Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin

54 reviews

reebeee's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

Intense, dark, and gutting. Stupendous worldbuilding and pacing; Jeminsin is both confident in her readers' intelligence and attention, as well as in her own narrative voice throughout the book. Take the trigger warnings seriously—this book delves into humanity at its very worst, but nothing is for shallow shock value in this narrative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, Child abuse, Death, Child death, Violence, and Racism

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Bullying

Minor: Dysphoria, Pregnancy, and Cannibalism

krispy_reading's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-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

4.0

At first I was a bit confused while reading, so I picked up the audiobook. Immersive reading for 90% of the book. 

Half way through I re-read the prologue, which made the rest of the book make sense. I must have zoned out the first time I read the prologue.

The changes in point of view and tense weren’t difficult for me to follow. The writing style took some getting used to. Once the pieces started to fit together, I was pretty invested in the story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism

Moderate: Child death and Violence

Minor: Animal death and Cannibalism

zoiejanelle's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

best adult fantasy book i have read to date. a book about what it means to become a parent, to lose a child, and to sacrifice everything for love. an allegory for blackness in the U.S. really cool magic system, great writing (once things picked up) and emotional twists. highly recommend to all fantasy lovers! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Child death, Death, Animal death, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Xenophobia, Classism, Genocide, Pregnancy, Slavery, Violence, Colonisation, Gore, Hate crime, Medical content, Racism, and Vomit

Moderate: War, Torture, and Sexual content

corvidkings's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Torture, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Minor: Vomit, Animal death, Cannibalism, Body horror, Deadnaming, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

neni's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

 I had high expections for this book since everyone and their mothers seem to reccomend it highly. 

I must say, I knew it had dark themes, but I wasn’t prepared for just how dark and how pervasive the whole thing was. I think that’s what took down the enjoyment factor a bit for me, I get that life is hard in this universe, but I kinda hate when authors make us care for the main characters and then put them through nothing but pain and suffering for the whole book. I mean, can’t they be at least a little bit happy? lmao I totally recognize that’s a personal taste thing and not exactly a fault with the book. Maybe if I had read it at a different time in my life I would have felt another way, but I couldn’t help but get a little bit depressed everytime I read a new chapter. 

Other than that though, this book was pretty much impeccable. 

The writing style was beautiful and engaging, and somehow managed to create an incredibly emotional environment and deliver powerful feelings without being super flowery or descriptive, which I found impressive. It was to the point, but impactful? Quite unique from what I’ve been reading and a weirdly appropriate choice in a book thats about stone wielders. 

On that note, I think the greatest strength of the book is definitely the worldbuilding. The magic system (if it can even be described as magic, some cool natural phenomenon turned technology out of a sci-fi novel would be just as accurate to describe it) is superb in its complexity and originality. All of the rules and the way their powers work around them are fascinating to read about. 

The way the author organized the plot and the pacing was stellar as well. She did that super satisfying thing that authors do where the book starts with a bunch of different threads and timelines that seem disconnected but that get progressively closer to each other and it all comes to a head as this “everything is connected” climax. Pretty cool 

The character’s as well were nicely fleshed out. But again, thinking about them makes me sad lol 

Overall, a great read for fantasy and sci-fi fans alike. Was a tiny bit too sad and depressing for me to find extremely enjoyable, but still I don’t regret reading it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Child abuse, Rape, Toxic relationship, Violence, Animal death, Murder, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Vomit, and Xenophobia

shieldbearer's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

A masterpiece of worldbuilding and character study. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Slavery, Child death, Grief, Violence, Gore, Child abuse, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Pedophilia, Medical content, Body horror, Classism, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Rape

Minor: Cannibalism, Confinement, Sexual violence, and Transphobia

vasha's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Violence, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Slavery, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Racism, and Child death

Moderate: Vomit, Colonisation, Ableism, Pedophilia, Sexual content, and Trafficking

Minor: Cannibalism, Transphobia, and Homophobia

atalea's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Classism, Pregnancy, and Body horror

Minor: Cannibalism and Animal death

emzhay's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Slavery, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Grief, Violence, and Animal death

Moderate: Pregnancy and Trafficking

kjoli's review

dark emotional mysterious sad 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: Child death, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Animal death, Child abuse, and Death