Reviews tagging 'Incest'

The Fever King by Victoria Lee

4 reviews

quillbot's review

dark sad 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? Yes

2.0

Jesus Christ this book was so messed up! Now I’m messed up! Whoever wrote it is SO messed up!!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, Chronic illness, Torture, Child abuse, Incest, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Dementia, and Suicidal thoughts

literallygriffin's review

emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.5

so much fucking happened in this book but i liked it. im saving any analysis for after i finish electric heir (even then analysis goes on my tumblr typically lol) but i think the commentary on socialism is interesting, or at least it could be depending on how its further elaborated upon --

the idea to take noam from a disgruntled/dissatisfies anarchist to an unhinged accelerationist doomer due to the manipulations of a power-hungry fascist, for instance, is a very interesting and resonant arc that im curious to see how it gets developed further in teh.

the characters are incredible and unique and so so fucked up. the plot is very compact, especially considering its like, what, 500 pages? or at least my ebook copy was lol, but anyways thats a pro for me because it shows that the author had a point and knew how to get there!
the main flaw isnt so much of a flaw as it is a personal preference. i hated the ya dystopia novel prose so much. which, obviously yes its ya dystopia the prose is gonna be befitting of the genre. that ones on me ! but you could see various glimpses of the authors ability to write genuinely good, sensorially & thematically resonant, creative prose shine through at moments before being swiftly crushed by genre and publishing expectations

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gun violence, Incest, Mental illness, War, Panic attacks/disorders, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Deportation, Alcohol, Racism, Terminal illness, Classism, Gaslighting, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child abuse, Colonisation, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Police brutality, Xenophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Fire/Fire injury, Drug use, Abandonment, Antisemitism, Sexual content, Rape, Police brutality, and Physical abuse

Minor: Eating disorder and Domestic abuse

peachani's review against another edition

tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Medical trauma, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Terminal illness, War, and Xenophobia

Minor: Abandonment, Antisemitism, Cursing, Incest, Infidelity, Sexual content, Torture, and Vomit

booksthatburn's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• 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 FEVER KING was engrossing, pulling me into the story as it stayed tightly wound around the MC’s unreliable narration. It introduced a lot of characters early on but then only really focused on a couple of them, breaking my early expectations for this as a "group of kids with powers bond in training story". It's definitely not that. They have powers, they have training, there are bonds, but being an immigrant who joins the clique late in a post-nuclear-event dystopian society with an immortal(?) leader who is the only one who remembers the history does not for a fun time make. What it does create is space for a quieter story about grooming, manipulation, brainwashing, and abuse in a situation where powers are secret, magic requires complex and detailed understanding, and the gatekeepers to knowledge also run the country. 

This book is definitely the "throw the reader in the world and they'll figure it out" kind of book. There are sections that explain how things connect and the implications of them, but they're woven in naturally as the character figures things out. Even the few infodumps which happen are telling the MC things they didn't know, or them thinking about stuff the secondary characters don't know, but in a way that informs the reader without feeling patronizing. What the MC notices and comments on it sometimes less important than what he dismisses or downplays, creating this feeling that while he's not trying to lie to the reader, he's also not picking up on things or not realizing their importance. This definitely feels like a book where a bunch of hints were there all along and then the end makes their importance suddenly resonant.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gun violence, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Animal death, Genocide, and Xenophobia

Minor: Child abuse, Incest, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, and Vomit

CW for xenophobia, genocide, vomit, animal death, plague, grooming, incest (not depicted), child sexual abuse (not depicted), suicide (backstory), torture (backstory), gun violence, parental death, child death, major character death, death.