Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind

8 reviews

12obe12twalke12's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

To the point and fast paced adventure. The "chosen-one" explores his newfound powers while trying to save the world against all odds and also finds himself in a forbidden romance. All of these typical fantasy tropes fill a plot weaved together like gently interlocking riddles. Some outcomes are a little telegraphed while some are genuine surprises. There's also a pretty consistent internal logic to the magic, wildlife, and cultural elements. The world is compelling and characters find themselves in surprising circumstances despite certain cliches. A major theme is duality. Love vs hate. Anger vs forgiveness. Perception vs reality. A sizable amount of the dialogue is spent in consideration of these concepts. With a clear set of principles filtering through. I admit I'm sympathetic to most of what the book advocates. Unfortunately it all feels a bit contrived. I'd recommend it to young adults if it weren't for the drawn out and graphic abuse that dominate 3-4 chapters of the book. As a result it ends up straddling a blurred line between mature and immature audiences. I loved it when I first read it at 17 years old. The flaws are more apparent now that I'm 37. Still good overall.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Death

Minor: Cannibalism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Death of parent, Pedophilia, and Sexual harassment

entityj's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Torture, War, Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Pedophilia

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, and Confinement

siglerbooknook's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

I remember loving this book as a teenager, but this was my first time rereading it as an adult. Honestly it read like a man's s3xual fantasy. Kahlan is so poorly written. Like he couldn't decide if he wanted a strong independent woman, or arm candy for Richard. So much of the book was sexual for no real reason. I honestly doubt I'll ever read it again. I'll stick to the tv show which was entertaining and not so twisted and lacking plot or growth.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Minor: Racism, Self harm, War, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Cannibalism, Murder, and Toxic relationship

tikipoupower's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child abuse, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Blood

Minor: Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent

napalm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Goodkind falls into the unfortunate space of fantasy and adventure books that involve every woman experiencing some form of SA. It is one of my favorite series, but the assault is something I could do without.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death, Murder, Toxic relationship, Torture, and Gore

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Blood, Death, Rape, Classism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Death of parent, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual content, War, Suicide, and Torture

Minor: Child abuse

SA is an unfortunate theme, either actively or passively, through the entire series.

bookishchef's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

1.0

This was so bad. 
The writing was bad. 
The plot was bad. 
The characters are bad.
The worldbuilding was bad.
The dialogue was bad. 
Every aspect of this book was bad (or maybe mediocre at best)

But you know what? 
Up until like 75% I was actually enjoying it in a "so bad it's good" way. 
But then the BDSM torture/smut happened. 
And then multiple SA scenes and a graphic r*pe scene happened. 

And then I was completely over it. It went from so bad it's good to just fucking terrible. 
This book is incredibly sexist, homophobic, and racist (towards Indigenous people in particular). Yet, somehow that doesn't even cover all of its issues. SOMEHOW that's just the tip of the ice berg. 

The story, even if you somehow manage to ignore how awful and problematic it is, is also super cliche and filled with characters and plotlines stolen from better stories (Lord of the Rings and The Wheel of Time to name a few). There's literally a sad creature that leads Richard and Kahlan through a forest and into a trap, and it's named SAMUEL. Like Jesus Christ, the author wasn't even creative enough to pick a name that didn't sound like Smeagol. 

(Also for some reason the author hates vegetarians???? What the fuck was that about?) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Child abuse

Minor: War, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, and Infertility

beckycarter97's review against another edition

2.0

This book started out as a not particularly inspiring/engaging fantasy novel that I thought I just needed a bit more time to get into. As Richard and Kahlan set off on their journey I became more engaged and began to feel somewhat invested in their goals. There were some good points, such as when we meet Rachel and are briefly involved in her story. At the around 3/4 point of this book I’d have said it was a fairly standard 3 star wouldn’t read again or overly recommend fantasy. 

And then we seem to abandon any idea of actual plot and good writing, and spend the last quarter of the book in gratuitous violence. The chapters and sections involving Denna seemed largely unnecessary to the plot, unpleasant to read, and I found myself skimming each page to make sure nothing was actually happening (it never was) before just pushing on in the hopes that it would be over soon. 

So many forms of violence and atrocity are mentioned at least in passing in this book, and none of them are handled well, or with any sensitivity. I came very close to DNF-ing this and only didn’t because I felt like I’d already put so many hours into ready it I had to finish it. If anyone asked me if they should read this, I’d say no. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment and Confinement

ocean_the_reader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Reread of 2022: this is my first reread since the author died. Because of that some moments hit harder and made me more emotional than before. But I still absolutely loved and adored it.

This book absolutely pulls you in. Its easy to devour as you go along a journey and discover new things about yourself and how much reslove a person can have in tough situations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Death, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Animal death, Gore, Torture, and Violence