Reviews tagging 'War'

The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero Lacruz

9 reviews

solar_power's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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: Murder, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Abandonment, Child death, Bullying, Death of parent, War, Cursing, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Lesbophobia, Kidnapping, Body horror, Death, and Classism

Minor: War, Slavery, Genocide, Incest, and Miscarriage

shottel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.25

Oh, how much I wanted to like this book more. And yet, unless you’re a fan of the fantasy genre specifically, or perhaps of South American-inspired settings, I couldn’t recommend it to you.

Let’s start with what went well: The setting. One of my favorite fictional settings I’ve encountered in a long time. I’m a huge sucker for religious themes and topics, which weigh heavy on the plot. I personally haven’t read much inspired by South America, so it was refreshing and new to me to see a fiction book draw heavily on its history and culture. I might read the sequel just for further worldbuilding.

Additionally, I felt the one-on-one fights were excellent. Clear and visceral. I’ve read more than a few good novels with confusing, poorly wrote fights that drag down the whole thing.

Now, what didn’t go well: The characters. There are two main protagonists in this novel. I deeply disliked them both. One of them is self-righteous, to the point of overlooking her own deeply heinous actions; the other is cowardly and perpetually impulsive, an awful mix that made for a character that repeatedly made her own situation worse and regretted it moments later. That’s not enjoyable to read. It’s frustrating. At times, I was rooting against both of them.

To make matters worse, there was only one character in the book I felt was compelling, and the author hid away his motives until about 80% of the way through the book. When his backstory got more detail I was actually frustrated because it made him deeply interesting. I would’ve greatly preferred reading the entire novel from his perspective. That’s notable, because I read this novel in part because I love sapphic women leads, but I now wish the book was about the straight guy.

The other thing I felt went poorly was the fights that weren’t one-on-one. Most notably, there is a particular large battle in the second half which comes off as incredibly lackluster. Startlingly so, in fact, given how much I felt the one-on-one fights were great. Generously, it felt like reading a college freshman’s attempt in a creative writing class that got a B-.

All in all, I only recommend this book if you’re a fantasy genre fan or want some more South American in your fiction. Otherwise, spend your time elsewhere, because if the setting won’t carry it for you, then characters definitely won’t.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Racism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Chronic illness, Body horror, Classism, Emotional abuse, Gore, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Moderate: Colonisation, Alcohol, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Rape, Confinement, Infertility, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

Minor: Slavery, War, Vomit, and Medical content

tigger89's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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

The world building in this novel is fantastic. It's a fantasy world based on Venezuelan history and folklore, with a magic system centered around using real-world metals as reagents. There were indigenous people who lived in the land before human colonizers arrived, as well as a revolution that brings to mind the rebuffing of certain real-world colonial empires. This is the first book of a series, and honestly it's mostly set-up. But the set-up is so interesting that I didn't even care. I can't say enough how much I love the magic system. It's exactly the right balance of simple and complex.

The dual-PoV was done very well. I found the two voices to be distinct, and the characters were believable. Sometimes they did foolish things — very foolish things — but those mistakes seemed natural. The supporting characters were also excellent(Maior was my favorite, by the end). I'm not sure what I think about Javier. I feel like I know where the author is taking his arc, and I think it's going to annoy me. I'd say he's honestly the biggest weakness of the entire book for me, because he leans on tropes — the sick boy, the jerk, the master manipulator — that I'm not a huge fan of, and yet he's so central. Fortunately he's not the only relationship present, so that softens the annoyance a bit, and the fact that Maior exists almost cancels his unpleasantness out.

The author is also an illustrator and has drawn her five primary characters. They appear in the book, some at the start of part 1 and some at part 2, and can also be viewed on her website. If you're a visual reader like me, I recommend checking all five portraits before you start reading so your brain performance of the book doesn't do any odd recasting. There is sapphic rep here, though in this first book at least it's predominantly incessant longing with some small payoff near the very end. The author claims that the next book will be spicier, so I imagine it will get more development later.

