Reviews tagging 'Violence'

City of Vengeance by D. V. Bishop

3 reviews

beca's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Antisemitism, and Violence

Minor: Sexual assault

singalana's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

3.5

City of Vengeance is an action-packed yet somewhat exhausting novel set in 16th-century Florence. It’s basically a crime / thriller, where an officer of the criminal court sets out to solve a crime and prevent another. Some of the people and events in this book are based on the actual history of Florence.

This is the debut novel of D.V. Bishop, where he introduces Cesare Aldo, the main character in this book. So far, two books have been published in this series. Aldo is a former soldier, and after he retired due to an injury, he took a position in the criminal court. One defining feature about Aldo is that he gets hurt a lot. Which is one of the reasons why this book was exhausting.

When a Jewish moneylender is murdered, Aldo is ordered to investigate. While investigating the murder, he comes across a plot to overthrow the ruler of Florence. Meanwhile, people plot against Aldo, trying to uncover his secret. 

And now, we get to the exhausting part. Not only is Aldo getting constantly hurt, 16th century Florence is a shithole. Rampant homophobia, misogyny, antisemitism, violence, adultery… You name it. It gets pretty exhausting after a while. Not that the story isn’t entertaining and moving forward, but it’s just A LOT to deal with.

The prose is peppered with Italian words. Most of the meanings are easy to deduce by context, but I’m not sure if I like it or not. Perhaps if those words would be difficult to replace with an English word that would convey the meaning, it could be justified. On the other hand, it gives the story that Italian flare, sure.

And my last and maybe least complaint is that the author doesn’t understand cats. Cats in this book whine and howl. Did you perhaps mean dogs? Because dogs whine and howl. 

All in all, it's pretty entertaining, and I might be tempted to read the sequel. I hope Aldo doesn’t take such a beating in that one, too. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Antisemitism, Cursing, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Misogyny, Homophobia, Murder, Police brutality, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Death, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Excrement, Infidelity, Bullying, Medical content, Outing, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt

anntharai's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Gore, Violence, Physical abuse, Blood, Confinement, Homophobia, Ableism, Classism, Death, Outing, Police brutality, Transphobia, Body horror, Excrement, Hate crime, Murder, and Vomit

Moderate: Torture and Rape