Reviews with content warning for Cannibalism - The Blood Trials

Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport

67 reviews

onthesamepage's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I'm going to start this review off by saying that this is NOT a YA book but definitely adult, and the book goes to some pretty dark places accordingly.

We follow Ikenna as she undertakes the Praetorian trials, a brutal initiation at the academy that trains the elite soldiers of Mareen. Her goal: to find out which of the Praetorian guards murdered her grandfather, and who commanded it. Statistically, only a quarter of the participants survive the full trials, something that quickly becomes clear. Yes, a lot of characters will die. No, your favourites aren't guaranteed safe. Be prepared for a lot of blood and chaos.

The story is action-packed, and most of it focuses on the trials and how Ikenna deals with them. We quickly find out that Mareen has a racist attitude towards her because of her heritage and the colour of her skin, and this racism is also found among the Praetorians. She is often singled out and treated unfairly, but she never lets it get her down. If we're talking about strong female characters, Ikenna can kick major ass. Her stubborn refusal to go down without a fight was my favourite part about her.

Unfortunately, she's also extremely hot-headed, and clearly not a fan of logical thinking. She easily suspects people of being involved with her grandfather's death without a single shred of proof, and then sets about plotting their demise. Innocent until proven guilty is not something she knows. I found this pretty frustrating to read about, and kept wanting to shake some sense into her so she'd stop being so rash and foolish. I do think this was intentional and just part of who she is as a character though. I wish this hadn't been written in first person POV; that would've probably frustrated me less. There's some uneven writing here and there, specifically phrases that didn't make much sense and subsequently pulled me out of the story. We also get a minor romantic subplot; I didn't really buy into their chemistry, but I am intrigued by Reed as a character.

The last part of the book suddenly speeds up and gets even more hectic. I did really like where the plot ended up going because it's something I wasn't expecting, so I look forward to the sequel.

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bookinitwithahtiya's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-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

This book here, y’all! I loved Ikenna within the first ten pages, point blank period. She’s bullheaded, driven, rash, and can definitely back up anything that comes out her mouth, no questions asked. I definitely feel like her and Rue from Wings of Ebony would get along or be the most dynamic sister duo 🤣 Kenna’s evolution is realistic and understandable, and I’m super excited to see her journey continue in Book 2. This (New) Adult SFF novel jumps right in and gives us the mission right in Chapter One; there’s no unnecessary exposition and it’s packed full with fleshed out and memorable characters. I’m excited for whatever N.E. Davenport puts out next. THE BLOOD TRIALS is already out in the world, so make sure to go grab your copy from your local bookstore or put in a request at your library; you’re not gonna wanna miss out on this one. That’s a promise 😉

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locpressedbooks_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

4.5

This book was an absolute thrill ride straight from page one! We join our MC Ikenna on the eve of her graduation and she’s got a lot of emotions going on right now after just losing her grandfather, Vern Amari, the legendary Legatus of the Republic of Mareen. She learns that he was murdered from a close friend of his and Ikenna has to gather the strength to not give up on herself as well as her grandfather’s love and legacy. She decides to join the Praetorians to get close to those who might have had a hand in his death. Not only does she have to face these gruesome trails where life and limb hang in the balance, Ikenna has to battle the suffocating fools that love to use misogyny and racism to try and discredit and deem her by any means necessary.

She’s fighting for her life trying to survive these trials, investigating her grandfathers death and on top of all that she carries a secret that could not only get her kicked out of the trails but killed for simply being who she is! This is a military science fiction/ fantasy story set in a dystopian society. It’s action pack, full of fight, and some seriously creepy creatures of the night. High tech battle gear and magic mix in this young adult debut novel. I’m so happy that it lived up to this amazing cover.

I got the audiobook (I listened at 1.4x speed) and I really loved it, Jeanette Illidge is the narrator and she’s done some of my other favorites such as The Good Luck Girls and A Blade So Black. She really brought these characters and the story to life for me I never wanted to miss a word. Inflections in the voice, mannerisms, I never got confused on who was speaking. I thought she did a great job and I will definitely be picking up the sequel, The Blood Gift, next year. Thank you again @nia.davenport, @harpervoyagerus and @b2weird for this opportunity.

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micaela_ru's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

