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Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail
☆ Writing Style 3/5 (definitely not for everyone)
☆ Characters 4/5 (a huge cast)
☆ Plot 3/5 (A relatively simple plot told in a very convoluted way)
☆ Setting 5/5
☆ Feels 3/5
☆ Spiciness 2/5
☆ Gore 5/5
If this were a movie it'd be rated: R for mild sexual situations, violence, body horror, frequent mentions of sexual assault, disturbing imagery, dismemberment, cannibalism, gore...this one goes to some really dark places
☆FOR FANS OF: Dark fairy tales; The Neverending Story
Ultimate verdict: ☆☆☆/5
☆☆☆Best Character Award goes to:☆☆☆ "You"
Review: A story of a thousand voices
This is one of the densest, hardest to read, most imaginatively told novels I've ever read. You'll know probably within the first 40 pages if this is for you or not. Every single character is purposefully given a POV even if it's just a single line, and the perspective changes from first, second, and third. All the different tenses are used. While this is incredibly cool, it can be extremely off-putting to the detriment of the story itself.
If you have the stamina to endure the way this story is being told to you, you get a very dark adventurous fantasy tale that spans literal generations of people and what's real and unreal is questionable at best. The story takes place in the Inverted Theatre, a literal theatre of dreams and nightmares, and the whole novel feels just as hazy and bizarre as trying to piece together a fever dream.
Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Ableism, Confinement, Torture, Cannibalism, Abandonment
Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Slavery, Violence, Excrement, War
Minor: Child death, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol
Graphic: Ableism, Child abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, War
Minor: Sexual violence
Says no one ever because why would you even doubt that premise lmao
But on a serious note, if you are looking for a fast-paced, action-packed, compelling adventure story then this one is for you. The tension that were brought by the Terror to the story and to our protagonists, coupled in with the sudden yet brutal scenes that they presented was superb from beginning to the end. You just can't help but hate them (especially the Second one) and yet they were so intriguing! The Bowl Arc specifically was just magnificent.
The relationship between Jun and Keema was downright hilarious and heartwarming that I can't help but awed multiple times. Very emotional especially by the end.
The only downside of this book to me is the style of the narration that the writer chose. I don't think that using theater as a way to tell the story was efficient nor was it necessary and the payoff of the revelation as to who the narrator was was very underwhelming. A traditional maybe two POV narration would've suffice. We could've used the time they used on exploring the narrator to explore Jun and Keema's relationship or the politics of the Five Families more since both of those topics were frankly pretty rushed at the end.
Moderate: Ableism
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Cannibalism, Sexual harassment, War
Minor: Alcoholism
Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Graphic: Ableism, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Cannibalism
Moderate: Ableism, Violence
‘There is always a reason.’”
The Spear Cuts Through Water is a book of speculative fiction/fantasy truly unlike anything I’ve ever read before, the closest comparison I can draw being to N.K. Jemisin’s Broken Earth Trilogy. The book is a wonder in creative writing, bouncing between first, second, and third POV narration and weaving together minor characters and stories in unpredictable ways. On multiple occasions, I was pulled from the story in sheer wonder of how Jimenez achieved 520 pages in this style. The writing was incredibly detailed and often times gut wrenchingly beautiful.
However, that detailed writing also led to the darker aspects of the plot of this book being inescapable and at some points nauseating for me. The gore, the cannabilism, the violence, the human despair and desecration. It was all a bit much and I almost DNFed the book. I persevered because I’d seen multiple reviewers say this was their favorite fantasy book ever and unfortunately that just wasn’t the case for me. The graphic nature paired with the “you’ll figure the writing out after the first 100 pages” paired with the fact that I actually didn’t feel invested in the main storyline that much led me to feel overall meh about this.
As someone who’s never really set a book down solely because of content warnings before I definitely say please! read the content warnings before diving into this one.
3.5 ⭐️ Rounded Up.
Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Excrement, Cannibalism, Murder, War
Moderate: Suicide, Torture, Vomit