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avacadosocks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Racism, Misogyny, Death, and Blood
Moderate: Sexual content and Cannibalism
Minor: Death of parent and Murder
linhsreadinghour's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
If you want a true trial book - THIS IS THE TRIAL BOOK TO READ. High stakes, action packed, political intrigue, great diverse worldbuilding, a blend of fantasy (blood magic) and Sci-fi, with a murder mystery subplot, and tiniest of romance.
Kenna, our FMC, has such a strong voice. She’s so impulsive and rash, that really shows in her actions. If you don’t like your MC like this, you may struggle to like her. I loved all the other characters in this too, everyone had such a distinct voice and personality. You knew who was who. But the characters you’re suppose to dislike, I HATED - WOWW, my blood would BOIL whenever they opened their mouth. Amazing characterisation.
World was so rich, drawing inspiration from African culture. Loved it so much.
The book explores themes of grief really well, but racism and misogyny is huge in the book too. So take care if this is triggering. Also, cannibalism is in this!! Graphic cannibalism - I was not expecting this at all but it definitely added to the stakes.
Actioned packed. Wowee, I felt like I couldn’t rest with the characters. My blood pressure was so high cause of the plot twists and just scenes I didn’t see coming.
I knock a few stars off because the writing was a little bit difficult to read in the sense that some sentences were oddly constructed.
Also, the romance:I love where Reed and Kenna’s relationship was heading. The little spicy scene though (I was giggling, kicking my feet), just felt a little out of the blue. And then NOTHING IS DEVELOPED ANY FURTHER. WHY?!! I WANTED MORE KENNA AND REED 😭😭
Overall, I loved the book though. Could be the best trial book I’ve read so far!
Kenna, our FMC, has such a strong voice. She’s so impulsive and rash, that really shows in her actions. If you don’t like your MC like this, you may struggle to like her. I loved all the other characters in this too, everyone had such a distinct voice and personality. You knew who was who. But the characters you’re suppose to dislike, I HATED - WOWW, my blood would BOIL whenever they opened their mouth. Amazing characterisation.
World was so rich, drawing inspiration from African culture. Loved it so much.
The book explores themes of grief really well, but racism and misogyny is huge in the book too. So take care if this is triggering. Also, cannibalism is in this!! Graphic cannibalism - I was not expecting this at all but it definitely added to the stakes.
Actioned packed. Wowee, I felt like I couldn’t rest with the characters. My blood pressure was so high cause of the plot twists and just scenes I didn’t see coming.
I knock a few stars off because the writing was a little bit difficult to read in the sense that some sentences were oddly constructed.
Also, the romance:
Overall, I loved the book though. Could be the best trial book I’ve read so far!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Racial slurs, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cannibalism, Gore, Grief, Murder, Misogyny, Racism, and Violence
Moderate: War, Colonisation, and Cursing
jsreyes'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? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Death, and Violence
Minor: Cannibalism
myralovesbooks's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
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? No
5.0
I love a bad ass FMC, especially one with violent thoughts and who loves to threaten others when they piss her off. Ikenna is that bad ass in The Blood Trials. She is not intimidated by ass holes and never backs down from a fight. She most definitely doesn't need a man to save her. She's my hero. This book has a mix of fantasy and scifi. There is romance but it is minimal which surprisingly I was ok with. The plot I feel keeps you on your toes, there is laugh out loud banter and incredible chemistry between characters. There are dark and gruesome moments in the book that was definitely difficult for me to read but I pushed through them just because I am utterly fascinated when a human being comes face to face with tragedy and says I will live. Ikenna is a survivor and I love that and I loved this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Cannibalism, and Grief
squids_can_read's review
DNF (46%)
Kenna's grandfather is dead. Died of a heart attack or so the corner says. Suddenly information comes to light that her grandfather's death might not have been an accident like everyone says it is. Now Kenna has to fight for her place among the ruthless Praetorians along with finding out what actually happened to her grandfather.
