Reviews tagging 'Rape'

First, Become Ashes by K.M. Szpara

35 reviews

cfell's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Self harm, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

spacebetweenpages's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Rape, and Sexual assault

meredith_peruzzi's review against another edition

fast-paced

5.0

 K.M. Szpara knocks it out of the park again (so to speak). This book feels entirely different from Docile, it's less power exchange and more power tsunami. Although religion and spirituality are central to the narrative, it doesn't feel particularly "woo" - it feels more like fantasy novel magic than pagan magic. (That may just be me, I'm not very woo myself.) To my surprise, it's a novel of hope - for the first two-thirds I was expecting one outcome, and then that focus was abandoned in favor of stubborn hope in the face of adversity.

The book has trigger warnings for SM, sex, abuse, and rape - it is worth noting that all of these are depicted in a predominantly negative light. I don't think Szpara is saying BDSM is a bad thing - nor did he with Docile, both felt like he has a solid grasp of healthy consent and power exchange - but it should be noted that the SM is equated with abuse and rape in this book, and only in some scenes is the sex depicted positively.

If you enjoyed Docile, do pick this up. It's a very different book but Szpara is a phenomenal writer and this was an excellent read. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Sexual content

spinningjenny's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

Interesting read, intense. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Rape

thoughtsfromtheafro's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Rape

charlieleelee's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Rape

phyllis_lam's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Torture, and Physical abuse

doddyaboutbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Physical abuse, and Emotional abuse

surefinewhatever_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Magic (or maybe not?), cults, fandom culture, queer folks who get to exist and go on quests, this book hit so many marks for me. The themes of friendship and support and trust were really compelling. Though the darker parts of this book were incredibly hard for me to stomach (so please refer to the Trigger Warnings). I also felt that the author didn’t even need to include Deryn’s perspective to the split narrative. It wasn’t as present or fleshed out as the others, nor did it have much to offer to the story or plot. Overall, Deryn felt further neglected (which whether that irony because of Deryn’s story was intentional or not, tough to say). I think the text would have been stronger had that been scrapped. The rest of the then/now split worked for me, and it made sense to see Lark, Kane, & Calvin on this journey. This is a really heavy read about navigating trauma, life outside of a cult, and the possibility of magic. Moving, but tough tough tough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

moatzilla's review

challenging tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Self harm, and Toxic relationship