Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Malice by John Gwynne

6 reviews

surdiablo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.0

I did not enjoy this one as much as I hoped, which is unfortunate considering the majority of people who participated in a FatF read-along with me seem to have loved it. I couldn't connect with the prose and found the whole book a bit too plain and predictable overall. As usual, I will say what I liked first. I liked the action scenes well enough as it was immersive and easy enough to imagine. Bonding with

animal companions was pretty wholesome and I love Storm.

Regardless of all the cons I will list soon, I enjoyed the overall story for the most part. It's the classic 'good vs evil' with a modern touch and the last quarter, especially the final 10 chapters is excellent, which makes me wanna read the next book soon enough. It's an ambitious attempt and definitely has potential to be something amazing.

As for things I didn't like, sadly there's plenty. The author constantly throws several character and location names at you from the beginning and inserts exposition dumps during conversations, which interfered with my immersion. There were way too many characters ( yes, I know that's normal in epic fantasies ) but none of them had any real depth, and those who did stay within their assigned archetype. They all felt like cardboard cutouts so whenever someone died or some major event happened, it fell flat as they lacked any weight or emotional impact. I know fast pacing can be fun but it felt jarring whenever a timeskip happened, and pacing still felt slow regardless of short chapters, since POVs kept switching one after another, ruining the momentum. Plus, you know there's not enough descriptions when you have no idea how any of the main characters even look ( Unless that's intentional for headcanon purposes). They all kinda sound the same too and I won't be able to tell if you ask me Is it Veradis or Kastell talking? from a dialogue scene without context. I also found the twists and turns highly telegraphed so ultimately, nothing really wowed or left an impression on me until the very end. It felt like the author was trying to make everything sound and feel 'epic', but it just didn't land for me due to the aforementioned issues. I know all of these may sound like minor problems and I would agree, except when combined with me not being able to connect with the writing style, they were detrimental enough to my overall enjoyment. I do get that it's a debut book ( hence it's rough around the edges ) and the remaining books might be better indeed, but I can't say I <b>liked</b> this book at all, so I am going with a 2.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, War, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Alcoholism and Physical abuse

kat1105's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Child abuse, Misogyny, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, War, Torture, and Violence

darkefyres's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Violence, War, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, and Child death

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Physical abuse, and Torture

kerttuli's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Death, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Alcoholism, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Minor: Physical abuse, Child death, and Kidnapping

kylieqrada's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

Beautifully Bookish Bethany described this on her channel as a good vs. evil story where both champions think they're fighting for good and it made me pick it up IMMEDIATELY. I am so so glad that I did. The multiple POVs are perfectly calibrated so that I'm always enjoying whatever perspective I'm in, while simultaneously dying to get back to where we left each plot thread. My personal fave character so far is definitely Corban, who reminds me of a way less annoying and problematic Kip from the Lightbringer series. I also love how John Gwynne is able to craft his travel and battle scenes so that I can actually picture it and not get totally lost and just skim read, which happens in epic fantasy more than I'd like to admit. Add in strong, dynamic female characters, epic world-building, and a body diverse cast, and I am LIVING. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Violence

seanml's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

 600-something pages of pure fantasy goodness. I'll spare you the details so you can experience them all yourself.

Highlights: Jumping back and forth between multiple narrators in differing and exciting situations means you keep reading until you just can't anymore. GIANTS!

Passes the Bechdel test?: Yes!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Gore, and Torture

Minor: Sexism, Misogyny, and Alcoholism