Doesn't that sound great? It would have been if the author had developed the world at all. This is a mix of science fiction and fantasy but neither of these aspects are explained at all. There is random technology that simply exists with no information of how long it's existed or if people are still trying to create new technology. Similar to the fantasy element. Gods are referenced but are not described whatsoever in their effect on the world except for giving some people powers. And these powers aren't explained either. It seems like people with powers are much stronger than everyone else but they get beat up by people without powers. It also doesn't explain all of what they can do. Do they have one power depending on the god or do they have all of them? I was just really confused.
I also didn't like how focused the world was on racism and bigotry. This was a big part of the point of the book and I didn't have a problem with using those ideas to make a commentary on our world. I had an issue with how much was shoved in the reader's face that absolutely everyone where Kenna lives is a terrible person except for her friends, one of whom is from there. It just didn't make a lot of sense to me, especially in terms of the timeline of when these ideas started and where they came from.
As for the characters, I thought that they were okay. All of the characters seemed kind of two-dimensional to me. It didn't feel like they were very complicated, including the main character. But the characters were not why I DNFed this book.
PSA- Despite the fact that this book cover looks YA, this is definitely a book for adults. There is heavy graphic violence that took me a little by surprise. I did get used to it but it was a lot in the beginning, just so you know.
Kenna's grandfather is dead. Died of a heart attack or so the corner says. Suddenly information comes to light that her grandfather's death might not have been an accident like everyone says it is. Now Kenna has to fight for her place among the ruthless Praetorians along with finding out what actually happened to her grandfather.
Doesn't that sound great? It would have been if the author had developed the world at all. This is a mix of science fiction and fantasy but neither of these aspects are explained at all. There is random technology that simply exists with no information of how long it's existed or if people are still trying to create new technology. Similar to the fantasy element. Gods are referenced but are not described whatsoever in their effect on the world except for giving some people powers. And these powers aren't explained either. It seems like people with powers are much stronger than everyone else but they get beat up by people without powers. It also doesn't explain all of what they can do. Do they have one power depending on the god or do they have all of them? I was just really confused.
I also didn't like how focused the world was on racism and bigotry. This was a big part of the point of the book and I didn't have a problem with using those ideas to make a commentary on our world. I had an issue with how much was shoved in the reader's face that absolutely everyone where Kenna lives is a terrible person except for her friends, one of whom is from there. It just didn't make a lot of sense to me, especially in terms of the timeline of when these ideas started and where they came from.
As for the characters, I thought that they were okay. All of the characters seemed kind of two-dimensional to me. It didn't feel like they were very complicated, including the main character. But the characters were not why I DNFed this book.
PSA- Despite the fact that this book cover looks YA, this is definitely a book for adults. There is heavy graphic violence that took me a little by surprise. I did get used to it but it was a lot in the beginning, just so you know.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Gore, Alcohol, Body horror, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Blood, Classism, Racial slurs, Racism, Addiction, Death, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, War, and Violence
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
amyalwaysbooked's review against another edition
dnf at about 50%
I wanted to love this book! It's gotten such high praise! Unfortunately, I just didn't like the main character. I have no problem with an angry protagonist, but they've got to be written well. Ikenna wasn't fleshed out enough and the supporting cast even less so.
When I got about halfway through and wasn't enjoying myself I knew it was time to throw the towel in. Especially when Ikenna and Reed suddenly develop the hots for each other just because she's naked. There is ZERO build-up.
I wanted to love this book! It's gotten such high praise! Unfortunately, I just didn't like the main character. I have no problem with an angry protagonist, but they've got to be written well. Ikenna wasn't fleshed out enough and the supporting cast even less so.
