Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Unbroken by C.L. Clark

49 reviews

angiepoggi's review

adventurous dark reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

 I didn't hate or love this book. I liked the world building being an analogy to France colonizing North Africa. Thus, it touches on themes such as racism, xenophobia and religious prejudice, but in a fantasy world with magic and many queers.

However, I didn't like the pace. It was slow (which I don't have a problem with) but boring. It took a long time for things to happen and there's a lot of time spent just talking, for example, until halfway through the book, about 245 pages, we were still building the narrative. Not to mention that, when some type of action could've happen, being running around or the characters discovering a secret on their own, a character immediately tells them everything and resolves the possible conflict quickly.  Also, after halfway through the book, the pacing becomes very inconsistent, with the ending, the very end, very rushed, but that part didn't bother me as much.

Now, I didn't like one of the main characters, Touraine.  She makes some decisions that made me so ANGRY AAA and they didn't make any sense, I mean, in theory they could've made for her, but the author didn't build much of a foundation for it.  For example, in relation to the development of this character, I know the points the author wanted to reach in Touraine's journey, but there were none to few scenes to justify the key changes in her head.

Even with all these reservations, I'm still curious to read the second one.  I heard that it's a different vibe and that the pacing is better balanced.

Anyway, I recommend this book if you want to read a fantasy that talks about colonialism with a lot of queers. There are a lot of people who love it, including a friend who wanted me to read it, so I think it's worth giving it a chance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Gun violence, Islamophobia, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Hate crime, Colonisation, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Murder, Body horror, Blood, Kidnapping, Gore, Emotional abuse, Genocide, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Sexual assault, Vomit, Mental illness, Torture, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Grief

Minor: Animal death and Pregnancy

marysunburn's review

hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Racism, Blood, Deportation, Pandemic/Epidemic, Trafficking, War, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

gigi_jodie's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

F meeee. This was so intense. I felt for Touraine throughout this book. She made so so many mistakes because of the internal battles of where her loyalties lay. Poor poor Touraine to figure out your idol had been your captor all this time. 

"Each path seemed like a different kind of powerlessness, but Touraine didn't know where else she could turn."

I honestly can't explain how well Clark wrote about colonialism and displacement, identity and politics in a divided land.

"Touraine was starting to think it was impossible to come from one land and learn to live in another and feel whole. That you would aways stand on shaky, hole-ridden ground, half of your identity dug out of you and tossed away."

It was so important to have both Touraine's and Luca's perspectives. Because as much as Luca is a power hungry monarch, she does genuinely care deep down, even though her actions might not always reflect that.

"'You will never have nothing. Not like we have nothing. Not like
the Sands have nothing. not like the Qazali have nothing- Not like a
carpenter's daughter in Nowhere, Balladaire, has nothing.' You will
never have to sell yourself to live."

"The sharp edge of Luca's voice rested against Touraine's throat. "I'm
letting you walk out of here on one condition. Get the rebels in line,
I don't want any more bloodshed than you do. The sooner they stop
fighting, the sooner I call of my hounds."
"You deserve this fight."
"The civilians, too? The children?"
"You teach the children to spit on us! Crawl out of your books, and
open your fucking eyes, Luca. This is real. We are real."

Sidenote, it was pretty damn cool to have a disabled princess, showing her reality and struggles without making it a weakness.

And that's all not even to mention all the other INCREDIBLE characters. The way they were discribed, the way they talked and moved I imagined them a certain way for it to only be later that their actual physical attributes were talked about and they were exactly as I imagined.
TIBEAU has my heart, he deserved so much better. 
Often stories spare not much room outside of the main characters, but even with only 2 POV's the other characters were so outspoken and alive on the pages.

Anyhow. Read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Grief, and War

heather667's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Chronic illness, Grief, Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Torture, and Vomit

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, and Excrement

Minor: Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Murder, Sexual assault, Abandonment, and Rape

mar's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.5

this was so mediocre why did u guys lie to me :(

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, and Racism

Moderate: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Pandemic/Epidemic, Ableism, Sexual assault, and Torture

Minor: Vomit and Animal death

brukneem's review

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

4.5

Amazing characters, an intricate plot, deception, betrayal, and so much more. This book was utterly amazing and I can't wait to read book 2!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Gore, Xenophobia, Murder, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

Minor: Vomit

av0universe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Religious bigotry, Cannibalism, Colonisation, Gun violence, Violence, and War

Moderate: Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Vomit, Torture, and Slavery

Minor: Sexual violence

aseel_reads's review

adventurous dark 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

This one is a hard one to rate because I found it super engrossing and something I wanted to constantly read but at the same time, I found that some of the betrayals just didn't make any sense and were quite unbelievable, so I couldn't rate this as a four. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Body shaming, Child death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Genocide, Gun violence, War, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical content, Rape, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Murder, Gore, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Blood, Classism, Confinement, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Police brutality, Racism, and War

Moderate: Chronic illness, Torture, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Ableism, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Pandemic/Epidemic, Trafficking, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Vomit, Death of parent, Sexual content, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcohol

Execution by hanging. Power imbalance in relationship (representative of colonizing government/colonized subject).

cardanrry's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Colonisation, Murder, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Slavery, Classism, Death, and Racism

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault