Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Ruinsong, by Julia Ember

3 reviews

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