Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Crier's War by Nina Varela

9 reviews

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Grief, Classism, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Gore, War, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Child abuse

Minor: Drug use, Suicide, Vomit, Torture, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Infertility, Self harm, Addiction, Sexual content, Excrement, and Suicidal thoughts

Discrimination and derogatory terms between in-universe factions. Self-injury for magical purposes.

hanz's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, Violence, Confinement, Excrement, Gore, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Infertility, and Drug use

cheeky_biscuits's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Murder, War, Violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Blood, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Misogyny, Classism, Alcohol, and Sexual content

Minor: Confinement and Dysphoria

sssssoup's review

adventurous dark emotional 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: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Violence, Blood, Death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Gore, Death of parent, Child death, and Mental illness

Minor: Kidnapping, Infertility, War, Alcohol, Cursing, and Sexual content

starccato's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, Death, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Police brutality, Self harm, Sexual content, and Mental illness

morganish's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

Crier's War started off a little slow for me, BUT. The book very quickly overcame my doubts, and I found myself really looking forward to picking it back up every night! It's fantasy of the YA variety, which doesn't deviate too much from a lot of the themes, stylistic choices, and characterization of other YA stories.

Yet even as I've been leaning away from YA fantasy and more toward adult recently, I found myself really absorbed in this one. The prose was straightforward, but sometimes unexpectedly beautiful; the worldbuilding wasn't dense or complicated, and yet the central conceit works well and there's a surprising amount of effective mystery. All the untold secrets yet to be discovered ultimately worked to hook me in. The romance is a kind I like but don't often find executed this effectively: angst-heavy, with lots of pining. It's a true slow burn, with outstanding threads still left hanging by the end of this installment, the first of a duology. Even though I'd heard others say this book was really good, AND even though I was excited by the idea of AI creations in a traditional fantasy setting, I was still surprised how good Crier's War was.

If you like your slow-burn romances to actually feel like something slow and aching and epic, this book probably has what you're looking for. (Especially if you're looking for more sapphic fantasy.) If you like the feel of YA fantasy stories, but sometimes wish the worldbuilding had just a little bit more mystery or intrigue like adult fantasy, this might serve, depending on your tastes.  But if you're just completely done with YA fantasy and all the aspects that come with it, or don't like romances that build across multiple books, OR don't like the enemies-to-lovers trope, this book probably won't do much for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, War, and Xenophobia

Minor: Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Genocide, and Sexism

A lot of the elements I include about the content warnings are specifically fantastical, like fantastical xenophobia. Most of the other content warnings have some level of fantastic to them as well. It isn't a direct reference to IRL events and doesn't include IRL bigotry, for example.

zoyaology's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

lesbianbooksrgr8's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

one of my favorite sapphic books ever. enemies to lovers GOLD. poc rep is to the next level. not even a minute after finishing this i went to amazon and bought the sequel. not a homophobic world (which i love)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Murder, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Genocide, Gore, and Kidnapping

there is a war in it so indefinitely there will be gore

autumnrevisited's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

A really interesting mix of fantasy and science fiction. It ended with an incredible set up for the sequel.

I’m not sure how I feel about Storme being alive, but I’m sure it’ll be explained in book 2.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, and Grief