Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

20 reviews

andrew_corduroy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.5

This was a challenging listen, as many fantasy books are with all of their names and places. But damn if I wasn’t just hooked and felt like I needed to know what happened next.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Homophobia, Colonisation, Animal death, and Murder

Moderate: Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Violence

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Drug use, Grief, and Outing

abbyschalupa's review

challenging dark slow-paced

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

2.5

I struggled with this book far more than I thought. There were such great reviews, and it’s grouped with books and genres that I love. I was really hoping to have found a new favorite. I’m so disappointed that this was quite the opposite. It dragged on for an exceptionally long time. This book did not need to be as long as it is. The action truly only began happening by the last 1/4 of the book. 

The first set of chapters hooked me. Baru’s childhood is raw, detailed in rich prose and the wounds are eminent there on the page. Immediately, I was rooting for her. So what happened? 
Unfortunately, the writing. Everything from there on fell. While the beginning brought the lens to focus on Baru, showing her experiences and all she endured, it felt like the writing style switched. Maybe that was the intention. 

However, the writing no longer gave a lens into Baru’s world. It wrote from an outsider’s view, in black and white tone, as though a script were documenting all that occurred. There became an extreme lack of detail, we are no longer shown Baru’s world but instead told about it. The color went away and all became black and white. The rest of the book read like text for socioeconomic studies, detailing who said what, and what that meant, and what Baru must now do. All told, never shown. 

Everything here is detached. I no longer cared for any of the characters, or Baru herself. She skyrocketed through the ranks, in ways that felt incredibly unrealistic, becoming arrogant, ruthless, and coldhearted. Although repeatedly called a savant, she ended up putting herself into multiple bad situations that were entirely avoidable. There were several situations I saw solutions to, but this savant never saw coming, and gave stern replies to people she supposedly cared about, only to never see them again before they died. It became incredibly frustrating. 

I debated quitting halfway. Instead I skipped through chunks of chapters, glad to not have tried reading through them. It felt more like dragging through socioeconomic dense text compared to reading. Far more detached telling then showing. I ended the book disappointed that with such a great start, I never could get hooked back into the story or the character again. Unfortunately, the writing took such a detached and reporter like stance that I found no possibility of drawing further into the story, caring about the characters, or getting further invested. A huge bummer for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Murder, Sexual content, Death, Homophobia, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Death of parent, Grief, Genocide, and Medical content

Moderate: Gore, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism

aileron's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, War, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Grief, Medical content, Animal death, Blood, Sexual violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Racism

Minor: Confinement, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, and Suicidal thoughts

emeraldrina's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

A masterpiece of world building and intrigue. Each time I picked up this book I was so immersed that I forgot I was reading. The world is both complex and believable, the characters all beautifully complicated, and the plot just the right amount of knotted mystery to keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat without being confusing. At times the strategic planning was a touch over-explained, but that might just be because I have a background in the subject. And it wasn’t redundant enough to put me off or make me feel bored. Other than that, the writing was stunningly beautiful, and yet never so present that it was distracting from the story.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, War, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Blood, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Outing, Vomit, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic

indeedithappens's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Abandonment, Body horror, Sexual content, Addiction, Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Racism, Sexism, Ableism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Blood, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Bullying, Child abuse, Violence, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, War, Xenophobia, Infidelity, Murder, Physical abuse, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

rheagoveas's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Genocide, and Homophobia

noetherian's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

A book that paces along the fence between depiction and glorification of imperialism's abuses. There are interesting ideas, compelling characters, and a world with history, but it's all chaff for the machinery of whatever may happen in the sequels. If the ends justify the means, how is one to determine whether to keep reading this series? I suspect fans of economics and war will love her better than I could.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Homophobia, and Colonisation

Moderate: War, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexism, Racism, Misogyny, Hate crime, Ableism, Sexual harassment, Murder, Classism, and Child abuse

Minor: Torture, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Eugenics

searobin's review against another edition

2.5

The book itself was ok, aside from the plot...

I did not love the queer indigenous woman suppresses her sexuality and aids the colonisers to fully colonise another nation in order to somehow maybe save her own nation eventually story line

I got a bit lost in all the dukes and dutcheses and territories, so some moments were probably less poignant than they were supposed to be, but I got the gist.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Animal death, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Vomit, War, and Xenophobia

hamstringy's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

????

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, Violence, War, Genocide, and Homophobia

Moderate: Murder, Alcohol, and Death

jjjreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Stalking, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Animal death, Confinement, Abandonment, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Acephobia/Arophobia, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, War, Mental illness, Alcohol, Transphobia, Colonisation, Misogyny, Outing, Deportation, Gaslighting, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexism, Slavery, Grief, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual harassment, Trafficking, Lesbophobia, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Sexual harassment, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pedophilia, and Sexual violence