Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport

68 reviews

booksandcurlz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious 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

I seriously loved this book and feel like it deserves more praise and more eyeballs. 

What I ❤️

♥️ Ikenna - she was intelligent, cunning, but also have issue with restraint and always let the anger get the best of her.

♥️ Reed - he was loyal, fair, with a high EQ, willing to admit he was wrong and always knew when to apologize for it.

♥️ The trials - 😮‍💨 The trials were BRUTAL, and what Ikenna went through WOW

♥️ The political maneuvering - how the Tribunals conspired, the incident at the Khanai kingdom, what happened in the trials (what really happened)
♥️ All the action, there was a great amount of action and that kept my attention. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Xenophobia, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Classism, Misogyny, Violence, Grief, and Racism

Moderate: War

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

tattooedbibliophile's review against another edition

adventurous 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

I’m mad that this book isn’t absolutely huge. It’s just as good as The Hunger Games or Fourth Wing, but it hasn’t been promoted by the publisher nearly enough. It’s absolutely amazing!

Beware, don’t get too attached to anyone. Nobody can be trusted. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Confinement, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Death of parent, Grief, Sexual content, Blood, Classism, and Gore

Minor: Cannibalism

transquake's review against another edition

why did she go into heat

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, Torture, Cannibalism, Murder, Misogyny, and Sexual content

Moderate: Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, and Classism

risaleel's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Racial slurs, Violence, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Classism, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Gore, Gun violence, and Misogyny

Minor: Sexism, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, and Physical abuse

_alwaysrealokay's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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? No

5.0

 The main character was badass asf. The perspective of the book was in the first person. The trials were ruthless and very graphic. I highly recommend this story because it takes today’s problems our society and apply them into a futuristic world. The Republic is what I imagine a futuristic America will be like when they fully accept their image as a military state that continue to uphold to their white supremacist ways. This was a strong debut for the duology. I can’t wait to see how the second book will top the first. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Xenophobia

Moderate: Misogyny and Sexism

kittykels's review against another edition

challenging dark informative 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

4.0

The main issue I had with the audiobook narration was the childish voices for the adult characters. They're young adults, but the voices often sounded more like young teens in early high school or maybe even middle school. It was very hard to hear those voices depicting sex and very graphic violence. If she were narrating a different story, I don't think I'd have as much issue with her narration. And I did not have issue with the adult content except when paired with the voices. 

Now with that out of the way, the story itself is really good and interesting, but needed some more refining. The last few hours felt very info-dumpy. The information was important, but it was a boring delivery for the most part. 

The two best friends of the main character are a weird choice. I won't say too much to avoid spoilers, but they don't really make sense as a friend group and there's no reason to feel emotionally attached to them. 

It's also hard to get behind Ikenna's motivations for her actions because we don't meet her grandfather on the page, we only have her memories. We're just told he's great and that's supposed to be enough to fuel her quest and for us to be interested in that quest. 

I wish there was a little more depth to Ikenna. I don't dislike her as a character, but the only emotion we get from her is anger. Sometimes she's contemplative, but that usually just leads her to being angry again. There's nothing wrong with anger and she has very good reasons to be angry, but it's not enough for us to connect with her as a person and what she's going through. We should also have experienced her grief (especially her grief) and her joy and whatever else. Some of the major events were hard to care about from her perspective because we don't really get that emotional connection. I guess it could be argued that perhaps this is an intentional choice, and Ikenna is using anger to suppress her feelings of grief and any other emotion that could distract her from her goal. I could buy this for external purposes, but it's not convincing within her private thoughts. 

I do look forward to the next book and really hope to see some improvements to the characters and our emotional attachments to them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Gore

Moderate: Sexual content, War, Vomit, Sexism, and Misogyny

Minor: Murder

raspberryvanguard's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

Ms. Davenport you have outdone yourself sister!!!! I’m not even a science fiction gworlll and I was hooked!!!  Wasn’t going into this expecting to regard nor rate it as high as I am. World building, excellent! Despite being fictional, the sudy of Black female anger/rage through Kenna was great, it was explored because she TOO, has VIABLE reasons to be angry, furious, and indignant; not the madwoman, base portrayals we’re given through stereotypes. Black women are entitled to emotions, especially anger. I put my library hold on the second book before I was even done this one. Well done!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: War

taroroot's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

Ikenna is brilliant and I can't wait to read the The Blood Gift!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Murder, Misogyny, Sexism, Gun violence, Racism, Grief, Blood, Xenophobia, Torture, Cannibalism, Sexual content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Transphobia, Classism, and Alcohol

Minor: Death of parent

hollyk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

5.0

HOW DOES THIS NOT HAVE MORE READS???? Genuinely astounded. This is so good, it goes places other fantasy books with similar presences do not go. Some of the world-building is shaky and a bit cloudy/confusing, but with the more you read the easier it is to grasp. I would also say this is more new adult than young adult.

Ikenna is an absolute badass. She's also flawed, and I like that she's hotheaded, impulsive, and doesn't back down. Her resilience is commendable and I think she's incredibly complex. She shows a lot of growth, but I also think a lot of other characters show growth as well, which I think can often get lost in other books. Several characters have some big changes and I am glad to see that growth. 

The pacing is a little slow at first, but once the Trials start, they Start™. One of the twists is kind of obvious, but I think that the details of it are well executed and are shocking. I won't say more because spoilers. Speaking of, TW in spoilers:

racism, sexism, gore, violence, death, murder, body horror(?), cannibalism (?), mentions of slavery, death of a parent/parental figure, grief

I think that covers most of the major ones.

I loved this book and I will not stop thinking about it for the foreseeable future

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Death, Violence, Gun violence, Blood, Bullying, Gore, Medical content, Body horror, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Classism, Confinement, Racial slurs, Torture, and War

Moderate: Sexual content and Xenophobia

Minor: Pregnancy

headinthepages's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Racism, Animal death, Cursing, Child death, Death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Gun violence, Violence, Abandonment, Sexual content, War, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Xenophobia