Reviews with content warning for Slavery - A Darkness At The Door

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

A Darkness At The Door by Intisar Khanani

13 reviews

farfetched's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Rae is the best. I love her so much, as I loved her two books. The way she dealt with the Circle was genius and perfect, and just everything came together so well. Her romance with Bren was really well done, there wasn't a 'magic wand' at the end, but it's hopeful all the same. Highly recommended.

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_rowantree_'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

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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rexpostfacto's review against another edition

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5.0

Rae ilysm

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tourmaline_and_tomes's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective 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? No

5.0

This picks up at the cliffhanger, where Rae has been betrayed into slavery by the nobleman she thought she could trust. "A Darkness At The Door" follows Rae as she continues to unravel the human trafficking conspiracy that reaches into the deepest corners of Menaiyan society, along with a host of lovable thieves dispensing thieves justice. What a lovely ending to this duology. I really loved "Thorn" and "A Theft of Sunlight," and this one did not disappoint. Rae is the type of lawful good character that just wants to do the right thing and believes in laws and systems. Bren is the perfect foil to her with his thieves justice and chaotic good mentality. At times, Rae's naivete was a bit ridiculous, especially when it was revealed that

Bren is Red Hawk

. I mean, duh. But Rae is such an endearingly sweet character, and also just becomes such a badass, that I can give her a pass on the naivete. As with the first novel, physical disability representation in the form of Rae's clubfoot was seamlessly woven in, as well as lovely moments of Rae setting boundaries for herself of genuine self-esteem and care. While the themes explored are dark, this is solidly YA, in my opinion.

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silver_valkyrie_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

4.25

I'm not sure why I didn't LOVE this one as much as previous installments. It was still a good story, and carried on with the themes about justice I appreciated from previous books. Maybe I'm just a bit more like Bren than I am Rae so I found some of her angst unnecessary...

I also in theory appreciated some of the serious conversations that naturally are part of making relationship more serious, but also didn't especially like how those conversations went. Not a big part of the book, just another example of how this book was *almost* a great reading experience.

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kimib79's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

I adore this series!

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fromjuliereads's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

I feel like I can give this sequel nothing short of 5 stars. That was such a fantastic end to the story! There were twists to how things were resolved that I didn't see coming and absolutely loved! So many fantastic characters and moments. I felt all of the emotions reading this book - it deals with so much darkness but has these wonderful moments of humour and hope. I adored this series, all of the characters, and I cannot wait to read more from this author!

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natashaleighton_'s review

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adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.5

An action packed and thrilling conclusion to the Dauntless Path series, that continues on from the shocking cliffhanger ending of The Thief of Sunlight that had me on the edge of my seat.

After managing to uncover the slavery ring responsible for the kingdom’s missing children, only Rae truly knows how deep the corruption goes. Imprisoned on a slave ship for what she’s learnt, Rae now faces the consequences of a terrifying life debt and the dangerous magic instrumental in her escape.

Now, to free her kingdom from the growing darkness, Rae will need every ally she can find including charismatic Bren, the thief who may just have stolen her heart. But Bren has dark secrets of his own and the curse that’s been circling Rae might just find its way into her mind.

For though the truth can save the kingdom, it might just destroy Rae in the process…

After that jaw droppingly tense cliffhanger in The Thief of Sunlight I was on the edge of my seat desperate to find out what happens next. Fortunately—with thanks to Hot Key Books—I was able to find out just that and can reveal that it didn’t disappoint!

Intisar Khanani’s breathtakingly intriguing fantasy was an absolute pleasure to read through. The world building like her previous works was utterly magical and bursting with vividly lush imagery.

Rae was definitely my favourite character, she’s a strong, determined and resilient young woman who overcomes her own physical limitations and is willing to risk her own life to dismantle the corrupt and unjust system which has allowed people (mostly children) to be sold into slavery.

I also really liked her love interest, the roguishly charming thief Bren and loved how their friendship develops. Rae’s been burned when it comes to trusting people previously, especially given the competitiveness of the royal court but it was really great to see Rae learning to trust Bren, inspite of his chosen occupation.

It’s a clean romance so there’s no explicit content but I was genuinely surprised by how much emotion and longing Intisar Khanani managed to evoke in to every scene Rae and Bren shared & was rooting for them every step of the way.

I enjoyed getting to see old favourites characters from Thorn again (Alyrra, Kestrin especially) as well as some newer characters such as Lirika who I really enjoyed getting to know.

I do have to warn that, as it does deal with darker subject material there are scenes that show or allude to violence, death, kidnapping, trafficking, slavery, child abuse, ableism, torture, murder and gore.

Overall, a breathtakingly adventurous fantasy that fans of immersive world building and charming, heist style intrigue definitely need to check out.

Also, a massive thank you to Eleanor Rose and Hot Key Books for this fantastic finished copy.

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tkelly15's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

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baroo92's review

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adventurous challenging funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.75

I really adore these characters and this world, so I have my fingers crossed that Intisar is going to write more in this universe! 🤞Rae is a very well-rounded character. I really love how her experiences reflect her development- she’s a country girl from a fairly nice village, so it makes sense when she has sheltered moments of shock at the world she’s been thrown into. It’s a really nice reminder that just because some choices have been normalized in society, they aren’t necessarily GOOD choices. Even if as a reader sometimes you want her to just go along with the flow, I love that she’s actually given narrative time to work through her feelings and navigate her morals.
Her chemistry with Bren is so PALPABLE. Love it love it love it, I bookmarked so many of their banter scenes so I can go back and reread them- their reuniting scene was so THRILLING! I also loved how much Rae’s relationships with other characters continued to blossom as well, everyone was very well fleshed out.

Truly the only thing that takes points off for me is

the lack of a kiss scene. Even after we’ve had a love declaration and ACCEPTED PROPOSAL, it’s easier to talk about a magical vasectomy than to have even one small chaste kiss? Or even in the epilogue section where they’re past married and hunting slavers, I’d have loved just a tiny bit of physical affection payoff for all the build up. Especially as a disabled character who regularly talks about how her disability makes her feel physically unattractive- I wanted at least a little more physical affection to round out that storyline and let her sit in the feeling of really being loved for her whole self.

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