Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

A Torch Against the Night by Sabaa Tahir

5 reviews

imds's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Grief, Police brutality, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Body horror, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Terminal illness, Violence, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Murder, and Kidnapping

veeronald'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? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Slavery, Abandonment, Classism, Confinement, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Genocide, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Grief, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexism, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Vomit, Sexual content, Stalking, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, and Misogyny

angstifies's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

the premise of this book was great but it failed in almost every single aspect.

i honestly slightly liked Laia in book 1, but this book made her almost unbearable for me. she turned into this aspirant saint who always needs to save everyone and leave no one behind and i just hated it. it is such a dumb concept especially in a brutal fantasy world like this, it irritated me so much and i wish she could shut up about how “attractive and manly” both Elias and Keenan are and just… stop…

two complains i have about both this book and the previous one was the writing and the setting/descriptions. 
the writing is once again too childish, focuses on the wrong things at the wrong times, and the way the characters narrate the story is just tiresome. the author has this way of shoving explanations down my throat of things EVERYONE CAN GUESS in a way that something happens and then Laia/Elias/Helene have to specifically explain it when it’s TOTALLY NOT NEEDED. you already guessed what happened but the narration HAS to point it it out for you so it felt repetitive without actually being repetitive. 

and i’m sure the setting is amazing, if we only ever got descriptions of it. Elias and Laia are both traveling for most part of the book but the places they are in are never described, and i really wish they were. i cannot imagine how Serra is, how the houses in Serra are, how the market, the place where they go meet the tribes, the prison look like BECAUSE THERE ARE NO DESCRIPTIONS. we only get vague descriptions of characters, mostly repeating descriptions of characters that have already been described too many times. like yes, i did remember that Helene had blonde hair and Laia had golden eyes, thank you for pointing it out for the 10th time in this chapter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Genocide, Misogyny, Child abuse, Murder, Slavery, Death of parent, Grief, Confinement, Kidnapping, and Sexism

Minor: Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Adult/minor relationship

kinsportch's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child abuse, Child death, War, Violence, Slavery, Physical abuse, Murder, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Death of parent

Minor: Rape

ohkmurr's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

 If I thought the stakes in An Ember in the Ashes were high, A Torch Against the Night skyrocketed them. From the very start, we have a classic countdown disease—a trope I love, which can also be difficult to pull off in a way that doesn't feel like a gimmick. 

The story is absolutely incredible, and I did not see quite a few of the plot twists coming. I will forever be amazed at Tahir's world-building and storytelling ability.

I'm also a bit embarrassed by how long it took me to realize that this story is basically World War II: a woman hell-bent on eradicating an entire race of people, a warden who performs experiments on people at a prison that all but guarantees a slow and painful death.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, and Violence

Again, the violence/body horror is "Game of Thrones Lite," and similar to the violence described in Grady Hendrix's works/Stephen King's works.