Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid

45 reviews

gemma_clare's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.0

The pacing in this drove me mad and made me really struggle to finish it, which is sad because it had so much potential. I enjoyed the characters and would have enjoyed the plot if it was more consistent, but it felt like it was jumping all over the place and like the end goal of the book changed 5-6 times. I liked the conflict between religions and comparisons to real history, but found some of the lore either confusing, or boring and shallow. The writing style was nice. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Genocide, Physical abuse, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Antisemitism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Abandonment, Grief, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Blood, Child abuse, Gore, Classism, and Emotional abuse

urnkurtz's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Gore

Moderate: Genocide and Self harm

Minor: Animal death and Death of parent

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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: Self harm

Moderate: Body horror, Animal cruelty, Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Blood, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Bullying, Animal death, Xenophobia, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Kidnapping, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Sexual content, War, Vomit, Child abuse, and Genocide

maiadunleavy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Violence, Gore, War, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual content, Grief, and Physical abuse

Minor: Deportation, Bullying, Genocide, and Colonisation

lizhmil's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

great world building

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Genocide

Minor: Kidnapping and Rape

saeliphil's review against another edition

dark

3.5

This book was super interesting! I was really fascinated by its exploration of religion, morality and belonging and it was also the darkest fantasy book i‘ve ever read! So brutal wow, but i liked it. My main complaint is just that the plot felt rushed, especially towards the end. I wish it had taken more time to explore certain developments and dynamics. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Antisemitism, Genocide, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Self harm

baroo92's review against another edition

dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

This story was a really cool idea, and there's a lot of very excellent pieces included in it! I'm definitely here for diversifying slavic-inspired fantasy, and the depiction of multiple different ethnic sub-groups within the main country's setting was awesome to learn about. I will say though that it is pretty noticeable that this is a debut novel. There are some distinct pacing issues- in several moments, I found myself having to go back and re-read through a previous page to be sure I didn't miss a mention of a particular character moving or doing a particular action in the scene. There were spots where I was deeply invested in an intense scene, and then a character would say a dramatic line, and then BOOM- end of chapter, moving on to the next chapter with a completely unrelated scene and barely any dialogue explaining the aftermath of said dramatic line. I really wanted to be attached to the characters, but with the scenes jumping around so much the characters' motivations also jumped around, which made it hard for me to root for them in their Big Goals. There was just a lot of spots of Big Scary Thing Happens, I'm Ruined Forever and then another side character appears and Nevermind, My Problem Is Fixed With A Wave Of A Hand And We're Moving To The Next Problem Without Blinking Twice About Previous Issue. 
I will probably still look out for Ava Reid's future work, because I think she definitely has a lot of potential in storytelling! I just wish she could flesh out her scenes in a little better to keep our eyes on the prize.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Racism, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Sexual content, Torture, and Domestic abuse

ridesthesun's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.5

I really love the premise of this one! The variety of culture and mythology was really cool, and I loved seeing the Jewish stories woven in so lovingly. 

I'm not sure why, perhaps it was just bad timing, but the book overall failed to really grab me. I *wanted* to enjoy it, but I found myself checking "how much longer is this audiobook" too many times. Idk if it was the pacing or what, but it felt a lot like nothing was happening while simultaneously lots of things were happening? Not sure how. Like it felt like it was dragging while simultaneously feeling under-developed.

Anyways, I would say definitely give this one a try; the concept was brilliant, the weaving of mythology was really cool, Evike and Gaspar were lovely. Also recommend the audiobook, getting the pronunciations for everything was a huge bonus.

*does deal a *lot* with anti-Semitism, and is strongly reminiscent of pogroms and pre-WWII eastern europe. The Jewish community is written beautifully and with great care, but if that's a sensitive topic for you I would avoid this one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Confinement, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Antisemitism, Violence, Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, Gore, Blood, and Bullying

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Animal cruelty, Physical abuse, Genocide, Antisemitism, Blood, Colonisation, Murder, Body horror, Abandonment, Death, and Death of parent

rosietoast's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Genocide, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, War, Animal death, and Physical abuse

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Bullying

booksofbells's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Genocide, Gore, and Animal death