Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Ruinsong, by Julia Ember

15 reviews

eloisethebooklover's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This book is deeply fucked up in ways I did not expect. It was so good! It had my attention from the start and I struggled to put it down to do other things. The world is compelling & I could not stop thinking about this book. The ending was a bit confusing but I’m satisfied with how it all came together. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Animal death, and Violence

Minor: Sexual assault

piperclover's review against another edition

Way too dark. Its so detailed in its grotesque human evil. I almost wish the mc was in on the horror instead of being this manipulated child, it makes it even harder to stomach. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Torture

The mc isn't exactly imprisoned but in effect she is.

samsonian's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

4.5

EEHAJSHSHSHAHAHA THIS BOOK IS LESBIAN YEARNING IN UNDER 400 PAGES PLS LET THERE BE A SECOND BOOK 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Blood, Murder, and Vomit

qraveline's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Blood

Moderate: Torture, Gore, Violence, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Lesbophobia, Abortion, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Body horror, War, Genocide, and Cancer

lqvekanej's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia

transpercy_'s review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and Gore

tinysierra's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

-I love the idea of song magic! That was the coolest part of the book
-Friends to lovers
-polyamory (side characters)
-As other reviews said… it was kind of bland and there was no real build up. It was a decent story but the plot and the romance in it were not really strong.

I recommend Of Fire and Stars over Ruinsong because it still has a sapphic couple, elemental magic, royalty/court politics, a similar scene to one in this book

Spoiler

where the couple rides a horse together. it’s cute lol

and the romance in that book stands out more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia and Vomit

Minor: Abortion and Miscarriage

sarah984's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I thought this was a really fun idea for a story, and the singing magic was cool. Everything was tense and the stakes felt high. Most of the characters were interesting.

However, the characters we spend our time focused on are probably the least interesting of the bunch. They spend a lot of time complaining and making impulsive decisions (and then complaining that people don't trust them not to make impulsive decisions) and you only kind of hear about other characters doing cool things in the background. The ending wraps up extremely fast so a lot of the victories don't really feel earned. I get the idea of noting every character’s skintone instead of making special note of who wasn't white, but it really drove home how white the core cast still was so I don't know if it helped.

Also this is a nitpick but if you're retelling Phantom of the Opera and you drop ZERO chandeliers? You're doing it wrong.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Abortion, Death of parent, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Sexual content

starccato's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Gore, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Stalking

Minor: Abortion, Confinement, Death of parent, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Vomit, Lesbophobia, Body shaming, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

booksthatburn's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

RUINSONG is a slow burn sapphic tale of falling in love under brutality, and daring to hope for a better future even after being groomed into complicity. The opening chapters are brutal, slowly but inexorably describing a reign of death and torture in which a powerful queen demands complicity and service in exchange for life. The plot is at least 90% slowly inching towards maybe doing something concrete about it while an ever escalating series of discomforts befall the main characters, then the ending is very dramatic and sudden. I refer it to a series of discomforts because the worst stuff happens around Cadence rather than to her (very early on bad things happen to Remi and then keep happening). There's a sense (usually backed up by dramatic asides and tales of woe) that much worse things are constantly happening somewhere to somebody, but since they aren't literally happening to Cadence she's been reluctant to try and change things. I don't have a great sense of what the revolutionaries want other than to not be tortured and killed by the Queen (this is, admittedly, a very sound basis for a revolution so it's okay that other demands aren't a focus of the narrative). I think that I personally prefer books with more specific political intrigue with their revolutions, but that's not what this book is trying to be. The romance is slow burn, since Remi and Cadence don't feel free to do much of anything, let alone broach the topic of being girls who like girls. It barely feels safe for them to be friends, since Remi's very proximity is being used to control Cadence. 

The worldbuilding is fine, it's not very complicated because the story invests its detail in the Queen and the two girls, and the people around them. One thing this portrays very well is emotional abuse and manipulation, and the way that a combination of threats plus unpredictable enforcement can be used to break someone down and make everything feel pointless. The story is about whether Cadence will finally have something that it's worth standing up for, and I appreciate how the story shows why she didn't fight for things before. Even if her reasons seem silly or you can imagine yourself doing more in her shoes (some of her fellow characters think they might have done more), the characterization is so well done to explain why she hadn't before, but without excusing what she's done and continues to do. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Confinement, Homophobia, and Vomit

Minor: Abortion and Death of parent