Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang

259 reviews

valjeanval's review

adventurous dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

I ended up liking this book a lot more than I expected to at the beginning. It's pretty rough and traumatic, mind you, but for the most part, it's well written with complicated characters and a very mature understanding of grief and motherhood. 

That said, I think it suffers from two aspects of being a self-published book that might have gotten caught be a professional publisher. One is it's really long, and some parts do drag a bit. The other is the mixing of English/Japanese/made up language. The Japanglish made me feel like I was reading fanfiction, and it just didn't make sense given that other words (like the units of time) are completely made up. It feels a bit like fantasizing an actual culture, which was grating. I don't know much about the author's background, but the author blurb says she's from Wisconsin, so that gives me a bit of pause. And the made up words were really annoying when the work is supposed to be translated anyway. 

That sounds rather negative, and all in all, I really did find myself coming back to this story to see what happened next. It's brutal though, and particularly hard to read in light of the horrific events in Gaza, so really check the content warnings before you start if that is something you need.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

chasinggrace's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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? No

5.0

Six fucking stars. I sobbed to this book only 300 pages in and didn’t stop crying until I put it down. Unbelievable. 

This book has the imperial and familial dynamics of the Dandelion Dynasty series and the absolute violent emotional destruction of the Poppy War Trilogy. M.L. Wang has cemented herself as an auto-buy author for me in just 600 pages. This story will stay with me forever. 

Mamoru you will always be famous to me. Misaki, I absolutely adore you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Infertility, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Classism

ember17's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

This book was excellent. From the school trope in the beginning with Momaru to seeing a strong fighter woman like Misaki also able to be a mother to the absolute devastation of the climax that still had a purpose. Us as readers were gutted, absolutely gutted. As a woman, imagining what it must’ve felt like for Mosaki to have her child torn away from her. But also knowing how Momaru felt about it and how much honor he eared by protecting his village. Then the transformation of Tekeru…..it was all so incredible and well-done. It was well-paced, the characters were well-developed, there was great world-building. The story was built so intentionally. Every event, every conversation made the attack so much more devastating and the resolution so much more powerful, satisfactory, and inspiring. This book handles violence, grief, loss, honor, motherhood, marriage, and more with so much delicacy and poise. I cannot wait to reread this in the future when I’ve had some time to recover. Not many books have made me cry….this was one of them. My only criticisms are the unresolved plot points and drawn-out ending to try and tie this book into the main series, as this was supposed to be a prequel book. It would do best as a complete standalone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and War

Moderate: Rape and Suicide

grnat's review against another edition

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

There are no words to describe the the wealth of emotion this book conjured within me
Undeniable tears of both joy and happiness
Please do yourself a favor and take the time to read this book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

aviendha's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring sad slow-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Suicide attempt, and War

Minor: Rape

keepsleep'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Murder, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Torture, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Classism

beesofblu's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-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

This book contained one of the most heart wrenching scene to have ever graced my eyeballs. Nagi and Nami have mercy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kellymacbrown's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense

• 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

Run. Don’t walk. To get your heart completely ripped to shreds by this book. This book should come with a box of tissues and a free therapy session. 

So glad I found this book when I was in my thirties and a mom of two. Man. I was unprepared for how far this story would take me on my own motherhood journey.

Check trigger warnings:

contains pregnancy\child\spouse loss, rape, and suicide

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Suicide, Kidnapping, and War

kbowles24's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-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

Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and War

malinhalia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

3.5

150 pages of confusion / 150 pages of battle scenes / 350 pages of misery

Jokes aside, I can see why this is a highly rated book for many people. The writing style is mostly well done, and the characters are complex. However, I struggled with the pacing and plot structure. I know this was meant as a book in a series that is now indefinitely postponed (/cancelled), but the plot set up at the end feels like a bizarre choice. The world building can be slightly confusing at times, like the feudal Japan bait and switch. I found the fight segments same-y and tedious to read and I was skimming them towards the end of that book segment. There were times when picking this book back up didn't feel very enticing because of these things. 
It has some very emotional moments though, and it's definitely a book dealing with many sad, hard topics. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse