Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

The Gilded Ones by Namina Forna

38 reviews

captainoliimar's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Violence, Vomit, Classism, Death, Genocide, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, War, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Blood, Child death, Kidnapping, and Medical content

Minor: Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic relationship

sunberry's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring medium-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

5.0

An absolutely incredible book. So hard to put down. The characters were engaging, interesting, and fun to root for. All kinds of twists that kept the book engaging. The magic elements were also a lot of fun. It has very dark themes, and heavily features abuse, but it is empowering as well as the characters overcome. The ending feels hopeful, but with knowledge of consequences.  Can't wait to pick up the sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Confinement, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Body horror, War, Religious bigotry, Death, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Classism, Vomit, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Body horror

Minor: Bullying and Mental illness

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

dark 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Torture, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Murder, Religious bigotry, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, War, Abandonment, Confinement, Genocide, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: Slavery and Vomit

Minor: Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and Sexual assault

booksanna's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

Ok. This was amazing. The details and world building, character relationships, the moral impact, and depth of the plot are outstandingly glorious. If you love Greek Mythology, then you will love this. Very powerful and legend like story with a very interesting world.  The content is a little dark, but not depressingly dark(has some triggers). Awesome writing style, and I love Britta and Ixa. Has the Chosen One trope, so if you are not a fan of that then I would watch out.  Overall has very fantastical but still relatable universe. Looking forward to reading the 2nd book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Murder, Genocide, Emotional abuse, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Hate crime, Gore, War, Child abuse, Confinement, Toxic friendship, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Bullying, Rape, Slavery, Abandonment, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

katsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-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

4.0

“No matter my origins, there is worth in what I am.”

“The physical body—it heals. The scars fade. But the memories are forever. Even when you forget, they remain inside, taunting you, resurfacing when you least expect.”

“They might need us now because we're valuable, might pretend to accept us, to reward us - but never forget what they did to us first.”

I'll be real. I put this book down about halfway through and almost didn't pick it back up. But I'm really glad I did. Other than the dip in the middle, the world-building was solid and intriguing. The patriarchy that Forna depicted was hard to read at times but I couldn't help drawing parallels to the real world. 

I really enjoyed the found family trope. The secondary characters were so lovely and I ended up really liking how the author seemed to hold up the platonic relationships to the same level as the romantic one. It made the romantic relationship feel healthy and grounded while also not letting it take over the rest of the narrative. 

I am interested to see how the second book progresses given that this one seemed to wrap up pretty nicely. It's almost like the author wasn't sure she if she would get to publish the second one so left enough loose ends, just in case, while tying up the big, important ones. 

I also want to give some pretty major trigger warnings for death, torture and violence. This is marketed as Young Adult but I would definitely push this towards older teen readers for those scenes alone. The main character and her friends can heal from almost any injury so there are multiple scenes of torture including a pretty prominent scene of dismemberment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Gaslighting, Grief, Blood, Confinement, Death, Child abuse, Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Violence, and War

Moderate: Abandonment and Animal cruelty

Minor: Sexual assault, Trafficking, Death of parent, Rape, and Sexual violence

estelagois's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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: Blood and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Abandonment, Vomit, and Violence

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Slavery

ailsaod's review against another edition

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

3.0

I was a little wary of this book as I recently read 'Children of blood and bone' which is also a prominent ya book with similar themes and did not enjoy it at all. I may have rated both books the same but it is for very different reasons!

This book is quite brutal (especially for YA!) but in a strange way as there is very little character death (of named characters) but a lot of very unpleasant things happen to the girls. I quite enjoyed most of it and it would have been a solid 4 stars as while being super dark it was fairly enjoyable and I was enjoying the mystery that surrounded Deka's powers. However right towards the end the big twist is revealed and it just raised so many unsatisfying questions and made the prior events in the plot far more convoluted. Like I'm all for a good 3rd act reveal but this one was just a lot and made me wonder what the point was. It's sad as what made me enjoy the first 2/3 was knowing that we were building up to something big but when the plot twist came it just didn't stick the landing for me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Genocide, Blood, Gore, Slavery, War, Sexism, and Torture

Minor: Rape and Vomit

Not sure if

being aware that you have been decapitated

counts as body horror?

flare_ice8's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Trafficking, Vomit, and War

ananko's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Vomit, and War

Moderate: Rape, Grief, Kidnapping, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

thevietvegan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? No

3.0

It’s extremely violent and graphic. But an interesting world 🤷🏻‍♀️ The pacing is jarring at times, things feel very skipped over, or fast forwarded. The author is a screen writer though, so this makes a lot of sense. Dialogue game strong, plot twist game strong. Ixa is everything haha. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault