Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

15 reviews

angstifies's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

i apparently did not like this as much as many people did but oh well. the world building was terrible, i was exited to read about a fantasy world inspired by the Roman Empire and except from the somewhat latin names we get none of that.

the narrators and characters were so annoying, the main characters are 17 and 21 but i felt like i was being told a story by a fucking child.

but the absolute worst thing about this book was the <b>overuse of misogyny and sexual violence against women.</b> i get it, some books’ worlds and settings are sexist but it was so overused. there are so many mentions of rape/threats of rape when it’s not even needed, and it was absolutely pointless. and the sexism was absolutely disgusting, even the male main character himself is so fucking misogynistic and constantly objectifies the “love interests”, i could not believe this was written by a woman. 

i’m gonna make examples that infuriate me about <b>Elias specifically and his misogyny:</b> using “don’t act like a girl” as a degrading insult to Helene (a woman) SO MANY TIMES, even in his internal monologue + saying things like “oh they’re women! that’s how they are!”, shut the fuck up. sexualising both Laia and Helene basically always. feeling bad for a literal abusive RAPIST. letting marcus win knowing that now he can do whatever he wants with Helene and she can’t say no to him, all for a girl with no personality he met less than 2 months ago.

the characters were almost always insufferable and the romance was shit, i at least enjoyed the overall plot and the last 80 pages were great.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Murder, Torture, Physical abuse, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Minor: Death of parent

karapillar's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Stalking, Sexual assault, Blood, Emotional abuse, Death, Child death, Child abuse, Torture, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Vomit, Violence, Trafficking, Slavery, Murder, Kidnapping, Racism, Abortion, Confinement, Death of parent, Abandonment, Xenophobia, Rape, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Pregnancy

isi_lemonx05's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, and War

trazimmariju's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

swaggynikki's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I read this book in middle school and loved it. I just reread it and liked it a lot less. Honestly, that really disapoints me, because I remembered it as this incredible example of the good side of the YA genre, but parts of it just really do not appeal to me anymore. The main couple already had the whole slave-soldier dynamic keeping them appart, so the fact that they were both individually in boring love triangles was just. Fully unnecessary. I did love the worldbuilding and action of the series, but as someone who prefers character>plot it just didn't quite hold up for me. Also it's INCREDIBLY dark/gruesome, I can handle a lot but there were some parts that made me go "was that /really/ necessary for anything other that Maximum Shock Value". I feel like I'm trashing this book too much. I like it, and I think it's one of the better fantasy YAs out there, but it just isn't what I think it could have been.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Torture, and Slavery

Moderate: Child abuse, Genocide, Rape, and Abandonment

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Pregnancy