Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

La Fille aux éclats d'os by Andrea Stewart

19 reviews

gayghostprince's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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: Body horror, Death, Child death, Animal death, Death of parent, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: War, Blood, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Classism

Minor: Grief, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Trafficking

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Death of parent, Violence, Gore, Murder, and Body horror

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Grief, Animal cruelty, and Kidnapping

ok7a's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Death

Moderate: Body horror, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Trafficking

emilypete17's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

One of the most well-done adult high fantasies I've read in ages. Andrea Stewart has woven an incredibly rich and socially complex world, chock full of complicated, incredibly interesting characters. The magic system of this book was equal parts horrifying and compelling, and the plot kept me on the edge of my seat until the very last page(I mean this quite literally). The exploration of imperialism and class felt so grounded in our current reality, even in such a fantastical setting. Absolutely pumped to continue this series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Grief, and Physical abuse

Minor: Animal death, Death of parent, and Emotional abuse

lavendera_'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? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Gore, Torture, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Slavery, Trafficking, Torture, Violence, Grief, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, and Kidnapping

aardwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

Incredibly well done. Balancing the POV characters and all the plot they have to unfold is particularly impressive, with the shifts from first to third person representing a daring choice that pays off. The worldbuilding and magic system, which are at risk in any undertaking like this of becoming a clunky book of lore, are juggled just on the precipice of mystery. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Physical abuse, Gore, Grief, Death, and Confinement

Moderate: Animal death

entazis's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

I listened to this in a few days, having so much fun. This world is fascinating, the concept of migrating islands and the way bone shard magic and constructs are explained giving us some terrifying images and situations. This is not a horror novel, but I will say that I find the constructs unnerving. If you've read T. Kingfisher's The Twisted Ones it's like whole bunch of effigies just used in everyday life as servants of the empire.

The story explores the ideas of free will, identity and agency. It also talks about corrupt governments and revolutions. Of loneliness and grief. It plays with old tropes (the smuggler, the missing wife, the mad scientist who is also a tyrant, the princess in the tower) and gives us something new which I specifically liked. And while I guessed something important from the beginning, the way character came to the answers was fun, giving us important worldbuilding blocks, and there was still something that managed to surprise me.

All in all, a lot of fun with a weird world where constructs of dead animal bodies walk around governing people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Gore and Grief

zsenzsen's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Animal death, Death, and Body horror

catastrophic's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

3.5

So much was good in this book and so much...didnt work. 
The good? The magic, wow. Very original, never heard of things like it before. It's necromancy, Frankenstein, with so much more depth. I did find it annoying how we're given no framework for this magic - contrast to a system like Sanderson's where there's always strcture built in. A good and evil, or 10 kinds of magic, or the four elements. It meant that some elements (like a talking animal, not really a spoiler) were less shocking. Even have some folklore references seeded through so we understood what it was and could brace for the magic.

It would help with the deus ex machina problem, which was super obvious when the boat guy was about to lose to the cartel people and suddenly gets super strength, at the same time that his pet starts talking. that was a horrible plot twist, considering i had no idea that was possible.

The gay stuff was great. A bit hamfisted with their relationship, but it was two queer women who already knew that they were queer having genuine normal relationship problems not related to their queerness

with a happy ending

. Loved it. Plus all the seeding of different sexualities as being normal in this world?? Incredible.
I also liked the characterisation, especially Lin. I liked that she - and boat guy, forgot the name - was good at certain things but also clearly bad at others, and in ways that I havent seen in other characters. Like obviously they're tenacious, courageous, and ambitious. What protagonists arent? But we so clearly see that boat guy is only good at being a smuggler, so he's not good at other stuff. and his unique skill of lying cleverly is well-portrayed and I really enjoyed that tension. Lin's ability to read people's expressions and, similarly, manipulate, was great. I was sad that there were no grey characters, we had the Good Protagonists and Bad Baddies (they teased with making Lin and boat guy selfish but they never really were).

I almost stopped reading though because of how it was written. Lots of telling not showing, especially in the introduction of boat guy. Problems i mentioned before with how magic was introduced and seeded in. I kind of saw the twists coming. But i pulled through with the incredible magic and unique characters

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, and Death