Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao

33 reviews

ajhling's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Dysphoria

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury

readingwithkaitlyn's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Eating disorder, Gun violence, Infertility, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Trafficking, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic

alyxthebookdragon's review against another edition

5.0

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: Complicated

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I received an ALC through Libro.fm for this title.

I have been waiting since April 2022 with baited breath for this book, and was of course worried my expectations would be let down after so much anticipation. They were not. This was really damn good.

I think if it had been the same as iron widow, I would have been disappointed. But Heavenly Tyrant has very different tone and pacing. I loved it. It feels like growth. So you took your rage and smashed your oppressors, now what? How are you going to use power for good? It honestly mirrors my own journey of becoming aware of oppression, getting angry, and learning so much more of how the world works. Building a better world takes more thought and effort than angry me would have expected.

The relationships are INTENSE. I love how Zhao builds characters. The interpersonal dynamics had me always on the edge of my seat.

I also have to commend them on how

they ballooned out the world building. Often times when you start zoomed in and expand the camera, I find it frustrating. This I found believable and engaging.  Zooming out to space and having these two crazy intense people approach it with the same ferocity they've had for the whole book (which the space people find baffling) really sealed it for me.

Goodness gracious I can't wait for the next one. 

A note on the audio book: there are two narrators, giving each POV character their own voice. The main character narrator does a good job voicing various dialect changes in a way I enjoyed. 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, War

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism