Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland

6 reviews

friendly_neighborhood_grandma's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Abandonment, Classism, and Death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Drug use, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Medical content, Suicide attempt, Body horror, Murder, Blood, Forced institutionalization, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Gaslighting, Outing, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Sexual assault, Acephobia/Arophobia, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Suicidal thoughts, and War

cakeboxing's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.25

Holy hells, this book was a rollercoaster of emotion. The pacing was sort of all over the place in the beginning, but after the first big event of the book, the plot just took off running. 

The concept of this book was a little out of left field for me at first, but once I got into it, I loved everything about it. I couldn't flip the pages fast enough. Reading this book was as effortless as breathing, the author's prose and style were easy to breeze through, allowing me to greedily devour this book in only a couple sittings. I would often look up and realize that a couple hours had gone by when I had only meant to read for a few minutes. 

Grief and mourning are huge themes in this book, but they way they were written feels realistic and often cut me to the bone. I cried several times throughout. 

One of the best things about this book is its obvious yet respectful inclusion of LGBTQ+ themes.

Our main character is ace and demi, and likely bi, but nothing is really cemented in place (Sexuality and identity are fluid after all), her best friend is trans,

and there are many nuanced references to gay and lesbian relationships and interactions throughout the story. Not only are these things accepted, but they are even celebrated within the pages of this book. There are even specific terms that are used for such individuals, new soul and soul crossed. 

It was refreshing to read a book with LGBTQ+ content that wasn't focused on homophobia, transphobia, or bigotry of any kind. The closest to that we see is a couple short sentences of internal fear where the main character worries that there is something wrong with her and wonders how others will perceive her, but everyone around her responds with love and respect for her identity. 

As someone who is a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I loved seeing this representation and how it was shown. I hope I can read many more books like this, and I also hope that our real world can take a page from books like these. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

meagangrace's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia

aqulia's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

I loved the world building in Beyond the Black Door.  Everything I saw of the world was intriguing and immersive.  However, I would have liked to see more of the different aspect of the gods and the darkness, along with more specifics of Ranta and the king's bond.  I liked most of the characters, and I really appreciate an ace protagonist, and that she's alloromantic.  However, I would have liked to see more of Agrir, the king and

uncorrupted Razim

, because their characters felt under used.  I also wasn't a fan of Kamai and Vehyn's dynamic, but that may just be preference.  In summary, Beyond the Black Door is a book with phenomenal world building and great characters we don't see quite enough of.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Murder, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Kidnapping

Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Alcohol, and Sexual content

nutmegandpumpkin's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

If I’m being honest, I had a hard time deciding what to rate this book. There were quite a few things that weren’t great but my enjoyment outweighed most of those. If I was reviewing it strictly on writing quality and technicalities my rating would be less high. But I’d feel ingenious rating it lower because it was the prefect book I needed at the time I read it. So my review is just going to be a simple pros and cons list so you can decide for yourself (i was able to thoroughly enjoy it despite the cons)

Pros:
- diverse cast (both LGBTQ+ and skin color)
—> main character is on the asexual spectrum which was refreshing
—> secondary character is trans
—> multiple side characters are gay, bisexual, etc.
-interesting plot revolving around dreams and souls and sleep 
- tension and suspense is done really well
- fictional pantheon that I found interesting
- likable main character
- light and fun read

Cons:
- sometimes things happen and it feels very much like they happen for plot reasons (they don’t feel as natural and it can pull you out of immersion a bit)
- some of the descriptions of buildings felt like they went on a little longer than necessary 
- quite a few cliches  
- felt rushed in some places
- left me wanting a bit more immersion and depth when it came to the worldbuilding (more about how the world works!)

neutral:
- toxic relationship (sometimes it feels like it’s romanticized and sometimes it feels like its not, it wasn’t clear so it might depend on how you read it)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicide attempt, Blood, Sexism, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, and Pregnancy

Minor: Cursing

foreverinastory's review

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

This is a dark fantasy I didn't know my soul needed.

Rep: demi-biromantic asexual female MC, trans male asexual side character, gay Black male side character, elderly Black female side character, queer supporting characters, queer-norm world.

CWs: alcohol consumption, blood, death, death of parents, fire/fire injury, gaslighting/manipulation, grief, injury/injury detail, murder, toxic relationship, violence. Moderate: suicidal thoughts, suicide attempt (does not go through with it), attempted kidnapping, drug use (consensual and non-consensual). Minor: infidelity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, and Drug use

Minor: Infidelity