Reviews tagging 'Murder'

King of Flesh and Bone by Liv Zander

13 reviews

sterwilliger's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Death

bekahzabel's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

We’re passed the point of morally grey here, entering pitch black territory 😅🫣🫠🖤 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Murder, Child death, and Torture

colleen_corleone's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

If you can make it past the 25% mark, there's an actual story.

To get there... you have to read a lot of rape. It's not too visceral in terms of the lasting harm, but it's a lot. The "sex" scenes are definitely detailed.

It's a decent telling of the gross parts of mythology that are glossed over. Gods are often horrible, abusive, assholes who don't accept that humans have the right to autonomy.

Enoch starts to soften somewhat, but with the ending who knows what will happen. 

It was decently told. I do want to read the next one.

I couldn't recommend it to anyone. Too many CWs for that to feel like anything but a cruelty, but if you're interested, I'd say try it out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, Child death, Sexual assault, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Murder, and Rape

Minor: Genocide

drduck's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Slavery, Death, Rape, Vomit, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

malisac16's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Infertility, Sexual violence, Violence, Death, Rape, Murder, and Torture

Minor: Domestic abuse

littlewitch_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Sexual content, Body horror, and Torture

Moderate: Child death, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, Murder, and Miscarriage

Minor: Vomit

shinyfox's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, War, and Suicide

Minor: Animal death

Dubcon/noncon, child birth

frantically's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This is for all us who liked the Feysand scenes from Under the Mountain a little too much 😉 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infertility, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Child death and War

elizabeth_delozier's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

2.75

The first in a dark fantasy romance duology. Please mind the extensive trigger warnings, listed below.

Ada is a human struggling with grieving the death of her husband and fitting into a society that looks down on her for being unable to bear a child. She finds herself accidentally dragged into the Pale Court and at the mercy of a merciless god.  The King of Flesh and Bone, the ruler of the Pale Court (think Hades and the Underworld, but with a dark fantasy twist), who can control flesh or bone - rot corpses, raise a dead army, break the bones of the living at will, distort ones flesh to either age or remain young, etc. The story primarily follows the dynamics of their relationship and the King of Flesh and Bone's role outside of the Pale Court. 

I would like to preface this review with the fact that I have not read many dark fantasy romance stories, so I am not sure if the content of this book is typical for the genre or if the dark elements are not aligned with what the genre is meant to be. I do plan on reading more dark fantasy romance in the future, so I may revisit this review following additional reference points. 

---I do not guarantee that the review / TWs are not spoiler free, read with this in mind. ---

Be advised that this story is about a villain. Not a hero. There is no redemption. There is no good. Just a dark and distorted god and a lot of smut (including quite a bit of peach play, in case you were interested).

The villain has a strong disdain for the living, with a complicated past involving another human woman. So much so that he has isolated himself in the Pale Court. When Ada is dragged into his presence, he takes this disdain out on her in the form of nonconsensual sexual punishment, as he strongly desires her warmth. The entirety of their relationship is nonconsensual sex - where he not only physically forces her into acts, but also uses his abilities to force her flesh and bone to comply with his demands. Towards the end of the book, Ada begins to feel conflicted by her body's arousal response to these acts and distorts this natural bodily response to assault for real building emotions of affection towards the King. This portrayal of a traumatic response as affection did not sit well with me and played a large role in me wanting to hate this book.

That aside, the writing is nothing outstanding and there is no plot (and what little plot does exist feels forced). The pacing is fast, very fast. The explanation of the King, his brothers, and their entire existence/purpose/boundaries of their powers is very underdeveloped. Also, it ends on a cliffhanger, which is neither here nor there.

Like I said, I wanted to hate this book, but I didn't...I enjoyed it. If you are okay with the dark elements/TWs and are looking for a quick read with little investment in world building with dirty/dark smut, then this book may be for you. 

The second book however....well, see my review of that book for more information. Overall, I would have recommended this book, but the second book in the series was enough for me to say that I will not be recommending this book.

I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Auri Alden and Gregory Salinas, via NetGalley. An advanced reader's copy of this audiobook was provided to me via NetGalley by Dreamscape Media in exchange for an honest review. 

TWs:

sexual content, sexual violence, repeated on page rape between the main characters, repeated on page sexual assault between the main characters, confinement, violence, gore, fire/injury, blood, body horror, death, murder, animal death, physical abuse, emotional abuse, gaslighting, discussions of infertility, grief, terminal illness, toxic relationship.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual harassment, Confinement, Sexual assault, Blood, Body horror, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, and Grief

Minor: Animal death

reverieparacosm's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child death, Gaslighting, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Body horror, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Rape, Sexism, Stalking, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt