Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

38 reviews

chloelai12's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

4.0

Wow this woman can write politics. One of the most complicated and enriched fantasy worlds I’ve read. 

I will start by saying I want Nahri to destroy the lives of every single one of those men. My girl didn’t deserve any of that. Dara had me in the first half and I was rooting for him whilst Ali annoyed me for 60% of the book. But you lost me at the forced coercion my guy. And actually, as much of a self righteous brat Ali could be, he was the only one was truthful to Nahri when everyone else lied to her face but still expected the most from her.
I hope if anything (though I doubt it will happen) that Nahri rinses these men for filth, takes over the city for herself but keeps Ali as a friend because she does not need that stress . 
I’m still pretending those ears aren’t a thing.

ALSO IM RIHJT ABOUT THE UNCLE DAD?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Body horror, Vomit, Violence, Sexism, Child abuse, Confinement, Alcohol, War, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Self harm, Rape, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Bullying, Death, Cursing, Trafficking, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Medical trauma, Medical content, Genocide, Hate crime, Blood, Gore, and Grief

clarehiyama's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I really enjoyed this world! Boy, are the characters FLAWED, but I loved a lot of them anyway. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, War, Torture, Blood, Body horror, and Violence

reddeddy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Trafficking, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Body horror, Gore, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Slavery, Xenophobia, Racism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Grief, Misogyny, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Animal death, Alcohol, Bullying, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Genocide, Animal cruelty, Dysphoria, Racial slurs, and Sexism

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Child death, Outing, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Torture, Child abuse, Biphobia, Antisemitism, Chronic illness, Police brutality, Drug use, Sexual assault, Cultural appropriation, Body shaming, Islamophobia, Infertility, Physical abuse, and Rape

juliana_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

I loved this. It does start slow, but once Dara and Nahri were on their way I was hooked. So much fantasy is just repackaged medieval Europe, so this held my attention for nearly six hundred pages. I read it on my Kobo to look up words and also had a hard copy to easily reference the map and glossary. It was worth the effort to fully understand this world. 

My only issues:

I don’t mind a romantic subplot, but the one between Dara and Nahri seemed abrupt and just based on lust. I would have liked to see it unfurl slowly. He’s also…a millennium older than her. In addition, I felt that dropping pieces of Daeva lore through both Ali and Nahri’s perspectives made it difficult to follow or figure out what was true and what was manipulation. I needed like a blurb or a “once upon a time” at the beginning.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racism, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Blood

Minor: Sexual violence and Rape

mousmoulo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense

5.0

FIRST FIVE STAR OF THE YEAR!!!!!!! i'm going insane.

my brain has been rewired and i'm ready for the sequel

(if anything else happens to

ali or jamshid

i'm committing prosecutable crimes this is a warning)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Gore, Death, and Slavery

Minor: Sexual violence and Kidnapping

seanml's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

There are many conflicting words and opinions that The City of Brass brings about. The most important one though is this: promising. It's marketed as adult fantasy, and yet you'll find many instances of tropes and ideas popular in young adult literature. The person of low social class thrust into a very powerful position of luxury, the romance between a normal person and a god-like but very dangerous but VERY hot individual, a healthy dose of normal person thrust into magical world they didn't know was there a la Harry Potter. Much of the dialogue sounds very modern despite the story taking place in the 1800s and many characters being hundreds of years older than that. Moving past all that, I would still recommend this book. Chakraborty understands her world and her characters well enough to give the reader investment and interest in this world. The novel's biggest selling point is the society she creates - the conflict between a pureblood upper caste and a mixed lower caste is nothing new in literature, but Chakraborty treats the plot with precision and care. No side is made out to be a faceless villain, but there's also no preachy sense of 'both sides are equally bad' going on. There's no sense of preachiness at all: the world feels lived in and at its natural conclusion of thousands of years of buildup rather than artificially held together for the plot. The pros outweigh the cons and I hear the sequels improve in spades. 8/10.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Genocide, Gore, Murder, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Rape, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Alcoholism, Police brutality, Racial slurs, and Racism

Minor: Outing and Homophobia

ka_ke's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Gaslighting, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Slavery, Body horror, Classism, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Colonisation, Gore, Racism, Torture, Alcohol, and Racial slurs

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Child abuse, Rape, and War

inez_hunter's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Genocide, Gore, Sexism, Blood, Classism, Death, Death of parent, and War

Minor: Misogyny

ash_lees_library's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Cursing, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Sexual content

kat1105's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Gaslighting, Rape, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Death, Gore, Child abuse, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Racism, Toxic friendship, Torture, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Slavery