Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Between Two Fires by Christopher Buehlman

32 reviews

flintk's review

challenging dark emotional sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Sexual content, Sexism, Animal cruelty, Child death, War, Religious bigotry, Rape, Misogyny, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Blood, Antisemitism, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical trauma, Islamophobia, Abandonment, Genocide, Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, Child abuse, Grief, Animal death, Alcoholism, Body horror, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Homophobia, Death, Cursing, Classism, Cannibalism, Hate crime, Confinement, and Chronic illness

narsere's review

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Alcoholism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, and Body horror

Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent

mori431's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Alcoholism, Murder, Homophobia, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Gore, Cannibalism, Cursing, War, Grief, Torture, Vomit, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

anewlens's review

dark sad tense fast-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death of parent, Genocide, Sexism, Homophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Violence, Body horror, Child death, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Death, Gore, Alcoholism, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Racism and Sexual assault

chrschn's review

dark 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

2.25

This is for sure going to be a clunky review, it’s super late and my eyes hurt and I dislike this book for reasons that are difficult to put into words. As a disclaimer though I will say that I’m very likely not the target audience for this one because most of what I disliked about this book are the same things that make it successful at what it was trying to do. 

Between Two Fires reads appropriately for its subject matter, in as much as it’s reminiscent of biblical writing. It’s oddly paced, moving glacially most of the time and then extremely quickly at others. It feels feverish and everything has a dreamlike quality, never sitting quite right, which I assume was intentional but didn’t make it any more endearing. People’s words, their actions, everything feels weirdly performative and ethereal and like you’re reading a parable. Appropriate, I guess. The book is somewhat episodic and doesn’t connect the pieces well, while at other times fails to adequately describe what it intends to, which left me feeling confused more than I expect I was supposed to, which took me out of the story a fair bit. This was only made worse by how frustratingly anachronistic the book was at times.

The world in BTF is filthy, cruel, and full of bad people, our protagonist included. Every character is unlikable, but there are moments of decency when the story calls for it. I never did really warm to anyone in the book, but found them a bit more sympathetic by the last 30 pages, having experienced at least some growth. There’s a really creepy fascination with

rape, particularly centered around the pre-teen deuteragonist

which was handled very poorly.

The character in question never is SA’d in the book, but the subject is approached an uncomfortable amount, and never well. At one point the primary protagonist resists demonic influence to rape his adolescent surrogate daughter, and upon successfully fighting it off, the book treats it like it’s a bonding moment for them, going so far as to have another character be jealous over the newfound closeness the two share over the ordeal.

Felt very fucking gross on the author’s part. Above all though, for the handful of very interesting and creepy ideas it has, everything feels just kind of pointless. Things happen just to happen. There’s a difference between establishing how fucked the world is and just throwing in a creepy idea you had without knowing how to tie it to anything significant. There’s not really a reason for most things that take place, and events don’t have much bearing on the central story. There’s a character that’s introduced later in the book that could have been removed entirely and nothing would have been different. 

My dislike for the book wavered slightly throughout, losing its intensity somewhat as we went on but never managing to go away. I will give BTF one full star for managing to finish on a high note with a well crafted ending. Still feel like I need to brush my teeth after the whole thing though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Pedophilia, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Body horror

totemofundrying's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

What a wonderful book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Body horror, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Murder, Homophobia, Death, Blood, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, and Violence

Minor: Rape, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

megmegmegmeg's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Moderate: Violence, Antisemitism, Child death, Death, Body horror, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

madison_mls's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.25

It’s givinggggg The Last of Us but make it dark ages and biblical end of times :). No but this book genuinely had me repulsed, scared, and loving the adventure all at the same time!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Torture, Violence, Body horror, Gore, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Religious bigotry, War, Rape, and Sexual content

jess_xen's review

adventurous dark emotional tense 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? Yes

5.0

"Between Two Fires" turned my stomach more than once. A masterpiece of horror, Buehlman has managed to wrote some of the best descriptions of Hell I've ever had the pleasurable displeasure of reading. 

The characters were so lovable, and when anything bad threatened to happen to them, I felt a visceral anxiety. The relationship between Thomas and Delphine reminded me of Geralt and Ciri from the Witcher series, but somehow placed in a more terrifying setting. 

Definitely worth a read for anyone who loves descriptive horror & medieval settings. Buehlman knocks it out of the park. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, War, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Gore, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Cannibalism, Animal death, and Cursing

colleen_corleone's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense 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

5.0

I wasn't aware how much I loved these characters until the last 35% of the book where I started crying during different emotionally charged scenes.

The humor is wonderful and much needed as more horrific events unfold. I love their banter. I want to use cunting more often in sentences going forward. It's such a fun word to help break up the normal American swearing I do.

I love going into a book relatively blind, but for anyone who needs more context:

There is a cunting lot of gore, assault, death, dismemberment, cannibalism, unintentional necrophilia. That's in most chapters and part of the ever-present background of the world.

The relationship between Thomas and the young girl (whose name you learn later) is beautiful and bittersweet. He takes good if reluctant care of her.

For a general spoiler

Thomas and the girl make a friend whose death was the first time I cried, surprising myself. I didn't realize until that moment how much I loved loved these characters.

I cried three other times during deaths and hard battles. The general feeling of dread and/or terror keeps a low hum that built when I least expected it.

I am buying a physical copy to reread in the future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Excrement, Alcohol, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Grief, Animal death, Antisemitism, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Body horror, and Self harm