Reviews with content warning for Genocide - The Hurricane Wars

Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon

12 reviews

kiwij96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

Very trope-y but enjoyable slow burn romantasy with good worldbuilding and magic system.

Could easily have been a longer book to develop the magic system a bit better but hopefully the next book will manage that. Gives more of a sci-fi vibe with the worldbuilding including spaceships.

Romance was very slow-burn and I appreciated that.

At times I found it very topical and hard to read as a form of escapism with everything that's going on in the world. This book handles land invasion and genocide and the villains acting like they are the righteous heroes liberating a rogue state.

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amy_in_the_city's review against another edition

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adventurous slow-paced

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

3.5

I didn't know going into this that it was a Reylo fanfic with the serial numbers filed off, but I figured it out about 50 pages in. There were a few issues I think were caused in part by it originally being a fanfic. First, the characters were underdeveloped in the beginning, and I didn't quite buy that they were really enemies. They were truly enemies because they were on opposite sides of a war, but I would have liked for there to be a more personal element to it. Maybe one or both of them could have personally killed someone the other one loved or he could have been responsible for destroying her village, or something like that. In a fanfiction, we have this backstory already because it's in the source material, but since these are new characters, we don't know what they've done to really cause them to hate each other.

The magic system also wasn't very well developed. The shadow magic and the light magic didn't do anything different from each other. They both just formed weapons that did the same things but in different colors. I chalk this up to this being adapted from Star Wars fanfiction where the characters originally probably used the same source of power (the Force) and the same type of weapon (lightsabers).

The pacing was off. It took almost 200 pages for the main characters to actually have a conversation and interact beyond a few fight scenes. It was so weird to have a romance book where the couple hardly interacts for the first half of the book. Once the romance got started, I did enjoy how it developed. I was put off a bit by the insta-lust. The characters would be in the middle of trying to kill each other and then they'd be thinking about how the other one's eyes are so beautiful. Despite the insta-lust, I'd say the romance itself is a slow burn. They started getting to some good character development towards the end as they began to really explore the differences in their ideologies and the conflict that causes in their relationship.

Overall, I enjoyed this well enough, and it definitely picked up towards the end. I'm not sure if I'll read the next book in the series as I'm not super invested in the plot or characters though.

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shellbow's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

3.0

I think the people this book was written for will love it. But if you aren't emphatically in that category, it will likely fall flat.

I'm a fan of Reylo, the fandom that this originally pertained to, and in it I can see the classic tropes: fated equals, enemies to lovers, "you're not alone". But taken within only the context of itself, the Hurricane Wars was more of a meandering series of events than anything else. The writing was prone to sentences that lasted paragraphs, and I found myself desperate for a period. The cycle of romantic tension and then bitter enmity between the main characters became repetitive and a bit boring. And out of the many dramatic points set up, only one comes to fruition, leaving me confused what the rest of the book would be about even when I was on the last twenty pages.

Overall, if you're a fan of Reylo, or an avid fanfiction reader, it will be an easy, breezy read. But if you are neither of those things, I would look for something with more substance.

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kittkat's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

Okay, ich hatte sooo viel Spaß mit diesem gefühlt eeeewig langem Buch. Mir ist erst beim Lesen klargeworden, wie sehr ich Romantasy vermisst habe und dass das eigentlich mit der Edelstein-Trilogie genau das Genre war, was mich damals überhaupt so ins Lesen gestürzt hat.

Talasyn ist unter anderem ein Lightweaver und in dieser Welt gibt es verschiedene Arten von anderen „Magiern“, die zum Großteil auf dem Continent leben. Hier brach vor Jahren ein Krieg zwischen den Lightweavern und den Shadowforged aus, was zur Ausrottung aller Lightweaver geführt hat. Nichtsdestotrotz eskaliert der Krieg immer weiter und die Shadowforged wollen den ganzen Continent erobern.
Nuuuun der Shadow Prince Alaric [Vampire Diaries flashbacks] kämpft natürlich an vorderster Front und clashed dabei auf Talasyn, die eigentlich nur undercover Lightweaver ist und sich im Kampf aber exposed…. Später finden wir aber heraus, dass eine noch viel größere Katastrophe naht und dafür werden die beiden widerwillig zusammen arbeiten müssen oder zumindest so tun als ob 🫣…

WORLDBUILDING

sehr viel los und ultra-komplex!!
man muss sich durch die ersten 100 Seiten durchkämpfen, danach wird‘s verständlicher
sehr abstrakt, oft hatte ich nur eine schwammige Vorstellung von dem Ganzen (und ich glaube, es lag nicht an mir)

