Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

10 reviews

mireillecum's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Grief, Murder, Police brutality, Violence, Vomit, Death of parent, and Gun violence

ren_dragon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Death, Murder, Death of parent, Grief, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Violence, and Police brutality

Minor: Cursing

vivavia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Child death, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Death, Police brutality, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Cannibalism, and Toxic relationship

redthistle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, Body horror, Torture, Police brutality, Violence, Child death, Blood, Gore, Grief, Abandonment, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cannibalism and Colonisation

coffeeandcomedy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Abandonment, Alcohol, Child death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Police brutality, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Cultural appropriation, and Death

Moderate: Cursing

Tagged cultural appropriation as a major content warning because there is some controversy around Roanhore using Diné culture/stories/beliefs as she is not Diné.

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous 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

I usually don't read urban fantasy, and I wouldn't have picked this book up on my own. But it was recommended to me based on my personal references... and it worked. I loved the world building a lot. And sometimes that's actually all I need to enjoy a book, tbh. Loved the post-apocalyptic vibes, loved the Native American influence, the myths and legends and magic. Although the characters weren't perfect, I loved them and their interactions as well. Maggie, the protagonist, has anger issues and impulse control issues and abandonment issues and commitment issues, but for some reason she didn't annoy me. It's understandable where she comes from, and the other characters help to balance everything out. There was not much plot and the bits that were there were very chaotic. But it kind of made sense to me. And I loved that it felt a lot like an Episode (or make it a season) of Supernatural as well as an action-adventure game, where you start out with a clear goal but get distracted by all the side quests along the way. :D

I will say that the showdown/finale/revelations at the end were the weakest part of the story. Half of it was too predictable, half came out of nowhere. But this didn't take anything away from my reading experience. So objectively, this is not a perfect book, but it was perfect for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Police brutality

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• 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

4.5

TRAIL OF LIGHTING is a bright light in my reading life, a book with urban fantasy feels but nary a city in sight. Maggie is conflicted and messy, with a supernatural ability to bring death (helped by her gun and very large knife) and not much help reconciling that with the rest of herself. 

It's about legacies of trauma and the nature of monstrosity, as Maggie grapples with her understanding of herself. Is she a person who kills monsters? Or a monster who's trying to take other monsters down with her/ Part of this is shown early on when she deliberately withholds her expected part of a culturally important greeting, not wanting to show this part of herself to people she is technically in community with. She feels alienated from them by her deeds. Complicating this is the fact that she's useful to them for the very thing that makes them feel uncomfortable around her, i.e. her talent for death which she uses for monster hunting and retribution.

I love the worldbuilding and setting, blending real climate change fears with Indigenous (specifically Diné) mythology to create a new world from the remains of our own. Some things are directly explained, especially if they relate to her personal history or the particular quirks of this particular dystopian existence, but a lot of specific definitions are left to context clues. 

I enjoyed this portrayal of Coyote, Maggie's interactions with him are interestingly tense. I like Kai, he seems like a good counterbalance for Maggie. My few complaints about him have excellent in-story justifications which come together in the end and turn them from annoying to appropriately mysteriously and foreshadow-y. 

The big reveal is excellent, I'm very pleased by that part of the ending. This was great and I'm excited for the next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Sexual content, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Gore, Violence, Gun violence, Cannibalism, Murder, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Ableism

mortonsspoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

manarnia's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-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

This was an absolutely propulsive read. I had to continuously stop myself from skipping forwards to see what happened. I did not, however, love the main character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Police brutality, Blood, Gun violence, and Cursing

Moderate: Grief and Toxic relationship

mloza's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Cannibalism