Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Mother of Death and Dawn by Carissa Broadbent

6 reviews

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

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

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

katvou's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Blood, Child death, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, and War

Minor: Alcohol

aklovekorn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Xenophobia, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Confinement, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Body horror, Classism, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, Cursing, Gore, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, War, Death, Dysphoria, and Fire/Fire injury

ashley30sawatzky's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

This was a heartachingly, beautiful, epic conclusion to the War of Lost Hearts. 
I never could decide which side of the conflict I actually stood on. Everyone was so morally grey. No one in this book was free from sin or mistakes, but everyone wanted to accomplish something important and worthwhile. I sympathized and understood both sides. There was no obvious "villian" and that made it so much more.
I cried so often, my heart feeling like it was constantly breaking. There was so much pain, raw and real. 
I don't want to spoil anything for anyone but if you've read Daughter of No Worlds and Children of Fallen Gods then this end is EVERYTHING. 
And if you are finding this book and wondering if this series is worth a try, it absolutely is! 
Max, Tisaanah and Aefe have a special place in my heart. This book was absolutely amazing!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Genocide, Kidnapping, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and War