Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Beyond the Black Door by A.M. Strickland

16 reviews

elerireads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? No

3.5

Pretty good. Gripping story that took some twists and turns to keep me hooked right to the end. Some solid creepiness and suspense - slightly regretted reading this at night when I was alone. Nice worldbuilding and belief system construction.

I found the gender and sexuality framework a bit confusing but I liked the idea of it - that a different society would have set up different ways of thinking about these things and terminology that reflected their belief system. But it did that classic thing of making all the characters confused and ashamed and then suddenly claiming that all these things were completely accepted and normalised, as if those feelings have nothing to do with existing in a prejudiced oppressive society. 

For some reason I was really rooting for Jidras to be redeemed. Something about the way his character was built up made me feel like there was some hidden extra depth to his story that was going to be uncovered, but there never was. Bit unsatisfying because I thought there was more to be unpacked there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Deadnaming, and Misogyny

Minor: Suicide attempt

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

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

korra_maddie's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

A slow start to the story including introducing characters and plot developments but picks up less than half way through the book. A plot reveal near the end of the book was predictable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia, Alcohol, Gore, and Grief

Minor: Kidnapping and Murder

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

ursociallyawkwardbud's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Acephobia/Arophobia

fbzcab's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Murder

vaniavela's review

adventurous challenging 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Blood, and Acephobia/Arophobia

bpet's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

This book has so many diverse characters. What I loved that though it’s a book about asexuality, and other sexuality’s, it’s not the main focus. It has a wonderful plot that has a great build up. The book left me wanting more instead of being glad to finish it. The author also created a different religion for the book, which is difficult but it was explained quite well. Also plenty of descriptive words, it transports you right into the setting. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Blood