Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Celui qui noya le monde by Shelley Parker-Chan

107 reviews

hubertsc's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad 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

Moderate: War, Sexual assault, and Violence

Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia, and Ableism

ka_cam's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

I don’t know if I’ve read a book with so many complex and tortured relationships to gender. Ambition, sacrifice, autonomy, revenge, regret, grief, sadism and masochism, spirits destroyed and indestructible, actual spirits both benign and lethal… plus conquest and war strategy- a lot happening here. Some parts dragged a little for me but all in all a compelling and thought provoking read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Grief, Sexual content, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Sexism, Blood, Misogyny, Violence, War, Murder, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Torture

pearlbird's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional

• 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

4.25

Props to Parker-Chan for being brave enough to write this book and get it published. All characters are deliciously messed up while fighting for the Imperial throne of China. Each of them has to deal with being outside of the gender and sexuality norms of the time and place and be warned - it's not pretty. Marginalisation does not a hero make. It is however well-written and dares to explore these questions in ways I have rarely seen. I only had to deduct some points because

my fave my bestie my love Ma Xiuying is weirdly absent for the vast middle.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Toxic friendship, War, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Homophobia, and Sexual violence

Minor: Child death

drowning

lm19's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

Such an engaging story with so many twists and turns. I loved being able to see so many different POV characters throughout this book and Parker-Chan has such a way with words.  It wasn’t perfect but it was exactly what I have been searching for in a book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Sexism, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Rape, Torture, and Transphobia

Moderate: Colonisation

valkyri_anna's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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

4.5

An excellent conclusion to Zhu’s story! Unabashedly queer, unabashedly heartbreaking at times. Parker-Chan is someone to keep an eye on!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

Moderate: Transphobia and Sexism

Minor: Sexual content and Sexual violence

I do not love how Zhu’s pronouns are changed based on perspective. Perhaps Parker-Chan intended a more fluid reading of Zhu’s gender, but I always read them as transmasculine and felt a little weird seeing them referred to with feminine pronouns when the writing takes their perspective. Didn’t ruin the book for me, just an odd choice.

throwback682's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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? Yes

4.5

As I’ll mention in the content warnings section below, this book is much more triggering and more violent in specific ways than the first book (She Who Became the Sun) in this duology. 

That being said, I couldn’t put it down. I finished this one much more quickly than the first. It was very gripping. The reason I gave it 1/2 star less than its predecessor is just because of the r*pe scenes honestly. 

Re: the title

I wondered if the title of the second book referred to the main character of the first book just with a different pronoun but this book focuses more on a different character, who was in the first book but didn’t play such a major role.

He sort of comes from behind unexpectedly and becomes a major player in this installment.

The backstabbing really gets kicked up a notch in this book too. 

I kind of thought at one point that the book was getting a bit predictable/tired and then OPE THERE’S A TWIST and then WHOOPS ANOTHER ONE. Hang in there. 

The protagonist of the first book continues to beat the odds in unexpected ways as she did before and again it’s spectacular. Also as before, I found myself rooting for and even loving really cruel, dark, awful characters. The author has a talent for coaxing out empathy for the worst baddies. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Grief, Slavery, Sexual content, Ableism, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Self harm, War, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Violence, Pregnancy, Rape, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Abortion, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Torture, Animal death, Body shaming, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Confinement

Minor: Vomit

There is a lot more triggering content in this book than in the first installment of the duology, She Who Became the Sun. Specifically there are multiple rape scenes: - one is marital

as a punishment visited on a wife by her husband

- one is sort of in the context of a gay relationship but

first of all the “relationship” starts off as a manipulation tactic and is coercive and abusive

and secondly

the specific rape scene itself is forcible and in anger.

- another is in the context of a king/consort relationship, which already means consent can’t apply because of the power dynamic, and then

he is purposely trying to hurt her emotionally with the specific rape.

There are also numerous incidents of self harm (many of them are actually perpetrated by someone else, but still falls solidly in the “self harm” category in this context). Like the last book, there is a child who dies -

murdered by a soldier.

He also

has his blood let as proof of life to send to his father to gain his army’s compliance.

I marked both miscarriage and abortion but really it’s neither of those exactly.

A woman is happy about her pregnancy and then another woman gives her poison that ends it without her knowledge or consent.

There’s also someone who has been mutilated.

A servant has her eyes and tongue removed

so that she can be used in a specific way to test someone’s magical powers. There’s also a man who is executed by

being cooked alive in a bamboo steamer.

Yes, the first book was violent and about war and cruelty. But I think this book takes it to another level in several ways. Read with caution.

and_opossum's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Death, Murder, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Child death, Infidelity, Grief, and Suicide

fiafiu's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-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

5.0

This book was absolutely everything I could've wanted and more from the sequel. The author described this as "murderous queers" and they couldn't be more right. This book really truly gave me insight to the characters, not just Zhu. This book did not shy away from the pain and suffering it is to be human, and how ambition is a slippery slope. I couldn't believe how emotionally attached I got to a lot of them haha. This is one of THE BEST historical fantasies I've read (maybe ever)!! I can't say enough good things about it. The characters (especially Ma, my absolute fave!!) and their stories, joys, dreams, and pains will be something I carry with me for a long time, I just know it. If I had to sum it up in a word: "mesmerizing" :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

mynameisinigomontoya's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, War, Violence, Torture, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Outing, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

Minor: Abortion and Miscarriage

wrenaldreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

this was a heavyyyyy read. My goodness. So incredibly complex and moving, much like the first book. There is so much to say - I’ll be processing it for a few days I think. Also def read content warnings beforehand if needed 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, War, Self harm, Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Violence, Sexism, and Rape