Reviews tagging 'Torture'

A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire by Jennifer L. Armentrout

32 reviews

sarahsreadinglist's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire picks up right where From Blood and Ash ends. Like the first book, I found many things frustrating, but I still ultimately enjoyed it. It answers some questions from the first book while introducing new and even more mysterious questions, expanding on the rich histories of Atlantia, the Ascended, the wolven, and individuals (e.g. Poppy and Casteel). I found our couple’s relationship development in the second book more interesting and satisfying than in the first, and I’d say fans of enemies-to-lovers arcs will enjoy FBAA’s sequel more than the first book.

Overall, A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire carries the same issues I take with From Blood and Ash, but by this time I’ve mostly gotten used to it and still enjoyed the novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, War, Physical abuse, Gore, and Sexual content

Moderate: Genocide, Rape, and Torture

leedolee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

Entertaining. The plot is really good and the action and violence was intense. 

I like how many different characters there were and I easily began to find favorites among them. I look forward to the next novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Misogyny, Death, Blood, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Murder, Grief, Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and War

ka_ke's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

Where From Blood and Ash left me hanging,  A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire gave me everything I wanted.

Poppie’s attitude towards Casteel made me soo mad until Spessa’s End when she finally grew a pair. (/spoiler)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Grief, Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, War, and Violence

hannalizzy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Half the book I was screaming at the main character in my head to get over herself and fall in love, and the other half  I spent relishing in the SWEET GOODNESS OF HER ADMITTING IT! We get SO much world building  in this book that give the characters and relationships so much depth and complexity. Because it’s so freaking long too, I feel like I know every thought that goes through their heads. I fell in love with each character so much more in this book because of that depth we get. And the ending? Jaw. Dropping. The best fantasy book I’ve read so far. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual harassment, Torture, and War

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

kellicat94's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

Minor: Abandonment, Cannibalism, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, and Pregnancy

theespressoedition's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

While the first in this series didn't give me much to really ponder as I read, reading this one was a different experience. Rather than a quick pace and interesting plot that had me hooked enough to not get too fed up with the things I disliked, this one was slow and the substance wasn't very intriguing, leaving me with lots of time to get irritated with certain things along the way.

1. We get it - Poppy is violent. And she asks a lot of questions. These two things were repeated so many times that I think if you compiled each mention of them, they would comprise at least an eighth of the book.
2. Hawke is Casteel and Casteel is Hawke. And he's horny. Another repetition that drove me nuts. This would be another eighth of the book. 

So now we have a quarter of the book just being statements about the characters that are repeated incessantly.

3. Suuuuper slooooow, drawn-out chapters where nothing happens, and then BAM! Majorly steamy sex scenes. It kind of threw me for a loop as I read because it was so back and forth and there didn't seem to be much of a rhythm.
4. Can someone explain to me why JLA likes to save the most interesting part of the plot until the last chapter? She did the same thing in the first book too! I get that there needs to be something to make you want to pick up the next book (and it worked because I totally will), but I just don't understand why this couldn't be brought in earlier or alluded to a bit better to drive up the anticipation.

One thing I did really appreciate was how they acknowledged the fact that their relationship was toxic from the jump. There wasn't any weaseling around the topic. They recognized the toxicity and they worked to communicate better from there on out. It wasn't perfect, but at least they didn't ignore the way they treated each other. While the violence is weirdly glorified, the actual "bully love" portion of it was tamed in this book.

I included the trigger warning for gore, but if you can't handle blood, you need to avoid this one entirely. It is disgustingly bloody and made me queasy on multiple occasions. Yikes!

I'm not the biggest fan of these kinds of books, and that's pretty obvious from this review, but I will say that I like it better than most of the "hyped" YA/NA fantasy series out there. At least it keeps me mostly interested!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Cannibalism

nightfell's review against another edition

funny lighthearted relaxing slow-paced

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

4.0

Poppy and Casteel have a PDA kink and no one can say otherwise. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Gore, Violence, War, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Sexual assault and Torture

holthmsn's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

A Kingdom of Flesh and Fire far exceeded my thoughts of From Blood and Ash, which was nevertheless was also a 5 star review.
We begin where we had left off exactly from the previous book, and it is full of action, *pretending*, secrets, conflict, hatred, and forgiveness. The From Blood and Ash world continues to develop, with the improvement of showing rather than telling (especially for Poppy). The final chapter leaves you begging for more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual content, Torture, and Violence

sofslibrary's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.5

the second book gave me some serious slow ass burn and i LOVED it. it got a smidge repetitive at times but i was able to overlook it for the sake of ✨romance✨. casteel blew my back out every time he opened his dimpled mouth and i am hanging on by a thread and very satisfied. not gonna lie i got confused by the world building at times, it was doing the mostest in its attempts to really get me lost BUT i think i got the gist of it in the end. overall, i really enjoyed the second instalment of the blood and ash series and can’t wait to pick up the third once i get back home 🥰

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Death, and Confinement

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Sexual assault, and Cursing

Minor: Rape

itshannahivy's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Torture

Minor: Rape and Racism