Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

66 reviews

cakeylu's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Child abuse, Grief, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Outing, Torture, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Child death, Bullying, and Animal death

emesfiz_28's review

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Violence, War, and Cursing

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, Torture, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Addiction, Body horror, and Child death

hildaahlstrand's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Cursing, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Drug use, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Blood, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, War, and Child death

It's extremely dark, but if you can handle it, it's an amazing experience.

no1willnot's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Violence, War, Addiction, and Child abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Rape, Homophobia, and Domestic abuse

It’s a book about vampire wars that centres around a religious order of vampire hunters based heavily in Christianity, so there is a LOT of blood, violence and institutional abuse

jnl00700's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Homophobia, War, Torture, and Murder

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual content, War, Torture, Religious bigotry, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Bullying, and Death

Moderate: Sexism, Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, and Homophobia

Minor: Sexual violence

readwithanne's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Torture, and War

Minor: Pregnancy

michelles_book_nook's review

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

⚠️ TW: violence, alcoholism, gore, graphic content, animal death, murder, homophobia, torture ⚠️ Wow I don't even know where to start with this review because this book left me speechless, it is an absolute masterpiece of epic dark vampire literature and I loved every second!! This book follows Gabriel De León, a half man, half vampire creature known as a paleblood who is a sworn brother of the holy silver order, the Silversaints, dedicated to protecting humanity from the war waged by vampires since daysdeath happened 27 years ago when the realm was plunged into a constant state of night. But as the vampire royalty known as highbloods continue to build their eternal empire Gabriel, the last remaining Silversaint, is all that stands between the world and its end. Now as he finds himself imprisoned by the very monsters he vowed to destroy he is forced to tell his epic tale filled with legendary battles, forbidden love, family and friends, lost faith, wars of blood and the forever king and the almighty quest for humanity's last hope, the holy grail. Firstly this book will have you feeling every emotion possible as it takes you on an immense dark, high fantasy journey. You will swoon, get hot under collar, laugh, cry and more importantly be absolutely enthralled from the very beginning. The world building and character development in this book is just utter perfection and I genuinely believe this book will be known as a vampire classic in the future because it is impeccable. Also, it has given me so many new one liners and insults too and I love it 😂 Overall, if high fantasy, vampires and epic journeys sound like your thing then you need to read this book and I cannot recommend it highly enough and I need book two ASAP 🦇

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Gore, Animal death, Murder, Alcoholism, Torture, and Homophobia

ridleyreadsthings's review

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

5.0

Okay let me first start off by saying I loved this book. The story was insane and gritty and the worldbuilding was to die for. Kind of like if castlevania and the witcher had a baby. 

You can tell Kristoff really took his time with the worldbuilding and character building. It's a incredibly dark, dangerous world that is far from boring and every chapter brought more depth and lore. No two characters were really the same either. He's blended vampire horror and mystery and fantasy to create something truly epic. Definitely not for kids this book. It's visceral and brutal and will leave you bleeding for more. 

It's not your typical vampire story either. While they are beautiful, elegant eternal creatures, they still are monstrous and act as monsters. They aren't climbing through your bedroom window to read you poetry, they are evil - but even that evil had layers. Full of characters you love to hate, and hate to love, I can't wait to see where this epic journey ends up. 

On the downside though it was what I expected of Kristoff - arrogant "woke" MC with the mouth of a sailor. All the swearing and childish playground insults kind off took me out of the story, and I found myself rolling my eyes alot. 

But in the same breath I was incredibly suprised by this book. It's different from anything he's ever written, and I enjoyed the back and forth of the story into two points in the past, and I liked the narritive of that it's Gabriel telling his story, but we are still building up to something greater in the present day. 

I think everyone can find something they love about this book, whether it's the worldbuilding, the cast of diverse characters, the brutal horror aspects, the tattoo worthy tattoos or the twists and twists and twists. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, and Gore

Minor: Torture, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

codyemma's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Torture, War, Violence, Outing, Homophobia, and Grief