Reviews with content warning for Grief - The Invocations

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Invocations by Krystal Sutherland

35 reviews

katielouisef's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

bzliz's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I recently read House of Hollow and enjoyed it a lot, so when I saw this at the library I scooped it up knowing that I’d get another dose of Krystal Sutherland’s hauntingly beautiful imagery and she did not disappoint. The Invocations is just as bloody and gruesome while still being somewhat charming.

Emer, a cursewriter whose coven was slaughtered years ago and was essentially raised by demons, is only seeking survival and revenge on the men who killed her family. She provides curses to gift magic to women in bad or desperate situations. Zara’s sister was murdered nearly a year ago and she’s not looking for revenge; she just wants to raise her sister from the dead. Jude made a stupid mistake is writing her own curse which bound an unwilling demon to her and it is hell bent to destroy her. Zara and Jude’s journeys join them together then link them to Emer as they investigate who is killing Emer’s clients and stealing their invocations.

In my opinion, the least enjoyable part was the “romance” between Jude and Emer. It would have been just as well by these three girls- Jude, Emer & Zara- seeking connection, community & friendship because that’s really what they want. I hesitate to say there’s much growth for the trio as such a vast majority of their quest is externally driven but I don’t think the story suffers for it. The ending is a little waffley too. The cops here must be pretty inept and that’s all I’ll say on that.

Content Warnings

not_another_ana's review

Go to review page

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

A girl walks home alone, but not alone.

In a world where only women can wield magic three girls will cross paths thanks to a serial killer targetting witches. Jude is a rich heiress who accidentally cursed herself and is now suffering from a rotting soul. A pariah to her family and constantly in pain she will do anything and pay whatever steep price to fix the damage and go back to her normal life, and if she has to track down a killer then so be it. Zara is looking for a way to bring back her sister, Savannah, from the dead and if magic is the answer then she'll stop at nothing, including finding her sister's murderer. When they find themselves down the same path they start working together and come across Emer, an actual witch and the girl who gave Zara's sister her magic. She could cure Jude and maybe even reanimate Savannah, but there's a more pressing situation: her clients are slowly being killed one by one. Bound together by what they know the three of them will try to catch this serial killer before he comes for them.

I thought this would be such an easy 5 stars. A book about witches! With a serial killer! By the same author of House of Hollow! Saying I was hype is an understatement, I was genuinely counting down the days and yet... this did not hit 😔 and trust me, it hurts. Some of my frustration might be due to how much I loved House of Hollow, which I read twice last year, and to that I say my bad, sure, but even separating this from previous books I still think it's weak and not up to standard. There were still elements that I enjoyed so let's start with the good.

The prose was excellent in general. Easy to read, very descriptive without boring the reader, non repetitive. Nobody does gruesome in such an enjoyable way as Krystal Sutherland, tasteful amount of gore I would say. The central idea was solid, I was particulary captivated by the magic system in this world. Magic has a price, magic hurts, it's disgusting, it cannot do it all, it demands a sacrifice. Giving away part of your soul in exchange for power ties up nicely to the medieval beliefs of witches consorting with the devil. Emer's family history

and the existence of witch hunters

made sense in this universe and was fascinating to think about. The central mystery had some terrific elements,

like the witches' power being stolen and the killer grafting their invocations on his body, delightful! The necromancy was a gruesome plus, I love how much work it was and how committed you had to be. The demons too were an intriguing addition that I would have like to learned more about.

Now to the bad parts. I knew this wasn't a 5 stars when I realized there were three points of view. It made the beginning too slow because we had to meet all of them, learn about their situation, and then connect them to the main plot and eventually each other. The pacing was a big issue, slow start that then picks up only to slump again to then pack all the action in the last 30%. At some points the girls were too similar and difficult to separate, at others some of them felt like they were just there and didn't contribute much to the story ~~cough Zara cough~~. Picking one character to be the only POV would have been better, in fact that's what I believed from the cover and I do think only Jude narrating would have made a ton on sense.

She was skilled enough in magic to know the basics but still need help from Emer and her connection to the witch hunters and the serial killer was closer and more meaningful.

I never felt a strong connection to any of them because it was too hard to get to know them properly. Slightly related to that, I also never felt anything for the villains of this story. They were too obvious and also too cartoony. Superficial means and motive, just mustache twirling villain behaviour. Listen, I am never beating the misandrist allegations but this book actually has me beat. In an either "my first foray into feminism" or "radical extreme feminism" way all men here were evil and irredeemable, just a flat interpretation of the world that hurt the narrative by not letting any grey area exist. It rubbed me the wrong way. The plot also had these contrived coincidences that existed only to help the girls out or to conveniently make things easier

like zombie Savannah breaking out and killing everyone, or the demons consuming all the bodies so they didn't have to give any explanations.

Then there's the... romance.

