Reviews tagging 'Violence'

We Free the Stars by Hafsah Faizal

58 reviews

maple_dove's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring 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

5.0

In my humble opinion, this book did not fall into the pit of sequel in a trilogy/duology syndrome (I forgot what it's called). I'm stuck between rating this 4.75 or 5 stars. I chose the latter.

This book just made me love the characters and the world even more. I binged this book in two days.

There's also aroace rep! It's nice to not have every character to have a romantic love interest. :)

I didn't write any quotes down, however, there are a lot of good quotes in this book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, War, Violence, Murder, Confinement, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Medical content, and Gore

Minor: Torture and Sexual content

I didn't keep exact track of the content warnings as I did for the previous book so these content warnings might not be entirely accurate.

doodeedoda's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Blood, Death, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Sexism, Torture, Violence, Child abuse, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

nadiaherondale's review

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I've been thinking for days what to say in my review because I liked the series in the core, I was engaged with the characters, I ended up liking the world building even though I was a bit confused about it at first, but to be fair the writing bored me. The over prosaic narrative sometimes took me out of the story and I had to read some parts several times to understand it (granted English is not my first language, but I have studied it for 20 years and I've never had any problems reading other books). I think the book (and the series) is good, just that the writing style is not for me

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, War, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Death

cerilouisereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Death, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

nikspandya's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

First and foremost I just gotta get this outta the way - the storytelling was lacking in the second book. There were many characters that just faded out or plot points I don’t think were fully thought through. My biggest critique is that Altair’s POV didn’t serve him at all, and it was a shame 🤧…moving on…

My absolutely favorite thing about this duology is the display of non-romantic love but like…make it romantic? The zumra has a soul bond? Like they love each other so much it’s maddening? 

The first time we see it is with Zafira and Yasmine as Yas gets married, how Zafira mourns it as a loss but tries to stay happy for her (history will rmbr them as best friends). We see it again in Altair’s actions towards Nasir in Sharr. We see it openly and proudly when Kifah says it about Altair without restrain, “I love him, yes. Fiercely. I’m beginning to love our zumra.” And when Altair later on lets Kifah know he sees her and wants her by his side. Over and over we are doused with Passionate, Big, All Consuming, I Didn’t Lose Myself In You, I Found Myself In You, Love™. For a group that chose their family! God it’s so freakin sticky sweet I could kiss them! (platonic)

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Violence and Death of parent

paigeinabook's review against another edition

adventurous reflective 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

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Addiction, Violence, Sexual content, and Child abuse

bri__'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

3.25

The last part of this book was great but I definitely found that alot of the middle was dragged and that caused me to take a week in completing this book. The writing is impeccable and the plot is insanely complex.

I loved Nasir so much throughout this series but I found Zafira to be a very complicated character to deal with due to her tendency to run away from her problems (being her relationship with Nasir). Yes there was some partial enemies to lovers in this duology but he fell in love with her during their time on Sharr so I wouldn't say it was that long a period of time. As stated already I did enjoy the ending, I'm just disappointed we didn't get to see more of the possible dynamic between Altair and Yasmine or the actual effect of magic among the community since we only got to see snippets.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, War, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, and Medical content

Minor: Child death and Infertility

sydapel's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-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? No

3.75

wowzers this book was LONG. It's so intricately done, and the characters really are given their time to shine here, but a lot of the plot intricacies I felt I should have understood completely flew over my head. Though I don't believe that the length was justified and I felt only minorly satisfied at the conclusion (just let Zafira and Nasir have ONE cute moment I'm BEGGING you), it gets a high rating bc there just aren't enough epic fantasy stories out there that capture the lore and culture of the Middle East like this does. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, War, Death, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Physical abuse, Gore, Sexism, Misogyny, Murder, and Emotional abuse

cappuccino_yuki_teddy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

maeverose's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Violence, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Murder, Confinement, and Gore

Minor: Grief and Misogyny

Loss of control over your thoughts and actions is a pretty big theme throughout

The main character is attached to this book that has a conscience and it drives her to brutally murder someone and generally makes her want to kill