Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

4 reviews

ladydeathnesta's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I absolutely love this book! It’s near perfection and it’s beautifully devastating 🖤

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, War, Ableism, Death, Sexual violence, Cursing, Police brutality, Self harm, Sexism, Hate crime, Stalking, Gore, Medical trauma, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Cannibalism, Classism, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Medical content, Confinement, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Bullying, Racial slurs, and Sexual harassment

lizziethebookdragon's review

adventurous dark tense fast-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Bullying, Trafficking, and Death

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Cursing, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent

brownsugarnutmeg's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Toxic friendship, Rape, and Slavery

lovelymisanthrope's review

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

4.5

I picked this up because it was someone's Patreon book club pick for the month of June.
"The Serpent and the Wings of Night" follows Oraya, a young human woman who was rescued as a child by the vampire man she thinks of as a father. Her father is the Nightborn vampire king, and the most powerful person in their world, and he goes to great lengths to shelter, protect, and train Oraya how to survive in with vampires. She decides, with his encouragement, to enter the Kejari, a competition to the death. One vampire (or human) will survive, and they will win one wish of their choosing. During the competition, Oraya meets a beautiful vampire named Raihn. Raihn is a threat to her father's crown, but Oraya is drawn to him like no one else she has ever met.
I am notoriously not a fantasy girlie, but I keep trying to be more of a fantasy girlie, and this book really did it for me! Although this book is what I would consider higher fantasy, and there are a lot of unique to the story terminology, I still felt like the story was very approachable. The writing is not dense, and there is a lot of dialogue to move the story along.
I really loved and believed Oraya and Raihn together. They have quite the slow burn, but Raihn is such a great guy and he becomes Oraya's biggest cheerleader. I loved how much she resisted him at first, because that makes this "love" story far more believable and satisfying when they finally have sweet moments together.
Carissa Broadbent is great at writing morally gray, complex characters that I both hate and love. There were so many characters that were flawed, and I wanted to hate them, but they would get a redemption arc in some way. People are typically not so black and white, and I love to see that translate into stories. I want to see multifaceted characters that I have complex feelings about.
This book did take me about 200 pages to really get into. The beginning of the story had a lot of development, that it needed, but I was not invested in the story. However, once I was into the story, I could not put it down and I flew through it in a few days.
I am so thoroughly impressed with this book, and I cannot wait to pick up the sequel! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Blood, Toxic friendship, War, Toxic relationship, Child death, Gore, Violence, Torture, and Stalking

Moderate: Slavery, Sexual content, and Rape