Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport

55 reviews

maresuju's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Sexual content, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Deadnaming, Physical abuse, War, and Sexism

Minor: Colonisation, Genocide, Death of parent, Cannibalism, and Torture

fleur____'s review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Grief, Murder, Racism, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Torture, War, Cannibalism, Classism, and Sexism

Minor: Slavery

kendallreallyreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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? Yes

5.0

Fuck around and find out

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Racism and Sexual content

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

amberswips's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Cannibalism, Gore, Murder, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: War, Grief, and Sexual content

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

miraileah'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

5.0

5.0?? I really loved this. I couldn’t put the book down, and now that I’m finished my mind is spinning. I loved that this was a genre bender, it made total sense and the book was absolutely better for the inclusion of all of the different elements. The prose was visceral and transporting, and I loved Ikenna as a protagonist.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Violence, Xenophobia, Racism, War, Murder, and Hate crime

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

shainabriley's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Sexual content, and Murder