Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Citadel by C.M. Alongi

3 reviews

sierraclimbs's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.5

I probably should have DNFd this book… 
The premise of it is very intriguing. It’s essentially How to Train Your Dragon, but with chimera instead of dragons & on an alien planet. 
There is important representation in this book, the main protagonist is a nonverbal autistic woman. I’m happy there are people writing this representation into their stories. But unfortunately it did not really work for me…
It ended up reading really young & there was a change made mid book that made me a little uncomfortable…

Let me start by saying that I do not have autism nor do I have anyone in my closest family & friends with autism, so my opinion should be taken with a grain of salt. But my biggest problem with this book is that they gave the nonverbal autistic protagonist a way to talk, through telepathy. Before she ate the flower to give her telepathic powers she was communicating through her sketchbook & signs. This was much more compelling & I think there could have been so much done with her ability to communicate in unconventional ways to make her connections with the chimera. Rather than just giving her speech… and frankly, it was the chimeras broken speech that made it read so young.

Also, I can’t find anything about this being a first in a series, but the last couple chapters really seemed to set up a sequel. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Grief, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Violence, Bullying, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Sexism

iseefirede's review

adventurous hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I loved this book from the first chapter. I finished it within 2 days. The fact that the main character is ND is fantastic. There was character growth and there wasn't a lot of long-drawn-out world building that I noticed. And just flying wolves with

telepathy and telekinesis

*chef's kiss*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Murder, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Bullying, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexism, Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, War, Vomit, Torture, Abandonment, Child abuse, and Suicide

redheadsuperpowers's review

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

This is a debut novel from an author I found via a Tiktok someone sent me. I actually started with her Blackwing novella series and quickly fell in love with her writing style. I managed to consume this book in about 3 1/2 hours, and loved every minute of it. 

I was deeply appreciative of the writing style in this novel, making it feel very natural when I read. The non-verbal main character was written with sensitivity, and depth. A cast amount of diversity was offered among the cast, and all the relationships were very well thought out and felt so real. The world building was woven throughout the entire novel, and didn't feel like stage directions like so many novels do. I love the depth of description we get of the setting, and I could clearly imagine what the flooded forest looked like, and how crowded Citadel itself must be. We see a lot of connections between the cast, but I appreciate that it doesn't veer into romance, leaving us to walk Olivia's grief with her. As a prolific reader, I will be recommending this to people.
 

Olivia is a non-verbal autistic teen who just lost her boyfriend, Elias, on a hunt against the demons that keep their people confined to the Citadel. They have been fighting these demons for generations and slowly outgrowing their walls, as food shortages abound. They also follow a very strict religion that has no space for doubt, and regularly culls heretics for questioning the teachings. Olivia just wants to know why. Why did the demons kill Elias? Why do they attack humans on site? Why do they keep them from leaving the Citadel? So she sneaks away and enters the forest alone, and finds out more than she bargained for. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Ableism, Gaslighting, Xenophobia, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcoholism, Grief, Bullying, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Addiction, Confinement, and Gaslighting