Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Piąta Pora Roku by N.K. Jemisin

51 reviews

lisbethleftwich's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Child death, Sexual content, War, and Death

Minor: Animal death

cadence99's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-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

4.25

Wow. What a fantastic book. The world building here is SO rich and well done. Both heartbreaking and intriguing, I can’t wait to continue the series 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, Rape, Grief, Torture, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy

chaoticweevil's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.75

Like many fantasy novels, The Fifth Season drops a bunch of world building on you at the start.  Jemisin doesn't hold your hand through it and, transparently, I had to put the book down for a bit before picking it up again a few months later to really wrap my head around it. But once you get situated, the story is so absolutely worth it. If you read a lot of fantasy novels, you probably already know the experience I describe above.

Once it gets going, the plot really pulls you in and just absorbs you. It's easy to get invested in these characters and the world building and magic system is top-notch. And the world building continues throughout as you learn things along with the characters. If you like to get immersed in completely new worlds while following deeply personal individual journeys, definitely pick this up! I can't recommend it enough and will definitely be reading the rest of the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Grief, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Animal death, Pregnancy, and Cannibalism

jessthanthree's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Bullying, Racial slurs, Torture, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Slavery, Child abuse, and Violence

Minor: Confinement, Animal death, Body horror, Pedophilia, Classism, Cannibalism, Dysphoria, and Rape

mossgoblins's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

Incredible story with the best worldbuilding I have ever seen. N.K. Jemison is a master of her craft!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Excrement, Body horror, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Confinement, Grief, Pregnancy, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Murder, and Forced institutionalization

_forestofpages's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

** content warnings: child death, violence, abuse, murder, torture, graphic sexual content, enslavement, environmental disaster, grief **

This book throws you into the deep end of a post-apocalyptic world that is on the verge of yet another apocalyptic event. But this one, might just be the final one.  

There are a smallish group of marginalized magical people and the humans that enslave them, but most of the population of Father Earth (yes Father not mother, no idea why) is small because Father Earth is angry and continuously triggers these world shattering events called "Seasons". They are always different, and always devastating. Most of the time these seasons wipe out large swaths of the population and their civilizations, forcing humanity to start over every few decades. 

The plot can be hard to sift through at first, because again, you are thrown into the deep with no life-raft, but once you have a handle on the basics and the characters are established (about 70 pages in or so), the story takes off and some of your questions are answered, then a lot more are posed. The writing is amazing, the second person parts are so immersive and make you really feel like you are a part of this story, and the amount of forethought is incredible. I personally am upset with myself for not picking this up sooner. The very obvious climate themes are so relevant, and terrifying in this context. The psychological depth of the characters and their journeys, and the raw emotion of the main character's personal tragedy, not to mention the tragedy of the orogene in general is gut-wrenching, and so beautifully done.

If you haven't read this yet, I doubt you will disappointed.  Overwhelmed maybe, but not disappointed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Racism, Racial slurs, Violence, Slavery, Murder, and Grief

Moderate: Physical abuse, Torture, Animal death, and Blood

bwwilhelm's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

This book does NOT shy away from the horrors of slavery and genocide and war. Pay attention to the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Murder, Torture, Emotional abuse, Grief, Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, Child death, Genocide, Hate crime, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Abandonment, Animal death, and Ableism

Minor: Blood

reebeee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.75

Intense, dark, and gutting. Stupendous worldbuilding and pacing; Jeminsin is both confident in her readers' intelligence and attention, as well as in her own narrative voice throughout the book. Take the trigger warnings seriously—this book delves into humanity at its very worst, but nothing is for shallow shock value in this narrative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, Child abuse, Death, Child death, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Bullying

Minor: Dysphoria, Pregnancy, and Cannibalism

krispy_reading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

At first I was a bit confused while reading, so I picked up the audiobook. Immersive reading for 90% of the book. 

Half way through I re-read the prologue, which made the rest of the book make sense. I must have zoned out the first time I read the prologue.

The changes in point of view and tense weren’t difficult for me to follow. The writing style took some getting used to. Once the pieces started to fit together, I was pretty invested in the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism

Moderate: Child death and Violence

Minor: Animal death and Cannibalism

zoiejanelle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

best adult fantasy book i have read to date. a book about what it means to become a parent, to lose a child, and to sacrifice everything for love. an allegory for blackness in the U.S. really cool magic system, great writing (once things picked up) and emotional twists. highly recommend to all fantasy lovers! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Child death, Death, Animal death, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Classism, Genocide, Pregnancy, Slavery, Violence, Colonisation, Gore, Hate crime, Medical content, Racism, and Vomit

Moderate: War, Torture, and Sexual content