Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Sun and the Void

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero Lacruz

24 reviews

solar_power's review against another edition

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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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tbd24's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

really interesting story but there is soooo much exposition and world building up front. it’s good world building! very thorough ! but I didn’t start getting -into- the plot till like halfway through. I’m excited for the next book, hopefully now that the audience knows about this world we can get straight into business

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corallydeer's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

3.75

Although the beginning was kind of slow for me I enjoyed this book by the end. The fantasy elements were unique and explored in a racial way that I don't see too often. The extent of the portrayals for racism and religious bigotry was often quite sobering and a bit tough to get through, but it felt worthwhile by the end. It was also a bit tough, at first, to sympathize or relate to the characters since many of their situations felt so dire and the choices they had to make so manipulated, but by the end of the book I really rooted for the main group. They all grew in really great ways and I wanted so many of them to achieve real happiness and freedom from their abusive origins.

I will say, as someone who doesn't speak/know a lick of Spanish, that I made sure to pair the book with the audiobook so that I could hear how words and names were pronounced and I definitely think that was a 10/10 decision.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Violence, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, and Gore

Moderate: Racial slurs, Kidnapping, Cursing, Murder, Grief, and Blood

Minor: Misogyny, Slavery, Gun violence, Homophobia, Incest, and Colonisation

Child Abuse

(young babies are used to check if someone is a reincarnated wife of Rahamagut by being abandoned on a mountain and potentially left for dead)

| Death (of Parent(s) & Child)

(Doña Laurel and her baby pass away in childbirth; babies left on the mountain as mentioned in first tag; various dead relatives mentioned from the past or experienced through the course of the book)

| Domestic Abuse

(Javier physically abuses his wife, Eva, once they're married and treats her poorly once they're legally and magically bound)

| Gore

(attacks, especially from the tinieblas, are graphic)

| Pregnancy

(Doña Laurel becomes pregnant and labor is described somewhat graphically)

| Racism

(Reina and Eva are both mixed-race characters who experience open and hidden discrimination regularly)

| Religious Bigotry

(Eva deals with religious bigotry related to the fact that she's part valco; bigotry against those that don't follow the human's religion of saints; Eva's curandera mentor is burned alive for being a "witch")

| Violence

(Reina gets attacked by monsters; sword fighting training; valcos are known to scalp antlers from other valcos they best in battle)

| Blood

(moderate depictions of blood, gore descriptions are worse)

| Cursing & Racial Slurs

(moderate levels of cursing around the fantasy racial slurs)

| Grief

(moderate depictions of grief over lost loved ones, choices made, etc)

| Kidnapping

(Reina and Javier kidnap young girls to help with reincarnating Doña Laurel, but the process isn't described in too much detail)

| Murder

(Don Enrique openly kills a witness to their plans; Reina kills her grandmother; Reina's grandmother murder's seven of the nine wives)

| Colonization

(it's mentioned in passing that humans colonized Venazia, taking nozariels as slaves, valcos as warriors, and eradicating yares)

| Gun Violence

(mentioned in passing as part of a story)

| Homophobia

(not really outright, but insinuated here and there, and explained to be a colonizer mindset brought in related to the ability to produce heirs)

| Incest

(valcos are mentioned to have inter-bred for breed purity in passing)

| Misogyny

(Javier makes some remarks to Doña Laurel about her role being for breeding)

| Slavery

(slavery of other races used to be legal, but was outlawed so it's mentioned in passing somewhat frequently)

mitzee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

A very hard read because the first 3/4 of the book really drags, there’s a lot of distrust, loneliness, racism (in an way) and abuse with very little humor or joy to accompany. There also is a lot of set up that I don’t think is needed for the story later on. I listened to the audiobook and definitely zoned out a lot until the last 25% in which interesting things started to happen.

It’s a shame because the magic and lore provides great opportunities for something really engaging.

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shottel's review against another edition

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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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lilliana_blackstar's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.75

I was really excited for this book - a Sapphic fantasy adventure inspired by South American Mythology? How exciting!

It was... not what I expected. On one hand, it IS really great! There is fantastic world building and I want more of this fantasy world! There is so much potential here for great story telling in a world with 3 different races of beings and different forms of magic they can learn to use.

However-
This isn't a story of heroes. This is not a story of strong women being courageous in the face of challenges to overcome evil at all costs. This is a story of how desperation and mistreatment can lead people to horrible choices. How "good" people can abandon their principals for survival, and how they can convince themselves that they are doing awful things for good reasons.

There is complexity here because i think the story is meant to be about power imbalance and how people without power or priveledge will be forced to make awful choices for their survival.

People with power capitalize on the desperation of people with no power, manipulating them to further their own greedy plans. The powerless people are easily sucked in by the promise of freedom, power, love, etc - whatever is offered to them by the priveledged and powerful. People make choices to follow certain orders or leaders partially through ignorance and partially through desperation and need.

When they finally realize that they have been used as pawns in nefarious plans, is it too late for redemption and forgiveness? If they do the right thing at the end, does it make up for the horrible things they did along the way?

People have critiqued this book for the female characters lacking autonomy and not being "heroes" in the usual way. I'm giving the benefit of the doubt - perhaps the point the author wanted to make is that when people don't have true power or personal autonomy, they will be forced to choose between two terrible things. There are no good choices when you are not free or empowered to find a better choice or pave your own path.
From here, we the readers are faced with our own choice - do we forgive those who have done terrible things? Do we believe in redemption for anyone?

I dont usually go into detail like this in my reviews, and I have tried to avoid spoilers. But I think there is a great story here, but one will have to recognize that the story is not about heroes doing the right thing if they want to enjoy the story at all. You might not even like most of the main characters in the book. Part of me wishes that the story had been different, but this is the story the author chose to tell.

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tigger89's review against another edition

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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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_annika__'s review against another edition

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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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lanid's review against another edition

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adventurous dark

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

3.5

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yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective 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

2.0

I wanted more from this book. I felt like he world building and magic system was a bit unclear and incomplete. I thought the characters started to show some growth until they made questionable decisions in the end and it felt like a step back in their development.

Honestly this book left me with so many questions on the world building front.

Why does Reina see her heart as monstrous? Because of iridio? Then why does she admire when Celeste uses it? Eva’s family treated her like crap and she refused to believe that they were lying about her father? How do the nozariel wear clothes with their tails? Is iridio inherently tethered to Rahmagut? Why do some users acknowledge him and others don’t? Among others

.

On a character front, many of them didn’t stick with me or make me love them or hate them. I didn’t have strong feelings for a lot of the characters other than annoyance at their dumb decisions. I did like Maior and her fiery personality.

I liked that Reina chose Maior in the end. I thought they had more chemistry and fit better than Reina and Celeste. Reina started off very naive and impressionable and stayed that way for the majority of the book but I’m glad we saw some development, even if it was toward the last couple of chapters. On Eva’s side, she really started to upset me toward the end. She refused to believe her kind father and stuck to what her horrible grandmother told her, she refused to defend Javier. I know Javier was morally grey but at least he knew he wasn’t a saint. Eva acts all high and mighty then turns around and acts cruel to Javier and caused the whole mess in the end! Not to mention she becomes arrogant with her abilities. I thought Doña Ursulina was easy to hate and Doña Laurel was easy to love which was nice.

.

I wanted more clarity in the world building and character development. There were a few characters I enjoyed and I thought the fighting scenes were well described. I don’t think I will be picking up the rest of the series but I am glad I gave it a chance and someone who isn’t as nit picky about world building may enjoy this more than I did.

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