There was no space in there to develop a romance AT ALL. I can maybe believe that such a dire situation could get the ~~trauma bonding~~ passion juices (ew) going but Emer and Jude had nothing in common. I don't see them lasting long nor do I believe there's love between them. Related to that can we talk about the epilogue. Um wtf was that. The new friends, who were allegedly brought so close together by all the events, spend a whole year separated only to reunite and not really talk that much about what happened or the future?? Not only that but, if I recall correctly, Zara has no speaking lines during the whole thing. Zara third wheel #confirmed, not only is her sister still dead, not only is she still poor, her sisters in arms are too busy with each other to bother with her. Oh and the last thing that bothered me a lot: why was Bael and the demons keeping Emer alive to created more invocations framed as a grl pwr win??? The way I see it Emer is now a pawn for the demons, kept alive solely for her ability to feed them souls, her life is no longer her own. She is a prisoner to entities she doesn't fully understand. I don't consider giving women's souls to demons to be a win for feminism.

I said a lot of shit for a book that I still ranked 3.25 but I stand by it all. I did enjoy it! Which makes everything I didn't enjoy so important for me to talk about. Even with all this if Krystal Sutherland handed me a new book in a similar vein I would sit my ass down and thank her for the meal. TL;DR: yeah you can still read this and enjoy it.

Content Warnings

theycallmenana's review

Go to review page

dark medium-paced

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

3.25

Content Warnings

avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I enjoyed the book, but I figured out who the witch hunter was pretty easily, so that plot "twist" was pretty dull. I did love the ending and I hope there's a sequel, which there seemed to be a setup for.
While dark there were enough moments of levity to keep it from being a thoroughly depressing book.

Narrator Rating: 5 stars
The narrator did an excellent job with tonal shifts and giving each character a unique voice.

Elemental Levels: Fluff-0/5 Heartfelt-2/5 Helpful-NA Horror-3/5 Inspiration-NA
Love aka Romance-3/5 Mystery-2/5 Predictability-4/5 Spice-0/5 Suspense-2/5 Tear- 2.5/5
Thrill-3/5 Humor-2/5

Content Warnings

knightkikibeth's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

It’s been a while since a book made me feel the way this book did. Krystal Sutherland writes books like Emer Byrne writes curses; the perfect combination of words and imagery, not a single flaw and it consumes part of your soul when it’s over. This is my book I wish I could read for the first time again, I wish I could give it a rating higher than 5 stars.

Content Warnings

thereadedit's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad 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

When I first saw the cover of this book, I couldn't get it out of my mind. 3 young women against the world? Yes please.

I love that Krystal gives the power to women in her books. This book embodied every dream of women being the ultimate badasses. They refused to let someone else take their lives away. They wanted to make a life for themselves and refused to allow no to be the answer.

I loved these three characters. They each brought so much to the story and showed how 3 very different women can come together to make dreams comes true. No matter what their dreams were.

I loved exploring London through the eyes of these women and how their perception involved their surroundings. Seeing something through someone else's eyes is always so much an interesting experience and I love being in their shoes.

Emotions run high throughout this book because of the war that is raging within their world. It's not a typical war, but a war nonetheless. Amidst fighting their hardest they find the most unlikely allies in people they never expected. Not just each other but also people in their lives that they would have never expected.

I loved this so much and I was beyond sad when it ended. I got so invested in this world and these characters and I can't help but want more.

Content Warnings

kris386's review

Go to review page

dark emotional slow-paced

3.0

Content Warnings

jaedia's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I read a hefty chunk of this during a three-day migraine. Day one I could barely read at all, day two I was just so desperate for something to do that wasn't a screen. 😅 So that was a new experience for me (I've only been having migraines for a couple years, if that).

I enjoyed The Invocations a lot. At first I worried the purple prose was going to fall on the wrong side for me but quickly fell in love with the way Sutherland describes everything and paints pictures with words. And the three girls: Jude, Emer, and Zara, felt pretty 3-dimensional to me, to the point that Jude in my mind looked quite different to the Jude on the cover art, the other 2 as well, actually - I struggle to visualise characters at all, usually. I also just adore dark witchy stories. This one has gore, and demons, and dark power, and women who are angry. It really really hit the spot.

There were a few points that bothered me, however, though they were small niggles rather than outright problems. For one... quite a few typos. I maybe noticed 7 or 8 throughout the book? Which isn't great for a traditionally published book. Not the end of the world though, they don't make it unreadable. Also without spoilers, one character has a magical injury, you learn about it right away when they are introduced, and the extent of the injury and the pain it causes... it really bothered me that they could walk around and do things. Like, yes there were times if they were running or doing manual labour they'd be visibly struggled or just bow out completely, but it's never made into much. I experience some minor pain at times and can't walk when it gets really bad, and there are others who need to constantly use crutches or a wheelchair. Pain like that isn't something that you grin and bear, get used to, magical or not. It wipes you out. I would have at least liked for them to have a walking stick, you know? Would have felt more real. Also: disabled representation, we could always use more.

Aside from that, the rest really are just small things here and there. Perhaps a person feels too much like a walking cliché, something feels a little too convenient, that kind of thing. These are generally things I notice when I read young adult fiction, however, and I tend to just brush them off. The instances in this book where they came up just didn't affect what I was reading. The overall writing and excitement of the story and what was happening to these characters was solid enough that it more than made up for any issues I had.

If you don't mind a little gore and enjoy dark stories about witches and the occult, with queer leading ladies, nonetheless, you might really get a kick out of The Invocations. And if you do, I definitely recommend checking the trigger warnings, as it is horror.

Content Warnings

devynreadsnovels's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

Content Warnings

More...