1.0

Lots of potential and lots of disappointment with this debut. Sub-par writing drags down an otherwise compelling story.
Story: 3 stars. Engaging and entertaining most of the time, though chapter one is a struggle to get through after the initial scene in the bar. It is long, but it does do a good job in setting up the rest of the story. Unfortunately, this story felt like a slog up until the 40% mark where I feel like the story really started to get its footing. The trials themselves were disappointing, which the exception of one, I felt like they weren’t creative or interesting to read, and no amount of action scenes or gore made it better. It overall, this book felt both overstuffed but also underdeveloped. It is a bit predictable at times too, but there is one scene near the end that I didn’t expect and I would give a whole star just for that reveal alone.
Worldbuilding: 4 stars for the ideas. 2 stars for the execution. The blood magic was very cool. Fantastic ideas but the execution of those ideas felt flat and rushed. The blood magic was definitely cool and I liked how the moons played a part in that, but so much of the worldbuilding is filtered through walls of text including large swaths of awkward dialogue that was obviously meant to provide exposition and not much else. Everything about the Pantheon gods was interesting but the way it was delivered wasn’t interesting and made me want to skim. We really don’t get to experience the world they live in because they’re always indoors most of the time. The most refreshing scenes were when they were outdoors in the wilds, especially during that one crazy trial (seriously, best section of the book, I wish the entire book had been like that section). There are moments where the worldbuilding shines, but they’re so far and few in between because of the way the author chose to deliver the information. Speaking of worldbuilding, Ikenna dealing with racism is a huge point for this book but I felt it was too simplistic and detracted from the worldbuilding because -isms (any kind of oppression) has to have context, and there is no context for why people with dark brown skin are discriminated against and what info the book does provide isn’t enough. And while it is obvious that this story is using these fantasy races as stand-ins for real-world races (particularly white and Black), I feel like the story needed its own basis for why racism existed without relying on the real world. I felt like that was a missed opportunity with the worldbuilding that took away some texture and made the race stuff fill forced and over-the-top. Not to mention, the various names for the different ethnic groups/races/countries(?) was a bit confusing and hard to follow and remember the distinctions. Also, the reasoning behind why the trials exist didn’t make much sense. Even a character in the story points this out and it is brushed away.
Writing: 1.5 stars. My biggest issue with this book was the writing style, the pacing, the walls of text, the way that the writing bogged down everything, even managing to turn sex and fights into something tedious. The writing is the primary reason this book has 3 stars instead of the 4-5 I would’ve given it otherwise. It feels like unpolished YA. First-person present tense aside, which I’m not a fan of in SFF for practical reasons, this book’s writing created a very uneven reading experience to the point of distraction. Characters’ dialogue felt out of character sometimes and overly formal. Nobody had a distinct voice. They would switch from speaking in a normal, casual, realistic way to sounding robotic and using words that felt unnatural. Word choice, sentence structure in the prose was sometimes hard to get through because it felt so uneven and choppy. Since this story is first person, it should’ve felt like Ikenna was doing the talking in her own narration, but there was always a distance there and I think that it was because of the choppy writing. This book needed better editing. There was also cringey phrases that became repetitive or seemed out of place. Bottom line: the writing voice in this book is why I couldn’t give it more stars. The writing is also so heavy-handed and bloated at times that reading felt like a slog. There was so much repetition and too much time spent in Ikenna’s head when she was doing her sleuth thing. Also description was lacking for most of the book (though the description of the outside settings like mountains, moons, etc. was pretty solid). Impossible to know what the characters looked like, which created even more distance between the reader and the characters. The writing overall had a choppy, unpolished, and muddled quality to it. As stated earlier, the commentary on race and sex felt very surface-level. Using fantasy settings to explore bigotry isn’t new, and this story didn’t dig deep enough to make that exploration feel fresh or meaningful. We also didn’t need to be constantly told that something was racist or sexist. Let readers figure it out on their own.
Character: 2.5 stars. While I liked Ikenna’s bad-assery, she felt one-note after a while and there was something lacking about her character development. Also, her bad-assery and lack of emotional response to things made her feel like she wasn’t a fully fleshed out character at times. Even though this story was first person present, I always felt distanced from this character despite being in her head all the time. Also, because the MC is basically immune to damage, I never felt afraid for her, so it affected my ability to care about what happened to her or the people around her. She also seems to never be afraid either, so if the MC doesn’t care about what’s going on around her, why should I? The rest of the cast were forgettable, and I didn’t care about what happened to them. They were interchangeable names with bland personalities.
Romance and relationships: The supposed “enemies-to-lovers” trope also felt bland because Ikenna and the love interest barely have scenes together, and there’s one thing that comes out of nowhere (avoiding spoilers) that, while nice and spicy to read, felt random given the fact that their prior interactions lacked sexual tension or much of anything at all. Ikenna’s relationships with most of the other characters also felt one-note and when people were killed off, I didn’t care because there was no connection to them even when the author tried to force a connection right before a character would die.
One last thing: I was hoping this book would buck the trend of Black characters being tokens in their own space. I understand some of the necessity of that given the worldbuilding but there were ways to do that and not have her being a token. Between that and the way other Black characters are dealt with and how white characters are redeemed when they don’t deserve it, it definitely put a sour taste in my mouth a little bit.
Overall, despite my issues with this debut, I am going to read book 2 because book 1 ended with the promise of something more though I am disappointed in some of the choices made (especially with certain racist characters being conveniently redeemed). I found this reading experience to be uneven, sometimes a chore, and a bit disappointing after having such high hopes for this title. I feel like the weakest part of this series (other than the writing) is the actual trials that they participated in, which is sad to say, especially when they take up so much of the story. Everything going on outside of the trials (like the murder mystery and impending war) felt more compelling and interesting than anything going on within the trial scenario. Since it is a debut, I know that the sky is the limit for this author to evolve and I’m looking forward to seeing more.

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