Reviews with content warning for Violence - Forest of Souls

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee

10 reviews

thenovelmaura's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.0

A solid start to a trilogy! The vibes here are Shadow and Bone, but make it diverse and get rid of the problematic romance. I loved seeing a half-Asian protagonist show off her skills in some epic fight scenes! We do start the series at an interesting point in time, with Sirscha having already finished the bulk of her training to be the queen's Shadow. Her royal spy training sequences and the formation of her relationship with key characters like Saengo and the prince are all shows as flashbacks. This may be why it takes longer than usual to feel a connection with the characters and to really understand the complex world. But since I'm writing this review after I finished reading the full trilogy, I do appreciate the groundwork that Lee has laid out and how the political and magic systems are so well thought-out even in this initial book.

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bookishmillennial's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective 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? Yes

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

I thought this was an intriguing start to this series! It's clearly very much introducing us to this world (a lot of exposition, which I don't always mind when getting to know a new world lol), and I love when the main character is basically re-discovering themselves like Sirscha did in this book. She has to contend with the new reality of who she is and what she's capable of, and more importantly, what that means for the world / society as she knows it! I will definitely be continuing the series <3

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thewildmageslibrary's review against another edition

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4.0

plot twist plot twist plot twist!! XD Alas, my library doesn't have the sequel *cries*

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tinysierra's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

This book contains:

spiders and spiderwebs
dark creepy forest with faces and souls
Nice worldbuilding
A badass blind side character
threats of war between kingdoms, political intrigue
strong main character who knows how to fight, who turns out to have the rarest magical powers
a focus on friendships
Asian coded characters

I like that the +600 year old Spider King was not a mysterious sexy love interest preying on a teenager. There is no romance plot. The story focuses on the main character trying to figure out her powers and how to stop a war.

This book was decent but it didn’t really “wow” me. I liked the pieces of lore that we got, and I thought the characters were nice but they didn’t amaze me. I didn’t really feel the bond between Saengo and Sirscha. It was described that they cared for each other and they were clearly close but I wish we got to see more of their friendship on page before the start of the book.

I enjoyed Theyen and Sirscha’s sassy banter. They could have turned into a kind of rivals to lovers type romance but I liked that they stayed friends/allies.

I think this is a good book for anyone looking for a fantasy book with magic and politics but without the romance.

I may be mistaken, but I thought I saw this book in a recommendation list for Aro or Ace rep. However, unless I missed something, there are no explicitly stated asexual or aromantic characters. I don’t believe Sirscha states a sexual or romantic preference. But, if you are aro or ace, you’ll probably enjoy the lack of romance whether the characters themselves are aro / ace or not.

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queer_bookwyrm's review

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adventurous dark 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? No

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: Violence, descriptions of blood and gore, bullying, abuse/child abuse mention, giant spider, descriptions of spiders

Forest of Souls by Lori M. Lee is book one in the Shamanborn series. This is something I picked specifically because it's my friend Kaitee's favorite book, so I have some complicated feelings. This was a fascinating and great fantasy read; however, it was chock full of spider descriptions. One thing you need to know about me is my intense (and probably irrational) fear of spiders, so this was a tough read for me. *Shudders*

We follow Sirscha Ashwyn, a lowborn orphan in the Queen's Company who is training to become the Queen's Shadow (spymaster). Sirscha has been no one her entire life, constantly being bullied by her cohorts while her instructors look the other way. The only person who doesn't treat Sirscha like dirt is her best friend Saengo. When Sirscha and Saengo try to sabotage Sirscha's rival, Saengo dies, and Sirscha learns she's a Shamanborn (a person born with elemental abilities). The problem with this is that in Evewyn, Shamanborn are oppressed and locked away, because of the Queen's prejudice.

