Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport

85 reviews

yessicookie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.5

A great fantasy scifi book with interesting characters and a relatable main character.
(some parts were a little bit predictable to me, however i did not mind bc there were some plot twists that even i couldn't predict)

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gun violence, Blood, Death, Gore, Racial slurs, and Racism

Moderate: Grief, Torture, Sexism, Xenophobia, and Sexual content

Minor: Slavery and Vomit

marinaaurelia's review against another edition

adventurous 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Racism, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, War, Confinement, Murder, and Cannibalism

t_ashleyxo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Misogyny, Racism, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

dragonsheart8261920's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cannibalism, War, Grief, Alcohol, Death, Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Racial slurs

centrifugepolitics's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racism, Violence, Murder, Grief, Blood, Misogyny, Death, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Colonisation and War

straw_hat_kd's review against another edition

adventurous tense 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

4.75

An incredible book. From start to finish Ms. Davenport does a wonderful job with everything. Every time I thought I had things fingured out, a new twist comes and shakes things up. War, prejudice, world building, powers and hellish training trials await, and I was never prepared for things turned out after each main event happens. The main character, Ikenna, is just incredible. She will take you through a full range of emotions as you cheer her on,  question her decisions, and at some points downright dislike her. The book is told from the main character's point of view, so we are privy to her thoughts about herself in those moments as well.


 This is the first part in a duology and I will be reading The Blood Gift, cause I need to see how this ends. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

emerentina's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Bullying, Murder, Torture, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexism, Body horror, Blood, Miscarriage, Death, Violence, Racial slurs, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Medical content, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and Sexual content

msrae89's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I really wanted to like this book and I was excited to read it, but, ultimately, this book just wasn’t for me. 
Pros: -The book is pretty well written; it is a little repetitive at times but it makes sense within the narrative. 
-The themes the book is exploring are really interesting and done in an unobtrusive way. What I mean by that is I never felt as if the book was preaching to me. 
-The themes themselves were really interesting and interconnected with one another seamlessly. Racism, colonialism, military and military propaganda, sexism, classism, trauma, all work together to tell a very interesting story. 
-The ending was engaging and set up the second book nicely. 
However, that’s about where my enjoyment of the book ended. 
Cons: The MC, Ikenna, is 19 and very traumatized, and while it makes sense for the narrative, I found it very repetitive and annoying. This might be, in part, bc I’m in my 30’s and I have an harder time relating to younger MCs.  Though, really, I didn’t find any of the characters interesting or engaging. I couldn’t even “love to hate” any of them. 
-The book is oddly and aggressively compulsory heterosexual and cisgender. As far as I can tell queer people just don’t exist in the book’s universe, and as a queer person I prefer to read books with queer representation. Even just a passing statement that queer people exist would be more than this book has. Maybe they are in book 2 but after starting it I doubt it based on the little I’ve read so far. 
-The “romance” is just bad. First off, it’s unethical. Reed is Ikenna’s superior officer, which he acknowledges. Reed was also the mentee of Ikenna’s deceased grandfather which creates a weird situation for them. It feels a little freudian. Also, Reed is boring! And all of this awkward tension leads to a sudden sex scene. I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum, but this just wasn’t for me and I skipped it. 
Overall it was a good idea with flat characters and dense story. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Toxic friendship, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Classism, Violence, War, Blood, and Colonisation

lesliehirgelt's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Death of parent, Sexism, Racial slurs, Violence, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

Moderate: Classism, Alcohol, and Cannibalism

Minor: Toxic friendship

blakeandbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

5.0

LFGGGGGG

Why did no one force me to read this sooner?! What’s freaking masterpiece. Ikenna is such a badass who doesn’t take shit from anyone! So much happened from beginning to end — I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. The audiobook? So so good! I’m excited to read book 2.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Murder, Racism, Violence, Blood, Racial slurs, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Moderate: War

Minor: Slavery