Reviews

Blood Red by Cordelia Kingsbridge

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yuusasih's review

4.0

Since my friends in MMRI group recently being so hot on this story, ~~and the time is just so right when I want to read porn,~~ I decide to take a chance with this, eventhough the 'rape' label slightly put me off, afraid that this will be the rape-to-love/dub-con kind of story (which I despised so much). But no, there's not the condition with this story. Yes, there are several rape scenes, but not with the main love interest, Demitrios.

I really enjoy the writing, though the plot flow is predictable here and there. Still, it gripped me right away and didn't let me go ~~though I'm not as interested as my friends in Lunacy chapter?~~. The relationship development is good, and Cordelia played with Aedan's view so nice while it's not the best--I've read the more heartbreaking counterpart of Aedan in [bc:A Little Life|22822858|A Little Life|Hanya Yanagihara|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1412530242s/22822858.jpg|42375710]. And I love Demitrios and his stucked-up, well-raised kid's view. Aedan and Demitrios dynamic reminded me of my own m/m character. hehe. ~~stop it, yuu, your bias is so strong to the point of relating all of your own charas to any m/m chara.~~

Why the name Aeden reminded me of the same name from another book of the same genre? Huh, but I forget where...

marlobo's review

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3.0

3.5 stars

I'm not a big fan of paranormal, but this I mostly enjoyed.

My favorite aspects are those related to social dynamics in general and love relationships in particular; no predestined mates here, a plot device that I don't like at all.

On the other hand, there were a couple of circumstances that didn't satisfy me:

* The appearance of that soul stone as a deus ex machina during the final confrontation with the villain; sorry, but I think that something so important like that it would have been transmitted previously by Rhiannon to Aedan.

* Throughout the story, it seemed to me that Demitrios' reclusive character was due to a concrete cause; but beyond a brief allusion to an at least verbally abusive mother, in the end, the matter remains without explanation and to see it as a trait of his character didn't conform me.

iam's review

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fast-paced

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

4.0

The best thing about this book is definitely the amazing writing. It keeps you engaged and makes many of the things happening believeable, even if they really really aren't.

This is the only book by this author I haven't reread multiple times, and this first reread made me remember why I consider this my least favourite book by her.

It's definitely not a bad book. I enjoyed reading it for the most part. But it also lacks... something? The multiple threads of the plot are not as tightly woven together as most of Kingsbridge's other works, with some fraying and forgotten threads along the way.

This also sort of felt like a fanfic. As a lover of fanfic, I'm not holding it against Blood Red, it just jumped out at me.
For one, there is A LOT of sex. I'm pretty sure half of the pages involve something sexual. Again, that's not bad, just noticeable.
Then there's the plot:
Aedan is a so-called whoreslave at a fighting arena, meaning he has to "service" the gladiators who fight there. Aedan has the gift of magic, which he keeps hidden and only knows how to use to heal himself. One day a new fighter appears: he not only treats Aedan nicely, but he also turns out to be a beastman - a shifter. When other shifters break into the arena to free their packmember, Aedan goes with them, and suddenly a world full of freedom, fears, magic and dangers opens before him.

The sexual slavery thematic is a big one in this book. Aedan is an orphan who was sold to a brothel as a teen and evenually ended up at the arena, and (sexual) slavery is all he's known his entire life. His experiences and trauma colour his behavious and thought patterns throughout the entire book, long after he becomes a "free man."
In contex with this are several graphic rape scenes, and also scenes with extremely questionable consent - as a reader I couldn't always tell if Aedan genuinely wanted the sex or if he only told himself he wanted it as a means of survival.
Several of these scenes are questioned both by Aedan himself and by his partner(s), but not all of them, and it kept bothering me as the romance subplot began to develop and as Aedan argued for his own will - it all sounded good on paper, but was that really the truth?

I was also a bit disturbed not only by how casual many of the rape scenes were, but also by how casually much of the brutal violence was handled. It made sense given Aedan's history of sexual slavery and someone who regularly watched people beating each other to death in the arena, but it was unsettling to read at times, especially with how little these horrible things are reflected by Aedan.

The plot still consistently kept me hooked. There was always something interesting happening and I enjoyed reading about the shifter culture and about Aedan learning his magic.
There were a few open questions at the end and some things that went unexplained or unexplored which bothered me a little, but this is an online, free-to-read and unedited work of otherwise incredibly quality, so I do not hold that against it.
Aedan was an interesting character to read about, complex and intelligent, but also a very unreliable narrator.

Content warnings include: repeated graphic rape and violence, (sexual) slavery, mentions of magical mpreg