Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Blood Trials

Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Blood Trials by N.E. Davenport

62 reviews

kaerene's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Unhinged Review As I Just Finished The Blood Trials:

I need the sequel and I need it now. I am speechless. The plot. That ending. What an absolutely satisfying read.

This book has everything:
-Great World Building
-Creative World Building Info Dump (Seriously. I was so confused about the world in the first few chapters, I kept thinking that I was missing something and it super bothered me. BUT THEN!!! The author creates this scene with different characters answering world building questions in an almost classroom setting as part of the trials and I was amazed. It was so clever since the story/plot was already going in full force.)
-A Badass Female Main Character who kicks a lot of butt
-A+ Characters
-A+ Plot
-A Zuko/Avatar The Last Airbender-esque Redemption ark?! CHEFS KISS.
-So So Many Deaths
-Mystery
-Mayhem
-And takes a good long look at questioning authority, perpetuating and being complicit in racism and bigotry.

Highly highly recommend this to anyone who wants a fast paced story that does an amazing job at blending elements of sci-fi and fantasy together into something new. Definitely check trigger warnings as there are a lot unsettling things that happen around and to our FMC, Ikenna.

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fleur____'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

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amberswips's review against another edition

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3.0

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transquake's review against another edition

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why did she go into heat

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miraileah's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

5.0?? I really loved this. I couldn’t put the book down, and now that I’m finished my mind is spinning. I loved that this was a genre bender, it made total sense and the book was absolutely better for the inclusion of all of the different elements. The prose was visceral and transporting, and I loved Ikenna as a protagonist.

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kittykels's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The main issue I had with the audiobook narration was the childish voices for the adult characters. They're young adults, but the voices often sounded more like young teens in early high school or maybe even middle school. It was very hard to hear those voices depicting sex and very graphic violence. If she were narrating a different story, I don't think I'd have as much issue with her narration. And I did not have issue with the adult content except when paired with the voices.

Now with that out of the way, the story itself is really good and interesting, but needed some more refining. The last few hours felt very info-dumpy. The information was important, but it was a boring delivery for the most part.

The two best friends of the main character are a weird choice. I won't say too much to avoid spoilers, but they don't really make sense as a friend group and there's no reason to feel emotionally attached to them.

It's also hard to get behind Ikenna's motivations for her actions because we don't meet her grandfather on the page, we only have her memories. We're just told he's great and that's supposed to be enough to fuel her quest and for us to be interested in that quest.

I wish there was a little more depth to Ikenna. I don't dislike her as a character, but the only emotion we get from her is anger. Sometimes she's contemplative, but that usually just leads her to being angry again. There's nothing wrong with anger and she has very good reasons to be angry, but it's not enough for us to connect with her as a person and what she's going through. We should also have experienced her grief (especially her grief) and her joy and whatever else. Some of the major events were hard to care about from her perspective because we don't really get that emotional connection. I guess it could be argued that perhaps this is an intentional choice, and Ikenna is using anger to suppress her feelings of grief and any other emotion that could distract her from her goal. I could buy this for external purposes, but it's not convincing within her private thoughts.

I do look forward to the next book and really hope to see some improvements to the characters and our emotional attachments to them.

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