Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

61 reviews

novaleestar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.5

I loved this book just as much as anticipated! It is a dark, macabre trek through an endless forest full of horrible frights, and I often felt as if I were a phantom being led through a bloody painting. Viseral, beautiful, heart wrenching. Jay Kristoff always does such a good job making me reach out to find the hope he has hidden in the darkest nooks and flaws of his characters. This was no exception, and I can't wait for the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Alcoholism, Gore, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Grief, Violence, and War

Moderate: Cursing, Child death, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Torture, Body horror, Domestic abuse, Excrement, and Rape

seekerxr's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

is there even any words to describe this masterpiece?

i was engaged from the beginning to the very end. there wasn't a single moment of this book where i wasn't on the edge of my seat. it is worth every single bit of its 700-something pages because the story simply couldn't be told in less than that.

the atmosphere? unable to be duplicated. take every hard, dramatic aesthetic of the church and turn it up to eleven. it's blood and silver and hopelessness and battle fury.

the characters were intensely flawed and intensely loveable. no one could have told this story like gabriel did.

i didn't realize this was an incomplete series when i started it (i don't usually read incomplete series) but i am absolutely locked in. i cant wait for the rest of the story.

if you want a grimdark vampire fantasy epic, why aren't you already reading this?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry

Moderate: Xenophobia, Homophobia, War, and Gore

grets_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Drug use, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Child death, Sexual content, War, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Murder, Grief, and Gore

Minor: Slavery, Homophobia, Physical abuse, and Animal death

givemedatangst's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Death

edu_caldelas's review against another edition

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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Blood, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism

violet_gray's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.0

This review is specifically for the audio version with no pretty pictures to distract me from the hot mess which is the writing.
The “banter” is early 2000’s edgy stand up style humor.
The inconsistent mix of random French, faux old English and modern day English breaks all immersion. 

I’m ok with mixing timelines but they don’t pay off.  Also the contant moving of the goal post robs the story of anything remotely resembling a satisfying conclusion . 

The world building is not there. There’s mushrooms, potatoes, water and vague other races. Where are they? How does that impact who they are and how the world treats them? 🤷🏼‍♀️

Now specifically for the audio version… oh dear. That was a hot mess of accents and styles.

Less objective thoughts.
This reads like fan fiction of many different properties , most blatantly The Vampire Chronicles (French Nobel woman in exile in the country side, married to drunk husband has a child that extra special and their name is Lion something) and The Last of Us (hear me out: grumpy dude who loses daughter must deliver children to authorities that will use her to save the world but then decides he’d rather burn the world than have her die. Also fungus monsters) but the author likes gritty comics and George Carlin humour and things they can do better and this was their attempt at that. 


And as someone that likes all those things as well, I do wish this worked. 
Hence the two starts instead of 1.  But it doesn’t work cause the writing is bad. There is no real reason for this book to be this long unless you are aiming to appeal to Sanderson fans but can’t do all the world building he does. 
If books were kids toys, Sarah j Maas would purple sparkly toy  and this would the exact same crap plastic toy but in blue and black. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual violence, Murder, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, and Torture

lifeonasofa's review

adventurous challenging dark 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

Empire of the Vampire 🧛🏼‍♂️ Review 

“Finally, he retrieved a tarnished royale from his pocket. 'Here.'

'What is that for?' Jean-François demanded.

'I want you to take this coin to market, and buy me a fuck to give.” - Jay Kristoff 🪙 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.5 Stars 

If you’re looking for an adult vampire world to live in for the foreseeable future…this is it. At over 700 pages, this is only part one and Jay Kristoff is taking his TIME telling Gabriel’s tale. But for an opening, this book was art 😘 

It took me some time to get through this. It’s definitely not a relaxing read, it’s an experience. Having said that, when I did read it, the plot still moved pretty quickly. The book jumps everywhere along the timeline so it keeps it interesting 🤔 

I LOVED Gabriel, his character was so fleshed out. He felt so real. The whole silversaint thing, so interesting. Surprisingly, the religion side of this was probably my favourite part. Particularly, the loss in belief and light - it really helped flesh out the history of the world👌🏻 

Heads up, it’s a blood bath so if you’re put off by blood, death (some pretty sad) and foul language…I’d be wary 😂 it’s definitely not a kids book. I really loved how Kristoff combined such a classic story telling writing style with the relaxed banter dialogue, it somehow kept it light 👏🏻 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Addiction, Alcohol, Cursing, Violence, Blood, Death, Gore, and Grief

Moderate: Confinement, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Torture, Animal death, Homophobia, War, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Misogyny

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Infidelity, Pregnancy, and Rape

aseel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

While I liked the narrator style and the world we were in, it was super long for no reason? The amount of detail for someone recounting their life was absolutely ridiculous. I also can't believe there are going to be 5 books

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Child death, Gore, Grief, Domestic abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Torture, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, and War

taryn_g's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, Murder, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Blood

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Addiction, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, and War

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Slavery, Pregnancy, Outing, Self harm, and Vomit

andromeda_1998's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Sexism, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Torture, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Grief, Sexual content, Violence, Body horror, Child death, Drug use, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Physical abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, War, Animal death, Classism, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Genocide