Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Ruinsong by Julia Ember

20 reviews

eclectic_hellscape's review

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? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Violence, Fatphobia, Gore, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Child abuse, Classism, Torture, Death, War, Animal death, Vomit, Bullying, and Death of parent

Moderate: Abortion, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Minor: Alcohol

owlieali's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Blood, and Torture

Moderate: War

Minor: Homophobia

krishnak's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

2.0

It was just boring and not very well written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Homophobia

letrickster's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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? Yes

2.75

It was fine? I'm not a huge YA person so that definitely affected my opinion but it really just didn't do it for me. The romance and the ending were incredibly rushed and it all felt like it got resolved way too neatly and easily. Despite this, it was also incredibly slow. I really enjoyed the first quarter or so of the book. I think the tension was set up well and the scenes were suitably unsettling. Then things slowed down pretty hard, and very little happened. As it wore on I just got very bored, I almost dnfed but I managed to skim through to the end, although it didn't much improve my opinion. I really wish the middle section

when Cadence and Remi are together at the palace was longer and had some more intrigue. It felt like it was only a few days, which in my mind, didn't feel like enough time for any of the things that happened to occur. Remi was threatened, but I feel like she didn't really end up being used against Cadence at all. The stakes just felt really low.

I wanted to romance to be good, and I felt like it would've been if it had more time to develop, but it felt really unearned. 

The characters were just fine, they're teenagers so I can excuse a lot of their choices behaviour based on that, but I just ended up not really caring about them. I liked Cadence a lot at the beginning, but idk by the end I was just kinda done.

I really wish I liked it more, I wanted to, I think it's decent YA but it just Really did not do it for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Animal death, and Vomit

Minor: Homophobia

lqvekanej's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia

whammajamma's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Torture, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Homophobia and Fatphobia

solareclipse's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Homophobia

tinysierra's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

-I love the idea of song magic! That was the coolest part of the book
-Friends to lovers
-polyamory (side characters)
-As other reviews said… it was kind of bland and there was no real build up. It was a decent story but the plot and the romance in it were not really strong.

I recommend Of Fire and Stars over Ruinsong because it still has a sapphic couple, elemental magic, royalty/court politics, a similar scene to one in this book

where the couple rides a horse together. it’s cute lol

and the romance in that book stands out more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia and Vomit

Minor: Abortion and Miscarriage

sarah984's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I thought this was a really fun idea for a story, and the singing magic was cool. Everything was tense and the stakes felt high. Most of the characters were interesting.

However, the characters we spend our time focused on are probably the least interesting of the bunch. They spend a lot of time complaining and making impulsive decisions (and then complaining that people don't trust them not to make impulsive decisions) and you only kind of hear about other characters doing cool things in the background. The ending wraps up extremely fast so a lot of the victories don't really feel earned. I get the idea of noting every character’s skintone instead of making special note of who wasn't white, but it really drove home how white the core cast still was so I don't know if it helped.

Also this is a nitpick but if you're retelling Phantom of the Opera and you drop ZERO chandeliers? You're doing it wrong.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Violence, and Vomit

Minor: Abortion, Death of parent, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, and Sexual content

olafsl0stcarrot's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Emotional abuse, and Torture

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, and Homophobia

Minor: Death of parent and Vomit