Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett

8 reviews

aseel_reads's review

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.0

Same thoughts as the last book, easy to read, engaging world and plot, like the characters but wishing we got way more of their back stories, interactions, just more character time 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Gun violence, Torture, Body horror, Medical content, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Violence

nimeneth's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This is a somewhat reluctant 4 stars? The middle portion of the book dragged and was highly technical with the world's magic, plus there were some very gory bits that I skimmed through. That said, holy shit the ending. I figured something was going to happen with Gregor but I was not expecting specifically that. I will be grabbing the next installment because I want to know what new hijinx Sancia and Berenice get up to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Torture, Murder, Violence, War, and Blood

Moderate: Colonisation, Grief, Slavery, and Genocide

jjjreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Self harm, Slavery, Trafficking, Genocide, Mental illness, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, War, Xenophobia, Blood, Body horror, Car accident, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Torture, Violence, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Confinement, Vomit, Death, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Death of parent, and Drug use

saltycoffee's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Torture, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

micheala's review against another edition

3.75

This sequel is tonally very different from Foundryside. It's much darker and gorier, and the stakes are much higher. 

While the first book was more of your typical heist novel with a cool magic system, this one is about a resurrected god and attempting to prevent his world domination. 

Foundryside had the ability to be read as a standalone, however this one, well let's just say I'm glad I waited for the finally to come out before I read it - if I had to wait for two years with that ending? No thanks

On a happier note, I loved seeing the casual relationship between Sancia and Ber that has clearly been developing in the three years since the first book ended. 

I'm interested to see how the final book concludes some of the plot points and character arcs. I'm also interested to see how long of a time jump will occur between books two and three - I hope only a short one, but from the blurb I suspect it will be a long time jump. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Murder, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Rape

rinku's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

 Shorefall takes place three years after the first book, Foundryside, and first I was not sure what to think about this quite big time-skip. After a few chapters though, this series was once again able to captivate me, and it kept me in suspense to the end. 

Because of this time-skip, the first ten percent of the novel are spent with exposition, telling us what has happened in the last three years. I love how the city basically became more communist insofar as the drafts of the scrivings are shared with each other and are not sold anymore. 

But after this exposition, the pace of the story significantly picks up and it becomes quite dark and suspenseful like the last book. We get to know the new main villain Crasedes who’s such an evil creature. The plot around him was so good and it created such an interesting atmosphere that only our characters knew about his resurrection. Like I’ve said before, I also still love how the story only takes place in one city. Some smaller parts of the story irritated me, like

the mind connection thing

, but this didn’t lower my level of enjoyment for this book. 

Like it was before, there are some shocking revelations about the characters that we thought would know, like the fact that

Ofelia killed her husband and her son or that Sancia won’t live long because of her powers. Clef is also back but sadly only for a short time until he’s captured again

. 

Last but definitely not least, the finale was so great and suspenseful because of the time pressure:

It was so amazing how Ofelia helped our heroes, but I was so shocked that Gregor actually killed her. All this was almost for nothing, since they’re not able to defeat Crasedes in the end. Orso sacrificing himself and him crying made me also almost cry – and this means a lot for me

. 

I’ve talked about this in my previous review, but I’m still in awe about the magic system. It’s so creative and just enjoyable to see how Sancia is able to manipulate the understanding of time and space that objects have so that they will do what she wants them to. 

The characters are another thing that makes this series so great. They’re all amazing and I love them all, especially Sancia, Orso and Gregor – he deserves so much better. I also liked the “villains” that were mostly painted in a grey light as well. Bennett is just so good at transporting the emotions of his characters that I even was so sad when a mountain exploded. The dialogues between the characters are also so well written. 

My greatest critique is probably the execution of the relationship of Sancia and Berenice. I love them but sadly we didn’t see how their relationship developed and are only told about it. In general, they often didn’t seem like a couple and lacked some chemistry. Another critique I have concerning the characters is that every older female character has to be described as attractive, as if this is so important. 

After the devastating ending of Shorefall, I need to know how this series will be wrapped up. I already read that there will now be a seven-year time skip and I hope that Bennett is able to manage this one well so that the story will end in a satisfying way.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Terminal illness, Child death, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and War

Minor: Genocide

totallyshelfaware's review

adventurous dark 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? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Self harm, Slavery, Gore, and Torture

gracecleo's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Body horror, Genocide, Gore, and Slavery

Minor: Child death