Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The Sun and the Void by Gabriela Romero Lacruz

6 reviews

shottel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.25

Oh, how much I wanted to like this book more. And yet, unless you’re a fan of the fantasy genre specifically, or perhaps of South American-inspired settings, I couldn’t recommend it to you.

Let’s start with what went well: The setting. One of my favorite fictional settings I’ve encountered in a long time. I’m a huge sucker for religious themes and topics, which weigh heavy on the plot. I personally haven’t read much inspired by South America, so it was refreshing and new to me to see a fiction book draw heavily on its history and culture. I might read the sequel just for further worldbuilding.

Additionally, I felt the one-on-one fights were excellent. Clear and visceral. I’ve read more than a few good novels with confusing, poorly wrote fights that drag down the whole thing.

Now, what didn’t go well: The characters. There are two main protagonists in this novel. I deeply disliked them both. One of them is self-righteous, to the point of overlooking her own deeply heinous actions; the other is cowardly and perpetually impulsive, an awful mix that made for a character that repeatedly made her own situation worse and regretted it moments later. That’s not enjoyable to read. It’s frustrating. At times, I was rooting against both of them.

To make matters worse, there was only one character in the book I felt was compelling, and the author hid away his motives until about 80% of the way through the book. When his backstory got more detail I was actually frustrated because it made him deeply interesting. I would’ve greatly preferred reading the entire novel from his perspective. That’s notable, because I read this novel in part because I love sapphic women leads, but I now wish the book was about the straight guy.

The other thing I felt went poorly was the fights that weren’t one-on-one. Most notably, there is a particular large battle in the second half which comes off as incredibly lackluster. Startlingly so, in fact, given how much I felt the one-on-one fights were great. Generously, it felt like reading a college freshman’s attempt in a creative writing class that got a B-.

All in all, I only recommend this book if you’re a fantasy genre fan or want some more South American in your fiction. Otherwise, spend your time elsewhere, because if the setting won’t carry it for you, then characters definitely won’t.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Racism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Chronic illness, Body horror, Classism, Emotional abuse, Gore, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Moderate: Colonisation, Alcohol, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Rape, Confinement, Infertility, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Incest, Pregnancy, and Sexual assault

Minor: Slavery, War, Vomit, and Medical content

yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

adventurous reflective medium-paced

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

2.0

I wanted more from this book. I felt like he world building and magic system was a bit unclear and incomplete. I thought the characters started to show some growth until they made questionable decisions in the end and it felt like a step back in their development.

Honestly this book left me with so many questions on the world building front.

Why does Reina see her heart as monstrous? Because of iridio? Then why does she admire when Celeste uses it? Eva’s family treated her like crap and she refused to believe that they were lying about her father? How do the nozariel wear clothes with their tails? Is iridio inherently tethered to Rahmagut? Why do some users acknowledge him and others don’t? Among others

.

On a character front, many of them didn’t stick with me or make me love them or hate them. I didn’t have strong feelings for a lot of the characters other than annoyance at their dumb decisions. I did like Maior and her fiery personality.

I liked that Reina chose Maior in the end. I thought they had more chemistry and fit better than Reina and Celeste. Reina started off very naive and impressionable and stayed that way for the majority of the book but I’m glad we saw some development, even if it was toward the last couple of chapters. On Eva’s side, she really started to upset me toward the end. She refused to believe her kind father and stuck to what her horrible grandmother told her, she refused to defend Javier. I know Javier was morally grey but at least he knew he wasn’t a saint. Eva acts all high and mighty then turns around and acts cruel to Javier and caused the whole mess in the end! Not to mention she becomes arrogant with her abilities. I thought Doña Ursulina was easy to hate and Doña Laurel was easy to love which was nice.

.

I wanted more clarity in the world building and character development. There were a few characters I enjoyed and I thought the fighting scenes were well described. I don’t think I will be picking up the rest of the series but I am glad I gave it a chance and someone who isn’t as nit picky about world building may enjoy this more than I did.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Kidnapping, Violence, Racism, Colonisation, Death, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Gore, Toxic friendship, Murder, Racial slurs, Slavery, Blood, Classism, and Homophobia

Minor: Pregnancy, Rape, Incest, Infertility, Cursing, Death of parent, Alcohol, Genocide, Self harm, and Child death

rambles's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Death, Racial slurs, Body horror, Emotional abuse, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Colonisation, Death of parent, Classism, Homophobia, Incest, Rape, and Lesbophobia

hailstorm3812's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.75

I think my high hopes got the best of me with this one. I really liked the characters (especially Reina) and the world-building and that probably will entice me into reading the next one. I did have problems with the pacing and structure. It dragged in the middle for me and the fact that none of the characters even suspect the twist is baffling. I think my biggest issue is that Reina and Eva should be foils with a developing relationship and they just float around each other. The finale hinges upon the different yet same directions they wind up in but it lacks the emotional resonance since they don't care about each other. The only person it actually effects personally is Maior. My qualms aside I did still have fun and overall liked the book.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Death, Bullying, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Miscarriage, and Misogyny

Minor: War, Suicide, Homophobia, Genocide, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Rape, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

_teoeo's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.0

"The Sun and The Void" was one of my most anticipated books this year and I'm really glad that I was able to read an ARC of it! 
The blurb was really promising but after reading the book I have to say that even with good plot ideas the execution wasn't as satisfying. 
Let's start with the things I enjoyed: 

• The woldbuilding happened through the eyes of the protagonist
• The arc of suspense at the end was quite good and I enjoyed reading the last chapters. 

But the biggest issue I had with the book was the timeline. The story expanded over a view years and because of that it feld like the author wanted to put too many plot points in this book. There was too little focus on different events and they fell a bit flat.  Also, the characters seemed kinda inconsistent and some of their actions didn't made sense. 

Another thing I didn't like were the love interests. They were either racist (at least in the beginning) or abusive and still, the protagonists fall for them. I really didn't like that the abusive behaviour was explained with

"a curse"

for that seemed to take the responsibility for their actions. 

All in all I would say that the ideas for the plot are could be good but it needs a little more balance between booklength and events in the story as well as more comprehensible character building.

Thank you NetGalley for providing an e-ARC of this book!

Edit: changed my review to 2 stars, for the more I thought about this book, the more problematic aspects I've found. Especially the ableism, ugh!!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism

Moderate: Blood, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Cultural appropriation, Incest, Child death, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Medical content, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Bullying, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Death, Racism, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Minor: Rape, Abandonment, and Suicide

romie_chat's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Death, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Rape