This puts Sirscha and Saengo on a journey to Spinner's End to meet Ronin the Spider King. But as usual, things don't go according to plan, and Sirscha needs to fight to save her friend's life while also figuring out what to do about the Dead Wood. I really loved how much of a survivor Sirscha is. She's pragmatic and can outfight almost anyone. Her friendship with Saengo was my favorite. Instead of focusing on romance, this story focuses on the intensity of friendship. The magic system was fascinating, I love the idea of lightwenders.

We get some themes on prejudice, oppression, and genocide; along with a message about finding your worth and value from yourself instead of others. I did not like how prominent spiders were in this book (why is it always giant spiders?!), and I definitely yelled at Kaitee about it the whole time. The Dead Wood was creepy af and I loved the Drakes. I want my own Drake to ride around. That cliffhanger though. Here's hoping for fewer spider descriptions next book!

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saturnpersonified's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.5

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sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-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? Yes

3.0

The first thing I loved about this book was that the glossary was at the front of the book. This may seem like a bizarre thing to like but reading it before starting the story meant of lot of the heavy lifting had been accomplished in terms of trying to orient myself in this fantasy world – particularly the magic system which is based on Hmong shamanism.

I did enjoy that romance wasn’t the main focus of this story. It focussed more on the strong friendship between Sirscha and Saengo and they’re journey to make sense of the events unfolding after Sirscha somehow brings Saengo back to life (not a spoiler! It’s in the blurb). A lot of the story also explores self-worth and how, in the beginning of the story, Sirscha ties her self-worth to what she has to offer to other people. Towards the end of the book, you start to see her take more value in herself for her own sake, rather in what she can offer for other people.

My biggest issue with the book is that I felt rather detached from the plot and the characters. As much as I loved the focus on friendship, the one between Sirscha and Saengo didn’t feel overly fleshed out and Saengo’s character felt a little 2-D at times. This made a lot of the stakes in the story not as high as they should’ve because I just wasn’t very invested in these characters.

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sophiemeink's review

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

4.0

"Only dead men fight fair."

Forest of Souls is a captivating YA fantasy that starts with our main character Sirscha who discovers her powers which are not only feared where she lived but she also has the magic that no one has seen for years. so..... PERFECT.
Instead of being captured like she thought she would, she is sent to the ominous Spider King who maintains the peace over the lands with the dead wood, the haunted wood that everyone is afraid of, which is sliced across the them all.

I really liked the set up as it involved so much political unrest and fear. There were many players in the game all balanced precariously and we get to see our main character thrust into it. It brings a lot of tension and uncovering of secrets straight away which I always find interesting.
The political aspect continued to be involved throughout the book so it keeps you captivated and it is very easy to follow.

"Signing a contract agreeing not to act on standing hatreds is not a promise to stop hating."

I thought Sirscha was an interesting main character being an underdog in the world and fighting for her place. It was interesting to see how she would react when it was all taken away from her as everything shifted. Her determination and desire to bend the rules/uncover the truth also made her a great character to follow as she learnt new things and kept getting herself into situations.

I also really liked that there was a female friendship at the front of the book . Sirscha and Saengo has a lot of past and you could feel for their relationship. It was bond over time so I loved seeing that.

The development of the side characters was always really good. I found them entertaining as they always had something to offer in terms of personality or there position in the political 'games'.

I really liked the writing. It was able to build up a haunting atmosphere at times and some of the descriptions with the way it built up people and scenes were really lush. It was easy to follow. Plus I thought the pacing was well delivered throughout. We were always heading towards something and things were uncovered in due time.
I would say that the way that some of the mystery were solved didn't feel as smooth as I would have liked and seemed to jump to conclusions in a way.

The ending was really intense and captivating though as things went down . IT. WAS. ALL. HAPPENING. I think book 2 will be even stronger so I'll be excited to see what happens.

★★★★
Overall, a really captivating start to the series which many strong elements. I thought the mystery could have developed a little stronger and I would have liked to connect a little more to the connect but still a good start which left me excited for the sequel.

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gossamerchild's review

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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mandkips's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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