PROTAGONISTEN

einzeln waren sie okay.
ich mochte sie am meisten, wenn sie gut miteinander auskamen - Alaric ist schon ein kleiner acts of service cutie UND tsundere dazu 🤭🫶
die beiden waren sich sehr ähnlich: hitzköpfig, stur, verzweifelt, traumatisiert
ich fand es nervig, aber glaubwürdig und realistisch, dass sie sich immer wieder erinnert haben, warum sie sich eigentlich hassen (endlich mal ein echter, legitimer Grund - 🌈völkermord🌈)

SCHREIBSTIL

zu 89% war ich TOTAL mit dabei, man konnte wirklich supergut in die Welt eintauchen ++
persöhnlicher er/sie-erzähler war gut geschrieben und auch interessant, weil die meisten Romane mittlerweile aus der ich-Perspektive erzählt werden
wechselnde Perspektiven zwischen Talasyn und Alaric fand ich richtig und wichtig!!
ich werde sterben, wenn ich JEMALS AUF DIESER ERDE NOCHMAL SO👇 EINEN CRINGE LESEN MUSS (UND DAS AUCH NOCH IN DER BAHN!!!):

⚠️ Anklicken auf eigene Gefahr ⚠️

„You‘re soaked, beautiful girl,“ he groaned into her mouth. „My wet little wife“

naauuurrrr 😭😭😭 (es war aber eigentlich voll random nach 400 Seiten, davor hat NIEMAND so geredet/ gedacht/ gelebt?!?!?)

Sonst habe ich‘s schamlos einfach geliebt und ich werde die Fortsetzung auf jeden Fall lesen 🤭!

(Übrigens zur Reylo-Fanfiction: Sie waren doch nicht Cousins, wie ich dachte, sondern TANTE UND NEFFE 🤡)

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kriti's review against another edition

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2.5

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marmar_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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kayceeisbookish's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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? Yes

4.25

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booksemmahasread's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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soniajoy98's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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bookishmillennial's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

disclaimer: I don’t really give starred reviews. I enjoy most books for what they are, & I extract lessons from them all. I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/bookishmillennial

Okay, admittedly it took me about 30% in to really begin to feel fully invested in the storyline (a lot of info-dumping/exposition and world-building)and the characters. However, once I was locked in, I was *LOCKED IN* !!!!! If you feel like you're going to DNF, keep going if you can. For me, it did pay off & I ended up really enjoying this!

I recognize many people think it is Star Wars/ReyLo fanfiction, but I still had an absolute blast and didn't mind that at all. Sure, there are absolutely parallels (enemies to lovers, the Night Empire, Talasyn's upbringing as an orphan & then reveal of her surprising identity & parentage), but it still felt unique enough to stand on its own, with its:

Philippines-inspired setting of Nenavar
South Asian folklore-inspired dragons (hopefully more dragons in the next books!)
wartime climate
soft (not fully fleshed out, at least to me) but easy-to-follow magic system with light versus shadow
diverse characters
forced proximity/arranged marriage/marriage of convenience with so much romantic tension and a satisfying slow burn

I really enjoyed the dynamic between Alaric (Night Emperor Gaheris' son & the Master of the Shadowforged Legion & shadow magic) and Talasyn. Mostly, I think it's funny because they very much have the classic enemies-to-lovers tension of "I hate you/I so badly want to kiss you" energy, but I do recognize the problematic elements of essentially creating a colonizer/colonized storyline. Ultimately, I do think this will be a series about fighting for freedom and equality, and coming together to overcome greater evils. The current dynamics of Talasyn's home Sarodivia, struggling under the oppressive rule of Kesath, will likely change (I don't see how they can't? Hoping Sarodovia & everyone displaced will rise up from the ashes?!) and I'm excited to see where the series picks up next.

Sometimes, the pacing felt off, with random flash forwards/time jumps. However, I'm going to give the author a bit of grace because I still was able to follow and have a good time! Go into book one knowing that it is mostly character-driven (to me, there is essentially no plot yet lol); (I think) since this is the first book in the series, that this novel's main goal to introduce readers to the characters, the world, and to entice us to care for and root for them, as I expect we will get more action-packed plotlines later in the series.

steam rating: 2.5/5 - there is one open-door, on-page sex scene, but the sexual tension and pining is fantastic!

cw: War, Colonisation, Genocide, Sexual content, Death, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Terminal illness

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