Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Strange the Dreamer by Laini Taylor

30 reviews

midnightverde's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

This fantasy novel is beautifully written. There are clues throughout the story to the mysteries of the lost city of Weep, yet there are still so many questions. The characters are full of depth and it’s easy to fall in love with many of them (and passionately hate others). There is a cliffhanger at the end of the book and I have to go put the final book of the duology on hold now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Child death, Genocide, Kidnapping, Rape, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Pregnancy

panickedhonking's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Incest, Confinement, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Rape, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Child death, Death of parent, Death, and Emotional abuse

victorious_one's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Rape, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

froukjemelenhorst's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

 BITCHH😭😭

If I were to make a list of books that perfectly described my reading tastes this would 1000% be on there. The writing is beautiful and poetic and the characters are complex and well-developed. Not to mention the world-building bc damnnn

Though the story was quite slow I absolutely loved every second of it.

And now I would like to point out 1 singular thought I had at the beginning of the book because I don’t know how to finish this

Master Hyrokkin @ Lazlo: https://youtu.be/jT22F57713A

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual assault, Rape, Genocide, and War

traceyanderson's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious relaxing sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Genocide, Sexual content, and Violence

jayisreading's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

2.5

I read this book years ago, around the time it was first published, and enjoyed it enough. Rereading it, I can’t quite figure out what it was that I enjoyed. I guess to focus on some of the strong components of this book, Taylor is incredible with words, maybe to the point that it’s a little too overindulgent in descriptions. I also like that the protagonist, Lazlo, is a relatively gentle figure, which I feel isn’t too common in YA fantasy. He’s definitely an introspective one, making it interesting for the reader to be in his head. Sarai, who I guess is the other protagonist, is also interesting, though I felt she was far less developed than Lazlo, making her sections a little less engaging.

I think I have mixed opinions about the worldbuilding. There’s a lot of it, but it also felt like it was more self-indulgent than anything. That being said, it’s very possible that more of it will be important in the sequel, which I haven’t read (and, admittedly, I don’t intend to). The book did end on a cliffhanger, so there’s a lot left to be desired.

So, that leads to what I didn’t like about the book, and, frankly, it was just the plot. It was too slow-paced, I couldn’t stay focused, especially when the prose went all over the place in descriptions. But what really didn’t work for me was the drastic change-in-pace to make room for an instant falling in love situation that came up around the halfway mark. It didn’t work for me and it kind of felt forced at times, but hey, it could just be me being a grump.

In defense of the book, I will say that I probably wasn’t in the right headspace to read a fantasy novel. If there’s a lot of worldbuilding (which is certainly the case with this book), I generally need some breathing room to digest everything and appreciate it. However, even if I was in the right headspace, I still think I wouldn’t have enjoyed it very much, which is what it is.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Child death, and Grief

Moderate: Rape, Slavery, Kidnapping, and Genocide

genny's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.75

Oh man, I'm not sure why I didn't like this as much as other people did. I felt pretty neutral about the whole thing. I think it was overly long...I listened to the audiobook and it felt like it took forever to finish even though not much was happening. My mind would keep wandering, then I'd refocus on the book only to find that the story hadn't even progressed much. The writing is beautiful so maybe I would've appreciated this more if I read it physically. My lack of anything to say just reaffirms my decision not to read the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, and Child death

Moderate: Sexual content and Grief

lanid's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Grief, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Death, Genocide, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, and Slavery

maeverose's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Things I liked:
The story was fun. The writing is super pretty and atmospheric. So many quotes i wanted to highlight. It was very easy for me to imagine what was being described, and i loved that. I like Lazlo a lot as a character. I like anything to do with dreams so I loved that that was a big part of the story.

Things I didn’t like:
Sarai’s chapters/the citadel chapters felt super repetitive, at least in the beginning. I was often pretty bored during those chapters. As much as I love the writing, it is overwritten at times. I think this book should’ve been about 100 pages shorter, the pacing is very slow for most of it. Also the reveals were pretty predictable but I guess that’s not super surprising for YA. It’s also very instalove. Very mild spoilers for this next part (it doesn’t have to do with the main romance, just side characters): I didn’t like the non consensual kiss played off as funny because it was a girl doing it to a guy. If the roles were reversed I don’t think it would’ve gone down the same… It’s still sexual assault no matter who’s doing it. And then when it happens again later it was still very dubious consent at first. Idk it made me feel gross.

I hate everything about that ending. I hate minya so much. Please tell me she dies a painful death in the next book. And that sparrow is able to bring sarai back to her body with her powers and then sarai and lazlo get to live happily ever after. If that doesn’t happen I’m suing. /j

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Blood, Child death, Death, Rape, Slavery, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Gore, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

There was frequent mention of female fertility and ‘becoming a woman’ once you bleed. Personally it made me uncomfortable, as an afab non binary person with zero desire to ever get pregnant.

cookiecat73's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Genocide, Murder, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Death of parent, and Kidnapping

Minor: Pregnancy and Misogyny