Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Crier's War by Nina Varela

21 reviews

starccato's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, Death, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Police brutality, Self harm, Sexual content, and Mental illness

k_aro's review

hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

It was good.... I definitely enjoyed the slow burn enemies to lovers, but I'm not sure if, as a whole, it'll be particularly memorable for me. Like, it was good, but not life-changingly good.

Crier and Ayla are... good? Characters? I'm definitely not categorically opposed to them but I don't think they're particularly compelling in and of themselves, they seem kind of standard.

It was pretty gripping, though. It took me a little bit to get into it but it was definitely exciting after that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Misogyny, and Xenophobia

Moderate: War, Cultural appropriation, Police brutality, and Abandonment

Minor: Alcohol, Infertility, Self harm, and Death of parent

It's sort of hard to talk about the more social aspects of this book, given that it's between a fictional race and a real one, so when I say "cultural appropriation" I'm unsure whether it would realistically affect someone, given that it is largely the king appropriating human culture (such as, marital traditions).

lollyr's review

adventurous emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Grief, Infertility, and Murder

morganish's review

emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Crier's War started off a little slow for me, BUT. The book very quickly overcame my doubts, and I found myself really looking forward to picking it back up every night! It's fantasy of the YA variety, which doesn't deviate too much from a lot of the themes, stylistic choices, and characterization of other YA stories.

Yet even as I've been leaning away from YA fantasy and more toward adult recently, I found myself really absorbed in this one. The prose was straightforward, but sometimes unexpectedly beautiful; the worldbuilding wasn't dense or complicated, and yet the central conceit works well and there's a surprising amount of effective mystery. All the untold secrets yet to be discovered ultimately worked to hook me in. The romance is a kind I like but don't often find executed this effectively: angst-heavy, with lots of pining. It's a true slow burn, with outstanding threads still left hanging by the end of this installment, the first of a duology. Even though I'd heard others say this book was really good, AND even though I was excited by the idea of AI creations in a traditional fantasy setting, I was still surprised how good Crier's War was.

If you like your slow-burn romances to actually feel like something slow and aching and epic, this book probably has what you're looking for. (Especially if you're looking for more sapphic fantasy.) If you like the feel of YA fantasy stories, but sometimes wish the worldbuilding had just a little bit more mystery or intrigue like adult fantasy, this might serve, depending on your tastes.  But if you're just completely done with YA fantasy and all the aspects that come with it, or don't like romances that build across multiple books, OR don't like the enemies-to-lovers trope, this book probably won't do much for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Confinement, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, War, and Xenophobia

Minor: Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Genocide, and Sexism

A lot of the elements I include about the content warnings are specifically fantastical, like fantastical xenophobia. Most of the other content warnings have some level of fantastic to them as well. It isn't a direct reference to IRL events and doesn't include IRL bigotry, for example.

make_believer's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

This is my new favorite YA fantasy series. The world-building is incredible. It’s interesting to see a story where AI has taken over the human world. My favorite part of the book, however, was Crier. I don’t think I have ever loved a YA protagonist more. She is so incredibly naive and she makes absolutely idiotic decisions sometimes, but it’s because she truly means well. She truly wants to help everyone around her, and she wants to make the world a better place. And her relationship with Ayla is amazing. This is a slow burn romance for sure, and it is about as enemies to lovers as you can get. But that is once again one of the many reasons that Crier is so lovable. Ayla’s hatred of Crier and the system that Crier represents is absolutely valid. Ayla’s hesitance to trust and acknowledge her feelings for Crier make for a wonderful slow burn. Crier is so insistent on helping people, and so in love with Ayla from the start, that she completely misses the fact that she and Ayla are enemies. The yearning from both sides is beautiful. Ayla wants to badly to feel nothing towards Crier, and Crier wants so badly for Ayla to love her back. It leads up to an incredible ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, and War

Minor: Sexual content and Infertility

mothie_girlie's review against another edition

adventurous 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Genocide, Violence, and War

Moderate: Cursing, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit

offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed this sapphic fantasy aspect of this book but I found the writing to be somewhat weak. The world-building takes place in the first couple pages instead of unfolding throughout the story.

Spice level: 🌶/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Infertility

Minor: Gaslighting

philmarie321's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Death, Violence, Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Child death, and Blood

mia_books's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Death of parent

lesbianbooksrgr8's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

one of my favorite sapphic books ever. enemies to lovers GOLD. poc rep is to the next level. not even a minute after finishing this i went to amazon and bought the sequel. not a homophobic world (which i love)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Murder, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Confinement, Genocide, Gore, and Kidnapping

there is a war in it so indefinitely there will be gore