Reviews tagging 'Outing'

Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

17 reviews

booksalacarte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

Empire of the vampire- 4.75⭐️ 3🌶️

Epic Fantasy

Vampires

Catholic inspired religion

Storytelling style narration

Confinement

Secret society 

War

🏳️‍🌈 side characters

Tw: addiction, homofobia

To break it down to the bare minimal… this was an interview with the vampire styled story with dual timelines and a flawed MC. The story was slow, as journeying can be, but entertaining the whole time.

So often male authors, choose to sanitize the softer emotions in their books, to push the physical. Moving the plot forward for the glory and the heroism of their main character. As a woman, the more sterilized approach to emotion in men’s writing, tends to turn me away… 

This book is anything but emotionally sterile. I found myself enjoying the emotional and spiritual journey of the main character and the friendships and bonds created and broken.

There were so many plot twists. Character flaws were aplenty. 

I must have the humor of a 14 year old boy, because some of the insults and jokes had me chuckling.

The things that I didn’t enjoy include misogyny  standard to European medieval feudalism centered around religious orthodoxy. If you thought a book that was inspired by medieval Catholic Europe was going to be without it being present, I don’t know what to tell you. But it’s there, it’s never fun to have to read in excess. But it’s an adult fantasy, with cursing and I get it.

Bad guys as pedophiles. Yup. Tracks. But the other underage sexualization was not great. A lot of times this is used as a chance to show how disgusting the enemy is. And it’s just gross all around… even when the MC is underage. 

I am so looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Blood, Toxic relationship, Violence, Homophobia, Outing, Religious bigotry, Bullying, Cursing, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Drug use, Grief, War, Confinement, Alcoholism, Animal death, Hate crime, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Drug abuse, Alcohol, Stalking, Body horror, Torture, Excrement, and Adult/minor relationship

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

pacifickat's review

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

3.25

"We'd fought side by side [...], and like I said, there's a bond between men who have placed their lives in a brother's hands and asked that brother to do the same. But there's fanaticism, too. There's faith unbridled and minds unquestioning, the soldier at the order of his commander, the faithful at the word of their priest. [...] My brother trusted me not so much as once he had."

Ok, so first off, my big beef with Kristoff as a writer:

He seems to have ripped off major elements of other writers and creators, such as

- The whole holy grail being a decendent of the Christ figure is directly from Dan Brown's DaVinci Code.

- There is a scene with a priest that directly copies Steven King's Salem's Lot, at times nearly verbatim.

- The D&D references, including meeting the party in a tavern and their stereotypical qualities by class made me chuckle and shake my head. It's just silliness.

- The back maybe quarter of this book is straight up The Last of Us, including the supposed safehaven the teenage girl is delivered to wanting to kill her to end the vampire scourge, and our MC busting in and killing everyone to save her.

-Ashdrinker reminds me a lot of Sanderson's crazy talking sword, Nightblood. Obviously talking named swords have been around in fantasy for a while, it's just that this particular sword who is a bit unhinged feels a bit too familiar at times.

-The whole aged and broken chosen one/king killer telling his story to a chronicler over 3 books is very simikar to the structure of Patrick Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicles.

Do readers who adore this book simply not recognize all the glaringly obvious borrowed plot elements, or do they enjoy the references and not mind that it makes the storyline easy to anticipate? I felt like this blunted what probably should have been the most surprising plot twists, and saw several big reveals coming a mile away, somewhat gobsmacked the author would so directly pull from other books and media. When I described some of these overlaps with other works to my husband, he asked if I thought the book was partially written by AI. (I don't believe it was, but that would exlpain the number of things pulled from existing sources.)

I also didn't really like how sanguimancy was never really explained other than it fixes a lot of problems in a pinch in the story. Feels very convenient, a very squishy element of the magic system.

Now, on to things I liked:

In the end, I still very much enjoyed the audiobook. The audio narrator did a brilliant job bringing the characters to life with various distinct accents and voice intonations. I honestly probably would have given up on the book otherwise due to all of the seeming copy/paste from works of other creators and the subsequent predictability of the storyline. 

I know the author doesn't like the term, but the story is grimdark through and through, meaning no good and noble deed goes unpunished. I like what this kind of story says about those who do good in a bleak world in spite of great personal cost. Kindness and mercy are only extended at great risk. I think this is one of the most compelling things about EotV. Allowing oneself to love takes the greatest sort of courage.

I liked how Kristoff used this dark and bloody setting to explore ideas about faith, fate, fidelity, fanaticism, family, friendship, and the stubborn endurance of hope. (I know, that last one should have started with F as well.) There are elements of the One Faith, the book's thinly veiled version of Christianity, that are just as dark and frightening as the impending vampire invasion: a torturous inquisition, corporal punishments, acts of violence in the name of blind faith, fidelity to the cruel teachings and practices of church leaders, fanatical interpretations of scriptures and prophecies, and an underlying religious lore that makes sacrificing individuals for the sake of the whole an acceptable and honorable wager (in the pattern of the Christ figure they call the Redeemer). This is a world of characters caught between a rock and a hard place, each deciding what to do in the face of their humanity becoming a liability. What will they hope in? What hill will they die on? Who/what will they sacrifice for redemption? This is where the book is at its best. 

The best action sequence imo was

when Gabriel falls through the ice. To me, it was much more tense and scary than any if the vampire fights, perhaps because it was the most realistic life-threatening event in the story. He can basically bounce back from anything else, but drowning in a fozen river is legitimately terrifying.

. 

I wish that

Liathe had been an embodied form of Ashdrinker.

Yeah, I don't know exactly how that would have worked, but I think it would've been cool and I could see a few ways it could have been achieved. 

Anyways, that's my meandering review on this 27+ hour listen. I will likely listen to book 2 next month. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Torture, Gore, Slavery, Homophobia, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Gun violence, Bullying, Body horror, Death, Outing, Sexual content, Death of parent, Murder, Grief, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, War, Child death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, Confinement, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Sexual assault, Classism, Rape, and Sexual violence

Religious trauma, religious fanaticism, clergy abuse, fridged female characers, biting, eyeball injuries

kbc_dino's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

An enjoyable ride from start to finish. I can't wait until the next one!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Cursing, Murder, Death of parent, Violence, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual content, Child death, Drug use, Bullying, Alcohol, and Child abuse

Minor: Outing, Grief, Homophobia, Classism, Religious bigotry, and Torture

whackettreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Bullying, Drug use, Outing, Murder, Blood, Drug abuse, Animal death, Body horror, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual content

novel_obscurity's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

Main character is challenging, and the book ends on a cliff hanger that was a bit predictable. Overall, not bad - writer does a good job with creating tension and fear!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Violence, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Homophobia, Drug use, Death, Blood, Addiction, Outing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Confinement, Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, and Animal death

thetayloredpage's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Drug abuse, Child death, Murder, Outing, Animal death, Violence, and Religious bigotry

januaryt123's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Outing, Bullying, War, Sexual content, Body horror, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Torture, Murder, Grief, and Homophobia

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Abandonment

el_pender's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Misogyny, Violence, Torture, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, and Outing

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

Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism

haileyybean's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Violence, Homophobia, Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Outing, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Gore, Drug abuse, and Torture

Minor: Child death