The book has frequent action sequences, mixing physical combat with spellcasting. This is going to be a weird comparison, because the settings and plots are nothing alike — not to mention I trust this author more than I trust Cassandra Clare — but whenever the characters were fighting I kept getting Shadowhunters vibes. In a good way. Don't @ me, I said it was weird.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Racism, Child death, Colonisation, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Blood, Violence, Body horror, and Cursing

Minor: Death of parent, Genocide, Incest, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, War, Infertility, and Slavery

_annika__'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Colonisation, Death, Slavery, Classism, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

blacksphinx's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

How much you will love this story comes down to one thing: your willingness to watch traumatized and abused people make bad choices from the very limited ones they have. If you want your abused heroines to be out here from page one owning their abusers with a witty one-liner, you will hate this. 

This is a book about people making bad decisions under duress, and by the end I think it may be fair to say one of our PoVs is a villain protagonist. The story set into motion by these events is fascinating, and I want to watch these girls become both better and worse.  

(I wanted to give this book five stars, but people constantly keeping secrets from each other + a really annoying love triangle dragged it down.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, and Incest

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Classism, Religious bigotry, and Slavery

Minor: War, Fire/Fire injury, Homophobia, Infidelity, Child death, Infertility, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

persephonefoxx's review

adventurous 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Miscarriage, Violence, Racism, and Child death

Moderate: Racism, War, Religious bigotry, and Slavery

Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Incest

gen_wolfhailstorm's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

Thank you to Black Crow PR for granting me a physical uncorrected proof of this title. All opinions remain 100% genuine.

Buddy read with Sharron Joy Reads.

I loved the depth of this tale. It was slow for the first 3rd or so with world building but once I pushed through, I found it to be worthwhile.
The setting was lush, tense and atmospheric, all at the appropriate times.

I appreciated all the contextual terminology being at the front. I find nothing more tedious than trailing through the end of the book, looking for what something means, with the fear of seeing a spoiler hanging over me like a black cloud.

The conversation of oppression, classim and the mistreatment of other species due to being who they are was so on point to how society still is in the real world.

The sapphic romance threaded through was great. I felt like there was a lot of manipulation in the romance though (as well as the platonic relationships) and it was hurtful to see characters I began to care about being strung along on the whims of others.

The magic system felt unique and unusual to me and though at times it went over my head a little, I was excited to see powers being mastered by various characters.

this is the 2nd book in as many with some weird incest thread, oh dear... I mean I wasn't expecting that and I still don't really get the how... I guess Celeste and Reina would be 1st half cousins?

Overall, I really enjoyed this book and can see how it can set up for a sequel, but equally would feel complete enough as a stand a lone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual content, Addiction, Body shaming, Child death, Suicide attempt, Death, Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Homophobia, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racism, Colonisation, Cursing, Slavery, War, Chronic illness, Classism, Gore, Misogyny, Self harm, Xenophobia, Grief, Racial slurs, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Incest, Kidnapping, Medical content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Lesbophobia, Trafficking, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Hate crime, and Toxic relationship

hailstorm3812's review

adventurous dark 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

3.75

I think my high hopes got the best of me with this one. I really liked the characters (especially Reina) and the world-building and that probably will entice me into reading the next one. I did have problems with the pacing and structure. It dragged in the middle for me and the fact that none of the characters even suspect the twist is baffling. I think my biggest issue is that Reina and Eva should be foils with a developing relationship and they just float around each other. The finale hinges upon the different yet same directions they wind up in but it lacks the emotional resonance since they don't care about each other. The only person it actually effects personally is Maior. My qualms aside I did still have fun and overall liked the book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Death, Bullying, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Miscarriage, and Misogyny

Minor: War, Suicide, Homophobia, Genocide, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Rape, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

krisalexcole's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexism, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Colonisation, Pregnancy, Death, Toxic relationship, and Murder

Moderate: Classism, Medical content, War, Medical trauma, Chronic illness, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Genocide, Child death, Death of parent, Body horror, Kidnapping, and Grief

Minor: Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Self harm, Domestic abuse, Cursing, Sexual content, Suicide, Confinement, Infertility, Incest, Torture, and Child abuse

Dismemberment, homelessness