Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

4 reviews

susanatherly's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Blood, Drug abuse, Violence, Torture, Sexual content, Child death, Sexism, and Cursing

Moderate: Gaslighting, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Gun violence, Drug use, Torture, Suicide, Child death, Biphobia, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Death of parent, Death, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Outing, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, and Classism

Minor: Genocide, Vomit, and Slavery

anntharai's review

adventurous dark sad slow-paced

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

3.5

The bits I liked I REALLY liked. 
The issues I have with it REALLY irk me. 

The world building is immaculate if a bit on the nose, really vivid writing and visceral descriptions, a great mechanic. Love the use of tattoos and the lore building. Overall I liked the story itself. 

The issues, though? 
I found myself rolling my eyes at a lot of the vulgarity because it was genuinely ludicrous at times. Swearing doesn’t bother me in the slightest but the lengths to which these characters went just to get a “banged your relative” joke in was over the top. 

Everything has a simile. Everything. The doors locked like a secret. The floors cold like the night. The night air cold like knives. Wind like knives. Words like knives. Running frightened like a startled horse in a barn on fire and the devil whipping it all the way. The lips red like red things.

The repetitive phrases (fuck my face, like his lady’s lips the last time he kissed her, better a bastard than a fool) stopped feeling symbolic and started feeling like a crutch about half way through and using the same *twist* mechanic used twice (gender neutral names being the crux of two stories told so closely together) made it feel less polished than it could have been. 

Thanks to various reviews etc I was also expecting a “big thing” to shock me at the end but I kind of felt it was obvious…? 

Anti-climactic, in a word, but I do want to know what happens so it’s not like I hated it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Violence, War, Torture, Suicide, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Outing, Murder, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Homophobia, Hate crime, Gore, Excrement, Addiction, Drug use, Drug abuse, Alcoholism, Animal death, and Blood

cakeylu's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Child abuse, Grief, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Outing, Torture, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Violence, and Suicide

Moderate: Child death, Bullying, and Animal death

ahouck's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Physical abuse and Homophobia