Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

An Unkindness of Magicians by Kat Howard

7 reviews

stories's review

challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Wow. Dad recommended this book and he was right. Certainly designed to be read more at once than episodically, with a large, cast of complex relationships. A satisfying mixture of political intrigue, morality and magical wonders in a battle-to-the-death equivalent of this magical world’s election cycle. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Murder, Self harm, Abandonment, Classism, Violence, and Physical abuse

Minor: Racism

theliteraryhooker's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I love Howard's writing, but the pacing was a bit off with this one. Certain pieces dragged while others felt way too rushed, especially towards the end of the book. An interesting magic system though and I enjoyed the characters quite a bit, especially Sydney!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Murder

Moderate: Vomit

rory18's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Abandonment, Confinement, Blood, Torture, Trafficking, Child abuse, Death, Violence, Slavery, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault, Incest, Racism, Sexual violence, and Classism

Minor: Child death

Tagged as incest due to

Sydney being raised by Ian's aunt

, but in a manner similar to how Rapunzel is raised, so it's like... Pseudo/adoptive-incest of cousins?

clarabooksit's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Blood, Toxic relationship, Classism, and Death

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Vomit

tamara_joy's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Blood and Child abuse

e_len's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I honestly liked this book. The world was interesting and I liked the dark undertones, bleak atmosphere and the undercurrent of social critique.
The writing style was nice, easy to read as it is YA and the poetic descriptions of spellwork were nice to read, even if I could not understand the mechanics of it.
I liked the ending. Howard does not shy away from showing the consequences of decisions.

But it had major flaws:
1. It was not immersive. We do not get to be in the head of the characters, their thoughts and emotions were only shown sparingly. The reader has to guess from that, which was not said. But we do not have enough information nor have a reason to care for any of the characters. 
2. Ties in into one. There are too many point of views, it was difficult to keep track of them, especially since some of them are really similar and have the same backgrounds.
The only one I cared a little about was Sydney, the main character, but even then we never zoomed in into her head.
3. World building problems. What about the magic outside New York? How come, it's not important? Why are the Houses Merlin and Dee in New York and not in England?
4. The fight between

Sydney and Ian was really built up to be a fight for the death (which I cared nothing about because their romance didn't make sense to me anyway, but it was solved in a couple sentences and Sydney just gave up, (it was stated earlier that she could not, would never give up) and both walked away unharmed.

All that built-up, all for nothing.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Slavery, Stalking, Murder, and Child abuse

Minor: Vomit and Injury/Injury detail

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Slavery, Torture, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Racism, and Stalking