Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Godly Heathens by H.E. Edgmon

13 reviews

alexlynx's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense 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

5.0

Instantly bought the second book. This is so unhinged in the best way, I am almost unsure if I just read a real book. The most fascinating part of all of this was (without giving too much away) that the main character has many versions of themselves and the writing style changes according to that. It adapts over time as well and it is hilarious, exciting, scary, marvellous. Can't wait to read the second part.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cursing, Dementia, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Death, Grief, Animal death, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Slavery, and Self harm

mirandyli's review

adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.0

This was a fantasy YA novel with a nonbinary, trans, Indigenous, polyamorous main character. I was really excited about the diversity. But somehow the book still missed the mark a bit and it took me a while to finish.

How are most of the reincarnated gods all located within the same tiny town in the middle of nowhere Georgia? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gaslighting, Grief, Mental illness, Blood, Murder, Racism, Sexism, Alcohol, Colonisation, Death, Misogyny, Cursing, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Transphobia

robbin_bobbin's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

5.0

this is by far my favorite book of the year. it feels like a big step up from Edgmon’s first series and they feel more comfortable in here (not that the first one wasn’t good!). i found myself relating to the main character in so many ways and i would root for them and their loved ones no matter what. this book will haunt me with its amazingness and ill gladly let that happen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Violence, and Cursing

Moderate: Mental illness and Body horror

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Torture, Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Physical abuse

ctara2123's review

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Murder, Gun violence, Blood, Violence, Mental illness, and Cursing

Moderate: Self harm, Homophobia, and Adult/minor relationship

instalovewithbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Thank you to NG for an e-arc and St. Martins Press for a gifted finished copy. All opinions are my own.

God, I adored this book. 

Godly Heathens is one of my most anticipated releases this year - and it did not disappoint. 

I received this e-arc version, but surprisingly I was gifted a finished copy and honestly lost my fucking mind. 

H.E. Edgmon is a brilliant author, 

I have to do this in point form to even bring across all the points for this book: 
- The trans and queer joy.
- "Gods are not cis" ugh god this was so good but makes so much sense like why would a god be cis when they are above our gender norms?
- All the characters. They were so fucking good. Even the ones you're suppose to "hate" you end up loving them.
- Plot twists. There was a good portion of them but they didn't make the story seem silly or that Edgmon was just doing it for the "wow" factor.

I do not know when book 2 is coming out but I need it immediately. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Violence, and Mental illness

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Gun violence

the_b00kreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

In this book we follow Gem Echols as they realise their life is not as it seems. Gem is the reincarnated God of magic...this may seem pretty cool until they also find out that the other gods have a few deep-rooted grudges against them.

I was vividly entertained throughout the entirety of this book and found it to be a pretty swift read. 
The plot in itself was really well drawn up and executed with plenty of thought going into it. The characters were really well developed and had dimension. 
The only character that fell a little flat for me at first was Enzo, he was a little predictable.

I loved H.E. Edgmon's depiction of the gods and their home world, the Ether, although I will admit I'd love to know more about it and feel as though, in the next books, I might be able to do just that. 

Being inside Gem's mind was certainly an experience. They had so many conflicting emotions when it came to making some of the greater decisions and I feel everything was portrayed splendidly. I cannot wait to see what comes next for Gem and the others but I can only guess it is not going to be an easy journey.

All in all, I really enjoyed this book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Violence, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Death, War, Bullying, Torture, Genocide, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death of parent

caseythereader's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

Thanks to Wednesday Books for the free copy of this book.

 - Wow, this book. GODLY HEATHENS is H.E. Edgmon leaning into his full talent as a writer of angry, messy, queer af kids desperate to find their place in the world.
- The mythology here is so cool, and so detailed and tangled I could believe it was real. And the "real world" people and plot threads felt messily real, too.
- This book mashes together queerness and small towns and mental illness and thousand year old gods and it works beautifully. I can't wait to see what happens next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Mental illness, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Sexual content, Abandonment, Blood, Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Grief

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

elizajaquays's review

adventurous dark tense 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

4.75

Do you like chaotic disaster gays who have never made a good decision once in their life? Because buckle up buttercup, have I got the book for you.

Gem has never met a bad decision they can’t make worse. And I love this for them. And for me, because Gem’s trainwreck of bad decisions was amazing and this book was a ride.

Gem’s got a plan. That plan’s name is Enzo. Or rather, getting out of the small town and making it to Brooklyn to meet up with their bff/crush Enzo is the plan.

Unfortunately for Gem (and fortunately for us readers waiting for disaster to strike), that plan has a major flaw. Namely that Gem’s a reincarnated god and a bunch of other reincarnated gods would very much like to kill them. Permanently.

Turns out their past self did a whole bunch of murder and the other gods are pretty miffed about it. Or so Willa Mae, the cute new girl in town, says. Also she’s his soulmate. Probably.

Godly Heathens had me laughing, crying, cringing, and biting my nails as I raced to the last page.

In case it wasn’t obvious, I had an amazing time with this and I’m so excited to see where things go in the sequel because holy cliffhanger, Batman!

I really enjoyed The Witch King duology so I was excited to read more of Edgmon’s work. Godly Heathens contains a predominantly queer cast, polyamory, and indigenous rep.

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the eARC, all thoughts are my own.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Blood

itsapaxycab's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective tense fast-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

4.75

This book was given to me as an Advanced Reader Copy via NetGalley. This does not change or influence my opinion of the book. 
I don't know where to start with this book. I read so few books with nonbinary mc's, and nonbinary mc's written so damn well. There is not a single instance of misgendering or deadnaming in this entire book, which is a beautiful thing sometimes. You can tell me it's not realistic, but it is fantasy, and anything can be true when you put your mind to it. 
Morally grey characters are another big thing to me, and this book has done it so well I'm still conflicted on how I feel about every goddamn character in these 400 pages. It is usually easy to find who is the hero in a story, but there is not a single one in this book.
So many of the main plot points are spoilers so I will discuss them more below.  

Because so many of these characters are eternal beings who have lived a whole millennium on earth in so many different bodies, along with their previous life in another world, it is so deeply hard to name any single one as right or wrong, and I think that is a beautiful thing. I want to be challenged when I read, and this has certainly done so.

 
My only big critique is the action. I struggled with this in H.E. Edgmon's other duology as well. While there are a few action-packed scenes that drive the story forward, I get lost in it very easily. The details and so many characters at once get hard to distinguish, especially when each character uses 2-3 names, as they did in this one. I am not great with names as it is, and this made it harder. 
This story will continue to sit with me as I wait for its release and eagerly anticipate the sequel coming in April 2024. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, and Mental illness

Moderate: Self harm and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Addiction

readingwithkaitlyn's review

dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Body horror, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Blood

Moderate: Self harm, Grief, Toxic relationship, Colonisation, Animal death, Ableism, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, War, and Transphobia

Minor: Slavery, Racism, Genocide, Drug abuse, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Infertility, and Child abuse