Reviews tagging 'Death'

Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan

17 reviews

booksemmahasread's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Classism, Violence, and War

Moderate: Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, and Police brutality

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Animal death, and Blood

jvbook_reader's review against another edition

adventurous

• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Racial slurs, and Police brutality

Moderate: Blood, Chronic illness, and Death

bookish_hollyx's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

2.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Violence, and Death

book_gremlin42's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Racism, Xenophobia, and Police brutality

Moderate: Trafficking and Toxic relationship

Minor: Drug abuse

persephonefoxx's review

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Hate crime, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Terminal illness

lettuce_read's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, and Xenophobia

maregred's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

This book is a little difficult to review. I thought I would like it more l, but it’s pretty firmly middle of the road fantasy for me. While it’s advertised as an adult fantasy, it reads more YA.

I found the world building to be confusing and lacking. While I generally dislike infodumps, I feel like some explanatory dumping would have helped. There were also points in the book where it felt like a plot point came out of left field without any foreshadowing as well. The beginning of the book is very slow, but it does pick up. I find the writing gets stronger the further into the book as well.

There are three POVs: Mira, Nami, and Cordelia. Cordelia was my favorite POV. She has heavy Ursula vibes and schemes like Cersei Lannister. Unfortunately, her motivations became very muddled as the book went on. I rooted for Mira the whole time. Nami was almost too naive and trusting (to the point of annoyance), and her romance with Firth is just gross. 

I received this copy through NetGalley and Orbit Books for an honest review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Drug abuse, and Death

Moderate: Trafficking, Violence, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

yourbookishbff's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-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

4.0

This is a promising debut - deeply character-driven, with multiple rotating POVs and an intricately-built pan-Asian/post-apocalyptic/semi-drowned world. I loved how many sea creatures exist among the Fathomfolk - kelpies, sea dragons, sirens, mermaids, and more - and how Chan is blending mythological inspiration and fairy tales (East Asian dragon lore meets The Little Mermaid makes for a great premise). 
I'm still grappling with a few of our characters, though, and their roles as the series progresses. Mira, in particular, half-folk and a border agent for the city, attempting to affect change from within, has me unsure of Chan's intention for the story and thoughts on resistance to violent systems. I'm interested to see where the series goes from here, as I really enjoyed the expansion of the world at the end, the potential directions the sequel can take, and the many possibilities that lie ahead for all of our characters. I am grateful to have multiple POVs, and probably enjoyed our sea witch's story the most. These are all flawed characters, grappling with their own insecurities and ambition as they question their loyalties to each other, and fantasy readers who particularly enjoy character work will appreciate this series start. 
Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for an advanced reader's copy!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Classism, Hate crime, Toxic relationship, Murder, Death, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Abandonment, Chronic illness, Violence, Police brutality, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

Minor: Drug abuse, Addiction, and Drug use

bookboxbabe's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

2.75

*thank you netgalley and the publisher for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

(2.75)

folks 👏🏻

this was…something. a good something? not particularly

let’s start with what i enjoyed:
the world. this was asian inspired and the world was very unique, although it wasn’t fleshed out well. the author just kind of throws you into the deep end (pun intended) and you’re just supposed to figure things out with no support

now, onto my gripes.

1) you could make a drinking game out of this book. take a shot everytime the word fathomfolk is used. you’ll be drunk by chapter 3

2) i didn’t care about any of these characters. you’re supposed to feel betrayal and love and all these emotions clearly, but i just could not care any less about anyone in this book. who am i even supposed to be rooting for? i have no idea cause everyone is flat and confusing

3) what in the world was the plot? things just kind of happened for the sake of happening and it felt like nothing really served an overarching purpose besides at the very end. i don’t like that.

4) the pacing. we would be with these characters for hours and then the next paragraph would be a time jump for some unknown reason. you never really understood when or where you were until halfway through the chapter and then it jerks you the other way again. was very jarring and i hated it

if you liked the movie raya and the last dragon & also love the little mermaid an ungodly amount, you might find aspects of this enjoyable 

i’ll still read the next book because i’m mildly curious where the hell we’re going from here, but i’m not shaking in my boots for it

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Classism, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Murder, Blood, and Racism

Minor: Slavery

errie's review against another edition

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Racism, Violence, Toxic relationship, Hate crime, Death, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Drug abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Deportation, Injury/Injury detail, and Trafficking