Reviews with content warning for Colonisation - The Blood Trials

Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport

14 reviews

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!

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sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

💬: "I’m a cadet. I’m nowhere close to his rank. I’m also so much more than that and good ol’ boy Radson decided to fuck with me on the right day. I smile at Radson while motioning him forward. Feeling the severe strain of my cheek muscles, I know I appear a little psycho."

Davenport, N. E.. The Blood Trials (The Blood Gift Duology Book 1) (p. 9). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

📖Genres: fantasy, sci-fi, romance, adult,

📚Page Count: 453

🎧Audiobook Length: 18h 20min

👩🏾‍🏫My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 5/5
----

The Blood Trials by N. E. Davenport is a sci fi/fantasy ADULT story about a Black woman
who lives in a racist and misogynistic society who finds out her grandfather was murdered when she previously thought he died of natural causes. Ikenna is spending her last night as a cadet with friends when she privately gets the news, she instantly decides that she wants revenge. Joining The Praetorian Trials means that Ikenna can get close to the people who might have had a hand in her grandfathers death, so that's what she decides to do. She's sure that she cans survive the challenges, because she was trained by the best (her grandfather) and she has a secret blood gift to help her. Will Ikenna be able to survive the challenges while also figuring out who killed her grandfather?

There were plenty of things I really liked about this book. I love how the main character made impulsive decisions, now these decisions weren't always the best ones but I felt as if the character's personality really shined through and it was consistent. I liked how Ikenna often remembered her grandfather and how she would think about what advice he might give her. The action scenes were really well described in this book. And although some of the twists in the story were predictable, the story was written well so it was still interesting when revealed.

There was only one thing that I didn't like. I couldn't understand why the challenges were so hard, there were characters dying left and right and it felt like the Praetorians reasoning for the challenges being so hard didn't make sense. If no one survives your challenge then who actually wins? Literally no one, because the Praetorians wouldn't gain any new soldiers. There were so many people dying that it no longer became a shock when someone died, and it was no longer impactful. It ruined the immersion for me. Thankfully the story was written well so I was able to re-immerse myself back into the story a few chapters later.

There was one spicy scene, it was written well but I'm uninterested in spicy scenes between young adults. I'm giving the spicy scene a one chili 🌶️ out of five chilies.

Overall, this book was really good. There was so much I enjoyed and very little I disliked. The theme of this book is "revenge" and it really reminds me of "Iron Widow" by Xiran Jay Zhao and I gave that book a 5. This book definitely deserves a 5 as well. I'm giving this 5 out of 5 stars.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - 5/5 Stars

I listened to this for free on the library app [HooplaDigital.com]

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centrifugepolitics's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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msrae89's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I really wanted to like this book and I was excited to read it, but, ultimately, this book just wasn’t for me.
Pros: -The book is pretty well written; it is a little repetitive at times but it makes sense within the narrative.
-The themes the book is exploring are really interesting and done in an unobtrusive way. What I mean by that is I never felt as if the book was preaching to me.
-The themes themselves were really interesting and interconnected with one another seamlessly. Racism, colonialism, military and military propaganda, sexism, classism, trauma, all work together to tell a very interesting story.
-The ending was engaging and set up the second book nicely.
However, that’s about where my enjoyment of the book ended.
Cons: The MC, Ikenna, is 19 and very traumatized, and while it makes sense for the narrative, I found it very repetitive and annoying. This might be, in part, bc I’m in my 30’s and I have an harder time relating to younger MCs. Though, really, I didn’t find any of the characters interesting or engaging. I couldn’t even “love to hate” any of them.
-The book is oddly and aggressively compulsory heterosexual and cisgender. As far as I can tell queer people just don’t exist in the book’s universe, and as a queer person I prefer to read books with queer representation. Even just a passing statement that queer people exist would be more than this book has. Maybe they are in book 2 but after starting it I doubt it based on the little I’ve read so far.
-The “romance” is just bad. First off, it’s unethical. Reed is Ikenna’s superior officer, which he acknowledges. Reed was also the mentee of Ikenna’s deceased grandfather which creates a weird situation for them. It feels a little freudian. Also, Reed is boring! And all of this awkward tension leads to a sudden sex scene. I’m not here to yuck anyone’s yum, but this just wasn’t for me and I skipped it.
Overall it was a good idea with flat characters and dense story.

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maresuju's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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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booksandcurlz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

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

I seriously loved this book and feel like it deserves more praise and more eyeballs.

What I ❤️

♥️ Ikenna - she was intelligent, cunning, but also have issue with restraint and always let the anger get the best of her.

♥️ Reed - he was loyal, fair, with a high EQ, willing to admit he was wrong and always knew when to apologize for it.

♥️ The trials - 😮‍💨 The trials were BRUTAL, and what Ikenna went through WOW

♥️ The political maneuvering - how the Tribunals conspired, the incident at the Khanai kingdom, what happened in the trials (what really happened)
♥️ All the action, there was a great amount of action and that kept my attention.

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tinyjude's review

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I love my female main protagonists filled with anger and a thirst for vengeance. I like them cocky, but capable, and empathetic. I like the deadly and reading fck everything, especially bigoted systems that are rotted to the core.

Even though some of the plots were predictable and there were inconsistencies with certain characters' behaviours (probably trying to rush a growth path), it was still an addicting read that tackles subtly interesting themes such as militarism propaganda, institutional racism, institutional sexism, duty vs rightness... with a compelling world-building (i especially loved the forest trial and getting to know these abominable creatures). I am eager to see where the story takes us next and if my theories about the next book are as correct the ones i made in this one.

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