Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

84 reviews

teyn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, War, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Body horror and Rape

ikiteahill's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious slow-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

The beginning of the book felt quite slow. Trying to follow the politicking and planning was a little convoluted and boring. But then the action picks up in the second half of the book and there's some really well written action scenes. I love the magic systems in this book and the concept of the world is really interesting (even if I don't fully understand how they grow food if all the plants are dead and brown... like, supposedly there are no flowers but they do eat fruit??). I really enjoyed watching Vin

grow into her allomantic powers

. And I loved Kelsier as a character and his relationship with Vin. Seized also became one of my favorite characters.

I don't know if I'll enjoy the next book with the two of them not in it. I would hope that Seized comes back from his journey soon to help Vin or that he gets some of his own main character time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, Infertility, Misogyny, and Rape

Minor: Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent

naomi_k's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Genocide, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

tilo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This was my first book by Brandon Sanderson and I understand the praise. The magic system is fascinating and I love that you do not only learn along with the protagonist(s) but discover that there are many mysteries revolving around it that even the characters have not figured out yet. Every storyline is intriguing and by the end, when all of them came together, the plottwists - some of them excruciatingly casually dropped (in a good way) - had me audibly gasping. The plot unfolds in such a clever and seamless way - truly inspiring for my own creative writing! 
I enjoyed the characters. For a good first part of the novel, I found them not very likeable (which is not something I need in a novel, anyway) but that made them seem more real and complex. From the first page, I wanted to learn more about them and became very attached to their plans and hopes.
The ending finished the main story line of the book but kept so many mysteries open and introduced new problems that I cannot wait to read more about in the second novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, and Grief

Minor: Rape and Sexism

stephaniemcuervo's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

knerys's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Genocide, Gore, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Murder, and Classism

Moderate: Torture and Abandonment

Minor: Child death, Rape, and Death of parent

cheesybird's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Genocide, and Murder

puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

Unique and interesting magic system, but all in all the story was... fine?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Genocide, Racial slurs, Rape, and Death of parent

risaleel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Abandonment, War, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

louisallama's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.5

While I did enjoy this book, and I feel like the ending elevated it from three stars to three and a half stars, I think that it really would have benefited from losing about a hundred pages. 640 pages was just too long and while there was stuff happening the whole time, the book still felt slow paced. Not a specific hundred pages, I just don't think that we needed to see everything in such detail.
I did enjoy the ending, I thought it was a rather satisfying conclusion. I'm not sure Brandon Sanderson is the author for me though, because I personally find his writing very 'telling rather than showing' and while I don't always need a lot of flowery descriptions and deep character introspection, again, 640 pages is a lot to just be told what is happening. If you like books where you just turn your brain off and have the story happen at you, then you'll like this book.
And while I definitely didn't predict all of the plot twists, the one about

the Lord Ruler not being the one who wrote the logbook

was kind of obvious by the time it was revealed.
Also the extreme amount of parallels between

this book and Brandon Sanderson's own Steelheart

just made me kind of mad.

At the end it felt like I'd just read the same book in a different font.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Hate crime, Slavery, Abandonment, and Classism

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

The 16 year old main character gets into a relationship with

a man who is 4-5 years older than her and is a member of the class that oppresses her