Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Mother of Death and Dawn by Carissa Broadbent

14 reviews

theresamothinmyroom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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: Adult/minor relationship, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Death, Dysphoria, Grief, Trafficking, Child abuse, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Suicide, Genocide, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

Moderate: Self harm, Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, and Death

bookrecsplease's review against another edition

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Genocide, Grief, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Vomit, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, and Trafficking

Minor: Sexual violence and Adult/minor relationship

elntastic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Mental illness, Slavery, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts

zydecovivo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

Compared to the first two books in the series, this one was much harder to get through, both physically and emotionally. However, that doesn’t make the stories or journey any less interesting. It is everything I ever wanted from Tisaanah and Max, even if the journey was long and brutal. I feel like this series puts ills of the world, like slavery, war, colonization, etc. and puts it in a context that shows it in multiple aspects. And I love seeing the main characters learning about themselves as they navigate these issues. The world feels so full and alive. I’m kind of sad to leave it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Grief, War, Slavery, Blood, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, Gore, Murder, Colonisation, Death of parent, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Animal death, Child death, Alcohol, and Vomit

Minor: Trafficking

oreosandcreme's review

dark emotional hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Audiobook: 4
Story: 3

Cons: 
Magic system / war conflicts are a little too complicated and not fleshed out.

With multiple wars, freeing Max/fixing his memory, Aeffe's trauma, there is no need for another plot point regarding magical items to find and use.

There's just too much going on, so it's hard to get fully invested in the stakes and understand what is happening to these characters and their respective countries. (Ie Nura wasn't entirely necessary for this story. I don't think her presence added much) 

Pros
The characters are still just so stinkin loveable though. I can't help but root for them and empathize with each of their respective POVs, even though they're actively against each other. Aeffe especially is a great character. Whiny, insecure, and overly reactive, her POV can get annoying, but she makes sense - her emotions, her reactions, her insecurities all contribute to a character you can't help rooting for. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Murder, and War

dkgreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.75

So. Many. Feels. As predicted, this one was a doozy! It’s definitely a good ending for this series though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, War, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Death, Confinement, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Torture

dwinn5's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I’m not even sure where to start. This is kind of more of a review of the whole series than just this book, but I could really write an essay about it. 

I love the way that the author portrays war in this series. It’s horrible, gritty, traumatic, and tragic and craps all over the idea that there is some kind of glory in war. That whole message comes mostly from Max’s personal development, I think, which leads me to my next point, which is that Max is one of my favorite fantasy men ever, and maybe even one of my favorite characters ever.  

My Max rant: 
I think too often, male fantasy characters-especially if they are warriors/soldiers, like Max- are thrust into the same stoic, serious archetype that prevents them from feeling like a full person. And even when they experience emotion, it feels stilted and shallow. It was refreshing to see a male character who experienced the full breadth of emotions, who had tried so hard to be “tough” and militant the way he knew he was supposed to be, but ultimately failed because he had always had a soft heart. But at the same time, it didn’t make him any less of a powerful character or undercut his powers- only his motivations/willingness to do things. On the flip side, a lot of the male fantasy characters with the sort of unshakable morals that Max possesses come off as condescending or holier-than-thou, and even when Max did wield some sort of moral superiority, he did it with enough humor and willingness to admit when he’s wrong that it never came across that way to me. 
He’s a flawed, feeling, human character that I just loved. Also he was hilarious- definitely the funniest lead fantasy man I’ve ever read. 

A couple miscellaneous things I really enjoyed about the series: 
-I LOVE when the “villains” don’t really seem to fit the title. This has some true moral greyness to it, and even when I vehemently disagreed with character’s methods, I always understood exactly why they did it. 
-Carissa does a great job of setting up the stakes of the story in a way that is believable and increases the intensity of the story to keep you invested. The stakes never felt manufactured or overblown to me- which I think had a lot to do with her willingness to absolutely decimate her characters, lol. 

Anyway, long story short- I think a lot more people should be reading this series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Grief, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Murder

leenkelly's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Cursing, Colonisation, War, Violence, Toxic friendship, Blood, Classism, Gore, Trafficking, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, and Slavery

andrea4's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Blood, War, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, and Violence

matthewslaura's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

There aren’t many books that make me read hundreds of pages within a few days, but I absolutely devoured the final book in this trilogy. There was just a lot of great stuff - complex characters/world-building, intense emotions, surprisingly funny moments. I especially loved the epilogue. I’m going to miss this story and have no clue what I’ll read next to fill the void.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Gore, Genocide, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and War