Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Celui qui noya le monde by Shelley Parker-Chan

92 reviews

shibh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

A bittersweet end to the duology. These books look at gender and the human experience of it in a way that has left me feeling exposed and crying. In a good way though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

rongrong's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-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

Knocked my socks off.  Deeply dark, violent, sad - almost all of the characters carry trauma and inflict trauma on others.  Ma was kind of the first ray of light in many hours of listening.  The deaths and betrayals all felt true to the characters and the direction of the story.  Everyone is flawed.  Zhu’s determination has been admirable for so long, but here she experiences the strongest emotions of her life. Her ability to change and to deeply reflect on who she is and how her actions and decisions align with her identity expanded after those experiences of strong emotion.  Ma’s explanation of the gift of following and the gift of belief in the one you followed was critical, and the changes in Zhu that allowed changes in the direction of fate really saved it all at the end.  Narrator’s pronunciation was sometimes great and other times kind of stilted and distracting, but overall wonderful narration.  Very grateful that the author chose to end Ouyang’s story in this way.  Also Zhu’s and Ma’s.  What a gift this author has, to write at so many miles deeper than Harry Potter book 7 levels of dark, and to make it so compelling to read on and learn what comes next, and next, and then.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder, and War

isi__1's review against another edition

challenging dark sad slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, and War

Moderate: Miscarriage, Rape, and Torture

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

lorayray's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.0

The graphic violence and sexual assault scenes nearly made me DNF about… 3 times. It took away from the beautiful writing and other enjoyable aspects of the book. I’m not sure if the story was worth it in the end - it was a good story, but it was quite graphic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and War

thegabecole's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Sexual violence, and Torture

Moderate: Homophobia and Miscarriage

grace_b_3's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

spec_tacles's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

After She Who Became The Sun, I knew I would love this, but i’m still shocked by how much. I was just as immersed in this one, despite different perspectives, and the emotional payoff was huge. 

This is a 5-star read, no question. If I were Shelley Parker-Chan, I would feel so proud to have created such a dynamic work of art.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Chronic illness and Pregnancy

Most content warnings come from the fact that the story is about war, but it’s still challenging regardless, especially the torture.

niamhyjay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and War

Moderate: Xenophobia

mybooksareincolourorder's review against another edition

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Self harm, and Torture

cheye13's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

Cohering my thoughts about this book and the duology together is a herculean challenge. It was not a pleasant reading experience, in that horrible things are happening to all characters at all times. It is one of my favorite books in that a vice was slowly, constantly contracting around my lungs until I finished it.

Even more so than the previous book, the transness in this one is tangible. A number of lines were clearly written in response to current events in our world. The interweaving of the ensemble is just as masterful as the first book. Beginning this book, I was afraid that it would fall short because my favorite element of book one couldn't continue (

that being the ouyang/esen relationship, when one of them is dead

), but my fears were unfounded. Not only did that thread continue, but it was intensified amongst other threads.

My options discussing this book are to break it down entirely and speak at length, or to simply say it's magnificent, and I suppose I'll settle for the latter.

(I strongly recommend checking content warnings. If you would prefer not to, keep the tone and events of book one in mind and know book two pushes a little bit further.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Suicide

Minor: Cursing, Infertility, Trafficking, Abortion, Pregnancy, Colonisation, and Dysphoria

A number of characters rely on dissociation as a coping mechanism. Especially compared to the previous book, there is quite a bit of on-page sex. While technically on page, it is almost never graphically detailed. Additionally (and fitting for the setting), it almost always falls into the dicey consent grounds of transactional sex – e.g. a lesbian actively choosing to sleep with a certain man for money or power. There is a single rape scene, and again, while on-page, it's brief and sparsely detailed.