When I got about halfway through and wasn't enjoying myself I knew it was time to throw the towel in. Especially when
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Racism, Murder, Death, and Sexism
dragonsheart8261920's review
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
alexga's review
This book is extremely poorly written. It's overwritten, dialogue structure abysmal, inner monologue repetitive and full of badly offered exposition. 41% of the book and more than half of it is filler. Something happens only like 5% of the time, everything else is just description and description and description. Her every action is followed by page long report of her thought process and explanation on why she did it. Every time she feels something, there is another page long description of exactly how she feels and why she feels this way.
Imagine me telling you a story about how I get to work every day and it's this:
I wake up at 7 o'clock in the morning because that's when I need to start getting ready to go out. I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth since I want to get rid of unpleasant smell and feeling I get in my mouth every time I wake up from nightly sleep. I take a shower to wash off the sweat. I wash my hair because it has been 2 days since the last time I did it and my hair usually gets dirty by this point. I check my social media on the phone which was a gift from my older brother who I grew up with and who terrorized me my whole childhood. Unexplainable sadness strikes my heart when I think about my brother. The feeling starts as a flicked of pain and slowly spreads to my throat, my head and down my limbs. We have not talked in a long time.
I try to distract myself from thoughts about my family by making myself busy. I put on a kettle and turn on my toaster so that I can make myself a toast. While the water is getting hot and my bread being toasted, I scroll through twitter and Instagram. No notifications and I'm not surprised because I don't talk to a lot of people. Once the toast is toasted and coffee ready, I put my device aside and enjoy my breakfast. When I was a child I couldn't have a toast because we didn't have a toaster. Once I moved out from my family home toaster was the first thing I bought from my new place which I rent... You get the gist. This is not art. This is a Writing part of foreign language test where you are trying to show off your knowledge, so you include as much unnecessary information as possible.
Yes, exposition is necessary for worldbuilding and whatnot, but it should be done properly. The Blood Trials is a perfect example of how you should not do it. Except for battle scenes you will not find a single page where there is no exposition. It's in dialogue, it's in inner monologue; it's in games and trials.
The book tried to set specific tone. I guess it was going for "An Ember in the Ashes" kind of vibe but it failed miserably. Every time out FMC does anything badass it was cringe. The way she talks to her instructors is cringe. They don't owe you shit. They are your higher ups. Why are you talking to them as if you raised them?
Ikenna is a terrible protagonist. Again, author tried to make her strong, opinionated, smart and angry but she is not smart. Smart people try to get a lot of information before they draw any conclusions. She does not:
"The reasons Brock gave me for his suspicions are good enough as proof of guilt, ..." this is part of her inner monologue about Reed and wanting to kill him. She suspects Reed of murdering her grandfather. Now, what were the reasons Brock gave her that convinced her that Reed indeed murdered her grandfather? I'm glad you asked:
"He's the prime suspect. As leader of Gamma, he worked closely with Verne on a lot of initiatives, and Verne had a meeting with Reed on his calendar the day he dies. They met in the apartment two hours prior to his death. ...
This is all the information she had before she decided to kill Reed. And she deemed it good enough. This is the same person who later on judges others on how they don't value human life.
The amount of death during trials to become Praetorians makes no sense the same way it didn't make in Fourth Wing. Why are Praetorian instructors murdering people? We know that Mareen has a regular army so why in god's name would Chance murder trainees instead of just sending them away? Because the writer uses unnecessary gore and violence to set the tone of the book. Oh, right, just remembered, major trigger warning. There is very descriptive account of cooking and eating a human in chapter 8. That was so so so unnecessary. Also why did no one warn these poor aspirants that they would be taken out if they don't manage to plank for a long enough time after doing 400 burpees? Remember, most of these people are legacies. You want to tell me that these military families don't value their offsprings' lives highly enough to at least warn them that they would most likely die in training? At least in Fourth Wing this was a known fact. In The Blood Trials this is the warning our FMC Ikenna got from her grandfather's best friend:
..."After Commencement, senior Praetorians will put you through challenging trials. They will test your mettle more than your academy instructors and classes ever did."
