Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Mercy by Ian Haramaki

4 reviews

maximauve's review

emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, and Bullying

discarded_dust_jacket's review

It’s not that I think the writing is necessarily bad, but this book would benefit from a few more rounds of editing. The author has definite potential, but this story needs some work, and I didn’t want to continue forcing myself to push through.

The anachronistic language took me out of the story every time. It’s supposed to be set in the 1920s but the characters use modern day colloquialisms. The dialogue in general just feels a bit odd and forced, sometimes even downright cringey.

The narrative pushes forward at a pretty quick pace right off the bat, but it isn’t really properly contextualized through any meaningful worldbuilding. I couldn’t get a solid grasp on the religion in particular. Who are the hunters? What and why are they hunting? Why does Ilya keep referencing a time when he “burnt out his eyes” as part of some ritual, without giving any further explanation?

Now granted, I did give up after only 45 pages so maybe these issues would have resolved themselves, but nothing about what I read thus far incentivized me to continue further.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Death, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, and Cancer

puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Sexual content

Moderate: Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, and Cursing

Minor: Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Body horror, Cannibalism, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

atlastheninth's review

adventurous emotional funny medium-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

5.0

I read this book because I loved the authors short story in "Devout" and I was not disappointed! 

This was the perfect book for me: A queer angel, pining, a bit of hurt/comfort and great character development. There even was a bit of plot, good plot! The ending was very satisfying, but still set up the story for the next book in this series and I will definitly read that too. 

 

While this is a romance book, the world-building (mostly religion-building I suppose) was nicely weaved into it. 

 

Now most of the book is told from Ilyas POV, but there are a few chapters told from Danyas. And I love both of them so much. Danya who just wants to protect Ilya, take car of him and show him how much he loves him. And Ilya who is hated by the whole village, who's never felt unconditional love, who thinks that he will die alone and unloved and who that he's not even worthy of love, let alone of Danyas. 

The pacing was great too. The slow change of Ilya from this to allowing himself to be loved was *chefs kiss*. 

Also splitting the books into two parts (a "before" and "after") and calling the first one "Night" and the second one "Day"? Genius, I love it. 

 

I have no notes. 

 

"They were both impossible men who had been hurt by so many things, trying to heal the other and find comfort in them. [...] They would come out of this together, stronger together, happier together." 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual harassment, and Homophobia

Minor: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Death of parent

abusive parent, abusive church dynamics