Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Black Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse

34 reviews

troisha's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Alcohol, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Racism, and Xenophobia

Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Vomit, and Suicide

yvonne_cl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Homophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Ableism and Sexual content

peachani's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.25

Oh wow, did I enjoy this book! I was a bit worried at first; not being that into fantasy after teen and young adulthood, I can get bored in the opening chapters of a book. Since this was a book club read, I persevered and eventually, the world Rebecca Roanhorse created drew me in. By the halfway point, I was fully invested. When I got to the last page, I actually yelled "Oh my God!" What a cliffhanger.

I appreciated getting to see a fantasy world set in Mesoamerica. I am not any more than superficially knowledgeable about the people that lived in that world, so I wasn't able to recognize specific tribes in the writing, but I did notice little details like pyramids and such.

I found myself being totally drawn into the love story between two main characters and was truly heartbroken when there was no way for them to be together... so technically, you could say this book is better than Romeo and Juliet in that sense.😂

These days, the true test of whether I really enjoyed a book is if I want to buy a physical copy of it. I absolutely want Black Sun in my personal, physical library.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Genocide, Grief, Physical abuse, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, Pedophilia, Racism, and Trafficking

melanie182's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, and Physical abuse

beauty_andbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

First and foremost, this is such an original plot. The culture described in the story is something I've never read before, and I enjoyed learning about it. I was also pleasantly surprised by the binary/LGBTQ+ representation! The xir/xers/xe (please correct me if I got the pronouns wrong!) pronouns were a first for me, so I was confused at first until it dawned on me based on the context of the story, who it was representing in the book. 

This is definitely more-so a plot driven book, with the timeline leading up to one point and moment. I prefer plot driven books so that was helpful in enjoying this book. The only reasoning for four stars was that it took about 1/2 of the book to start enjoying the story. So I liked it a lot, but didn't love it. I'm still probably going to reread before the next book comes out though. I read this book with a bookclub online, so it was enjoyable to talk about the themes and characters with them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Death, Cursing, Grief, and Violence

mikki_9's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad 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? No

5.0

I am beyond words. I love this book. LOVE.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Genocide, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Suicide

Minor: Sexual content

achingallover's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Violence, and Xenophobia

benasbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, Grief, Physical abuse, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

ehmannky's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

I found the first half of the book to be kind of a slow start as all of the world building is put into place and you get acquainted to the many different point of view characters and their situations (this is not a criticism of either, it just takes time to do this), but once you hit that halfway mark it just zooms right along. I couldn't put it down. The political intrigue, the wild religious stuff and the cult magic, the wonderful relationship between Serapio and Xiala, and everything that Naranpa was up to was just so much fun to read. I feel like the tragedy of being the subject of prophecy and the person everyone puts their hopes on to save (or break) the world was just so up front and center, and I can't wait to read the next installment. 

Among the many things that I appreciated about this book, beyond it just being a really good epic fantasy, is that the world is so effortlessly queer.

 

It was just as good the second time around! I still didn't care about the Okoa chapters that much, but overall this is such a good series.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Religious bigotry, Body horror, Death of parent, Blood, Child abuse, Genocide, Violence, Death, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Biphobia, Drug use, Xenophobia, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Sexism, Animal death, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Vomit

christalbotheindl's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Suicide, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Sexism