ty banter had me falling right in love with him. The story was exciting, mysterious, adventurous, fun, devastating, shocking, and left me gasping for more! November won’t arrive soon enough! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Alcoholism, Animal death, Colonisation, Gore, Grief, Vomit, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Murder, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Confinement, Sexism, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

kirstenpod_'s review

adventurous hopeful mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Confinement, Colonisation, Death of parent, Blood, Gun violence, Violence, Torture, Murder, Death, Grief, and Child death

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Cursing

Minor: Infidelity

finnzebelle's review

adventurous inspiring mysterious fast-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Child death, Death, Blood, Sexism, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Classism, Abandonment, Gore, Blood, Violence, Racism, Grief, Murder, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Death, and Confinement

amhud1030's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

The premise of this book had me excited with the setting being in Egypt and the search for Cleopatra’s tomb. 

Unfortunately, I was disappointed, as the main character was severely naïve many times over. I know this is a YA book. However, her naïveté was very frustrating.

After her first encounter where she was taken advantage of, and had something stolen from her, I stopped, listening for several days to give myself a break. I should have the DNF’d at this point.

At the end of this book I do not feel she has grown and learned from her mistakes. She still too naïve and trusting.

The only reason I finished was because I wanted to see how the story ended since it got a little more exciting around the 45 to 50% mark.

How disappointed was I to realize that there is meant to be a sequel, and there was no conclusion to the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Confinement, Violence, Torture, Blood, Classism, Grief, Murder, Alcoholism, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Gun violence