Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem

10 reviews

druzyquartz's review

challenging dark emotional 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Xenophobia, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Grief, Genocide, Murder, Racial slurs, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

molliford's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Genocide, and Death

Moderate: Death of parent and Child abuse

Minor: Pedophilia

manaledi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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'd heard good things and this was a good read. It was slow at first and fairly character driven for high fantasy. None of the elements - secret princess, morally grey prince, deadly challenges, rival territories - are particularly unique and yet it all comes together smoothly. A quibble in that the magic system is very poorly defined in terms on who can do what and how much.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Colonisation, War, Torture, Murder, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Xenophobia, and Sexual content

meat_muffin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

Okay, OBSESSED. This might be my new City of Brass, not gonna lie. Can’t BELIEVE the second one isn’t out yet ☹️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Murder, Rape, Self harm, Torture, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Blood, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, War, and Violence

Minor: Addiction and Animal cruelty

risaleel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, and War

Moderate: Kidnapping, Violence, Xenophobia, and Blood

Minor: Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Murder

ayvie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

I literally had trouble putting this book down to read anything else. The MCs were so engaging and interesting and complicated that I could not wait to read more. The fact that neither MC is 100% right in their understanding of their histories is fascinating and interesting. (Though I'd argue that Sylvia's misconceptions are less of an issue because they are the result of her being a victim and not the result of her being an aggressor/policer). They're both having to adjust and learn their misconceptions - some of which they've built their entire lives on. 

I'm unsure about the romance. I am having complicated feelings about it and need to let those stew a bit. Coming back to this - I honestly wish the romantic elements hadn't been involved at all in this book. It felt uncomfortable and a lot of it is outside my lane to really delve into. I do think the groundwork is laid for something here, and I'm unsure where it's going to lead (and honestly, I'd be happy if it led to no romance at all). 

It felt like the point should have been discomfort and I'm unsure if that was entirely what was portrayed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Body horror, Torture, War, Murder, Xenophobia, Death, Death of parent, Gore, and Colonisation

Minor: Child abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

This book has a lot of violence depicted in its pages, but it never felt gratuitous. There's a ton of trauma (specifically explored for Sylvia). The child abuse, sexual assault, and rape are mentions regarding a secondary character.

roseleebooks's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

Overall I enjoyed this book. I read through it very quickly wanting to know what happened next!

Things that were done well were the pacing and the setup for the ending. There are multiple plot threads to pick up in the next book which could be frustrating for some readers. The key theme of dealing with past trauma and identity after being separated from the foundations of that identity was intriguingly explored throughout.

Also, establishing that the MC was an unreliable narrator partway through the story opens up a lot of possibilities going into the next portion of the series.

There were several things that were problematic here with the FMCs relationship with the MMC,

including power imbalance and 🚩 behaviors from the MMC. Other reviews have commented on the colonizer/colonized aspect of it as well, which is off-putting. If the MMC goes full villain in the next book this would make much more sense to me, I'd like to assume the author has purposely laid this unsettling foundation. The love story was secondary to the main plot but the banter is where some of the twists and info reveals occurred

Overall the writing was fairly smooth, the story moved along at a fast pace, and I found myself rethinking things that I took at face value initially about the characters and setting throughout as new information was revealed. I'll definitely be picking up the next book to see what happens next. This may change my review here depending on how some of the above issues are handled.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, War, Xenophobia, Genocide, Torture, Violence, Child abuse, and Colonisation

Moderate: Alcohol, Murder, Mental illness, and Suicide

soniajoy98's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Classism, Cursing, Torture, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Incest, Rape, Child death, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and War

meltingpages's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

This did take a little bit for me to get into, there's a lot of world building thrown at you right away so it took a little bit of time for me to figure out what was going on. Once I got everything straight in my head though I really ended up enjoying this! I loved Sylvia as a character, she's so complex and how she feels about her culture is so fascinating. She also goes through a lot of growth and you can see her coming to terms with her past and what her future should and could be. The trials Sylvia competes in were a surprise, as they weren't really mentioned in the synopsis past mentioning a game, which I took to be a game of political intrigue, not a literal game. I'm all for Sylvia getting revenge for her people and taking her kingdom back and making it better than it was before. I'm all for morally gray characters, and Sylvia and Arin are the epitome of that. I also ended up really loving the Egyptian inspired world, with all the history and culture. I will say though one of the downsides to reading the arc is that you don't get the map, which I always use to help center myself and get an idea of what the world actually looks like and where all the locations are in reference to each other, especially in a book like this where they're travelling around from one kingdom to another. Overall though,  I'm so excited about this book, and I'm even more excited for the sequel!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Cultural appropriation

vohak's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Whew, what a book! Jasad Heir started a little slow with Sylvia, an orphaned chemist's apprentice who lives in a small town. Unfortunately she's also the heir to a magical neighboring nation that was destroyed when she was a child, it's citizens hunted ever since. We follow Sylvia and another dangerous royal, Arin, as they prepare for a tournament, encounter resistance groups, battle their own demons, and fight with/for each other. 
This book surprised me several times, made me laugh out loud, made me cry, and made me hope. My only problem is that now I have to wait for the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia

Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, War, Torture, and Child abuse