Reviews tagging 'Death'

City of Thieves by David Benioff

18 reviews

nmwolfe's review

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I started out not loving this book, but by the last 100 pages I was hooked. One of my favorite reads so far this year. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Child death, Cannibalism, Blood, War, Sexual violence, Death, and Gore

novelideea's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Racial slurs, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Violence, Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Hate crime, Self harm, Misogyny, Rape, Classism, Cursing, Death, Animal death, Confinement, Gore, Gun violence, Child death, Excrement, Religious bigotry, War, Kidnapping, and Sexual violence

gailbird's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative medium-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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Death, War, Cannibalism, and Animal death

Moderate: Antisemitism, Classism, Cursing, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death, Homophobia, Gore, and Sexual content

Minor: Excrement, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, and Xenophobia

capacity4wonder's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful tense fast-paced

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

3.75

All the women are treated as sex objects. 

Why is Vika's story not the one being told??? She has such an interesting story and we barely get to here any of it!! Also, why does she get a makeover in the end? Why does she have to be super fem all of a sudden?? I get looking different after the war, maybe growing her hair out, but the way he described her seemed way too different. 

If I were to teach an English class about Chekhov's gun, I would get them to read this book. Each of the guns went off at the at the most satisfying and devastating moments. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Blood, Death, Torture, and War

Moderate: Sexual violence

kgoody's review against another edition

adventurous sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Animal death, War, Torture, Murder, Cannibalism, Blood, Suicide, Sexual content, Child death, and Racism

wilanders's review

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Torture, Gun violence, Genocide, Suicide, Excrement, Cursing, Cannibalism, Vomit, and War

seforana's review

dark emotional informative tense fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Violence, War, and Torture

Minor: Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Rape

stephe's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny sad fast-paced

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

2.5

This book is part of that tired, old genre, “Oh, You Thought WWII was Bad? You Have NO Idea.” Yes, truly horrifying, awful things happened in WWII, but here they’re played for shock more than anything else, as if cannibalism and torture and rape were less tragedy and injustice and more spectacle and opportunities for shallow, serendipitous “heroism.” Not to mention, the prologue frames the book as a fictionalization of events in the life of the author’s grandfather, which one must actually google to find out is it’s own fiction. In short, a fairly self-focused and self-exultant perspective.

I will say, the story was plotted and paced well, even gripping in spite of the exploitative use of fictionalized historical pain and tragedy. And I loved the absurdity of a mission to find a dozen eggs. But the main characters felt flat, as did my feelings toward them; it was hard to care one way or another about their success. And such a non-empathic depiction of human suffering, especially with regard to historical events, was off-putting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Rape, Violence, Murder, Sexual violence, Animal death, Cannibalism, Death, Misogyny, War, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, and Cursing

booksandmo's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Religious bigotry, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cannibalism, Gore, Hate crime, Xenophobia, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Child death, Sexual content, Genocide, Animal cruelty, Grief, Kidnapping, and Medical trauma

xhelat's review against another edition

dark emotional funny tense fast-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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, and War

Moderate: Antisemitism, Blood, Animal death, Sexual violence, and Cannibalism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Death