Reviews with content warning for War - Destroy the Day

Reviews tagging 'War'

Destroy the Day by Brigid Kemmerer

16 reviews

knich's review

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

Book was fine. Audiobook narration was good quality, liked the three narrators

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lkristin2018's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad 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

Although the action and characters are well developed and engaging, I cannot give this book a good rating due to the

glorification of suicide and murder as the way to solve the main problem. While the author ultimately allowed the king and Quint to escape, their intention was to die while killing the evil consuls. The glorification of suicide and looking at it as a sacrifice for the greater good is especially problematic in a book marketed to teenagers when teenagers currently have a shockingly high rate of suicide. Suicide is a tragedy, not a clever plot point.

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hdcamp's review

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

HOLY CATS IT EXISTS IT HAS A COVER IT HAS A TITLE

WHAT ROCK HAVE I BEEN LIVING UNDER

Curses, January is so far away :(

~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~

😵

The actual title of this book is "Destroy the Hannah."

It was touch and go at the start. I read a few chapters and the characters didn't feel quite right. I had made the mistake of not re-reading the last two books, so I was a little forgetful of where we were in the story; the biggest issue was that I couldn't remember who Lochlan was or why I cared, which was a really bad thing. Take it from me - if you have the tendency to forget basic information about your own life like I do, you probably want to re-read before starting a sequel. It starts not long after where "Defend the Dawn" ends, and a lot happens at the end of that.

I will admit that the book isn't perfect. It has a few flaws (I'll elaborate in a moment). But it was emotional and humorous and overall quite genuine. I have only one real complaint, which I'll try to explain, but which I don't entirely understand myself. You should know that there is a M/M romance in this book that gets a lot of page time. It wasn't out of the blue, so you'll probably know who I'm talking about, but be warned: it goes farther than I was expecting. There's about as many explicit detail as has been in previous books, but actual sex is implied a few times.

And then the ending hits, and I was crying all over the place. I decided I could finish this before meeting up with some friends; none of us expected them to find me sitting on my couch with puffy eyes, completely and utterly hysterical.

The rest of this review is going to be riddled in spoilers, so if you haven't read it, consider yourself Gandalf'd

My favorite part of this whole series has always been Harristan and Corrick's relationship. I can't handle them - they just love each other so much and I love that. Even though they were separated for the whole book, it's still the best. Most of the emotions I felt were because of them. The sacrifices they made for each other, the things they learn about the roles their brother had to play after the death of their parents, the growth and change they make inspired by each other's strengths??
😭😭😭

As you may recall, Harristan is my favorite character, and has been since the beginning. I love everything about him. I am going to wait for my re-read (*sigh* someday) to more accurately assess this, but I did feel like he was a little OOC. Not terribly so, and I couldn't tell if it wasn't just the result of forgetfulness and suddenly being inside his head, or if it was genuine OOC-ness.

Quint was another of my favorite characters. He was perfection. Quint supremacy.

I think the weirdest part of this book was that Quint and Harristan had more page time than Tessa and Corrick; the latter aren't even together until the last 200 pages or so, so for this book at least Harristan and Quint are the true main characters. This is reflected in their romance. There's more page time given to Harristan/Quint (post having sex and everything) romance-wise than Tessa/Corrick got ever, like at all as I recall. That struck me as being a little weird, especially since I was expecting there to be as much Tessa/Corrick to compensate. We barely got anything from them (except for another veiled allusion to them having sex). There was a really nice proposal scene that I really liked, but that was kind of it.

And this is a challenge for me. I don't personally condone any sexual action outside of marriage. In particular, acting on feelings of same-sex attraction is described as a sin that "cries out to God." Understanding that is one thing. Applying it to people you care about (or yourself) is another entirely. This mostly just reminded me how I sometimes feel torn in two directions - and I can't imagine how much more challenging it must be for those even closer to the issue than I am. This is part of the danger in desensitization; if we are frequently interacting with positive representations of sinful actions, we have an issue on our hands. Although the characters are fictional, they elicit an emotional response (especially considering they're my favorites), and reading this is confusing even for me who is relatively quite firm in my belief here. I'm rambling a bit, but I've just been thinking about how we can love someone and simultaneously desire eternal life for them (and thus desire that their actions would be such as would lead them there), while also desiring that they find happiness, love, and community. Obviously they can have both, but society has pushed forward a "fast and easy" way to find love and happiness that is deeply flawed. Same-sex attraction is a huge wound. I can't even wrap my head around the pain of it. And I believe that same-sex attracted couples feel genuinely loving of each other, and that they can be in healthy relationships - but I also know that sexuality is a gift from God, and isn't something that we can remake to suit our fallen desires.

Maybe it isn't more challenging. Maybe I'm in my own head too much. In all honesty, I think I've been in my own head for a while now. This review is getting to be more introspective than I expected, so I'll shut up about all my musings for now and go back to being a goofball
🥴

Okay my biggest complaint of all time was that they really should have let Harristan stay dead. "But Hannah," I hear you say, "didn't you just write a wordvomit that frequently referenced how he's your favorite character?"
🙄
Yeees, and I stand by this. There was something exquisite about Harristan's death and the way in which Corrick learned of it, the way it changed him, and the effect it had on his relationship with his subjects. That painfully spectacular something is completely undone by keeping Harristan and Quint alive. Yes, it's nice. Yes, I was kind of relieved. No, I don't think I liked it. Marvel has ruined this very specific aspect of storytelling for all of us. #EndFictionalResurrection for real.

My final thought is that Rocco and Tessa made a better ship. I feel bad for Corrick, but Kemmerer just keeps introducing other men and every time I think that there is going to be a love triangle. This has been a problem for me for the whole series. Something about Corrick really wasn't holding my attention. I shipped her more with Quint there for a second. I guess Rocco and Olive were cute... I just... meh.

I did love this though 😅 As always, don't let my complaining confuse you!

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kirstenf's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.75

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annie45's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

4.75

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jenlferg's review

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adventurous emotional inspiring 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

4.75

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littlemissmommy's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

5.0

I want to scream right now.

Without giving too much away I hate the emotion earthquake my heart just got put through. But I also stupidly enjoyed it. Clearly I’m a masochist.

I have had this sitting on my up next pile for the last 3 months and I wish I’d read it sooner. I go through books quickly, but this one felt like a blink. I couldn’t stop myself from listening to it and was so invested in every branch of this story. I fell back in love with all the characters instantly.

Cory is the ultimate morally grey book boyfriend. He and Harriston are put in truly terrible situations, and they both make bad calls, or are forced to pick the lesser of two evils often. Lochlan is a person who’s been backed into a corner and is ready to claw his way out and Tessa is a pure hearted woman who does lean to being naive but refuses to stop trying to do the right thing. This series explores so many morally grey characters and terrible choices from so many sides. Even “captain Blackmore” ends up being greyer than he starts out. This series forces you to think and face the fact that even the best of intentions can have costs and the worst seeming people have reasons for their behaviour. So if that’s up your alley start the series!!!! It doesn’t disappoint. Just be prepared to shed some tears.

The end of the book might feel a bit rushed to some, but I appreciate that it’s not all wrapped up in a neat and tidy bow within weeks of the climax, as too much is left falling apart for that to be realistic, but I also recognize that to write months worth of detailed ongoings would have needed another book. So while at times it feels like a summary there are enough important moments inserted between the info dropping that I think it ended up being a good medium between the two options.

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