... "The trials are designed to exert every effort to break you."
On the positive, the idea of the book sounds interesting.
Imagine me telling you a story about how I get to work every day and it's this:
I wake up at 7 o'clock in the morning because that's when I need to start getting ready to go out. I go to the bathroom to brush my teeth since I want to get rid of unpleasant smell and feeling I get in my mouth every time I wake up from nightly sleep. I take a shower to wash off the sweat. I wash my hair because it has been 2 days since the last time I did it and my hair usually gets dirty by this point. I check my social media on the phone which was a gift from my older brother who I grew up with and who terrorized me my whole childhood. Unexplainable sadness strikes my heart when I think about my brother. The feeling starts as a flicked of pain and slowly spreads to my throat, my head and down my limbs. We have not talked in a long time.
I try to distract myself from thoughts about my family by making myself busy. I put on a kettle and turn on my toaster so that I can make myself a toast. While the water is getting hot and my bread being toasted, I scroll through twitter and Instagram. No notifications and I'm not surprised because I don't talk to a lot of people. Once the toast is toasted and coffee ready, I put my device aside and enjoy my breakfast. When I was a child I couldn't have a toast because we didn't have a toaster. Once I moved out from my family home toaster was the first thing I bought from my new place which I rent... You get the gist. This is not art. This is a Writing part of foreign language test where you are trying to show off your knowledge, so you include as much unnecessary information as possible.
Yes, exposition is necessary for worldbuilding and whatnot, but it should be done properly. The Blood Trials is a perfect example of how you should not do it. Except for battle scenes you will not find a single page where there is no exposition. It's in dialogue, it's in inner monologue; it's in games and trials.
The book tried to set specific tone. I guess it was going for "An Ember in the Ashes" kind of vibe but it failed miserably. Every time out FMC does anything badass it was cringe. The way she talks to her instructors is cringe. They don't owe you shit. They are your higher ups. Why are you talking to them as if you raised them?
Ikenna is a terrible protagonist. Again, author tried to make her strong, opinionated, smart and angry but she is not smart. Smart people try to get a lot of information before they draw any conclusions. She does not:
"The reasons Brock gave me for his suspicions are good enough as proof of guilt, ..." this is part of her inner monologue about Reed and wanting to kill him. She suspects Reed of murdering her grandfather. Now, what were the reasons Brock gave her that convinced her that Reed indeed murdered her grandfather? I'm glad you asked:
"He's the prime suspect. As leader of Gamma, he worked closely with Verne on a lot of initiatives, and Verne had a meeting with Reed on his calendar the day he dies. They met in the apartment two hours prior to his death. ...
This is all the information she had before she decided to kill Reed. And she deemed it good enough. This is the same person who later on judges others on how they don't value human life.
The amount of death during trials to become Praetorians makes no sense the same way it didn't make in Fourth Wing. Why are Praetorian instructors murdering people? We know that Mareen has a regular army so why in god's name would Chance murder trainees instead of just sending them away? Because the writer uses unnecessary gore and violence to set the tone of the book. Oh, right, just remembered, major trigger warning. There is very descriptive account of cooking and eating a human in chapter 8. That was so so so unnecessary. Also why did no one warn these poor aspirants that they would be taken out if they don't manage to plank for a long enough time after doing 400 burpees? Remember, most of these people are legacies. You want to tell me that these military families don't value their offsprings' lives highly enough to at least warn them that they would most likely die in training? At least in Fourth Wing this was a known fact. In The Blood Trials this is the warning our FMC Ikenna got from her grandfather's best friend:
..."After Commencement, senior Praetorians will put you through challenging trials. They will test your mettle more than your academy instructors and classes ever did."
... "The trials are designed to exert every effort to break you."
On the positive, the idea of the book sounds interesting.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Violence, and Racism
Moderate: Misogyny
lesliehirgelt's review
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