Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

14 reviews

lindsaybethlyons's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

I loved this book. There is a lot of violence, be warned. The characters, plot, and world-building were incredible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Trafficking, Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Alcohol, Murder, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, and Colonisation

Minor: Rape

thethingwithfeathers's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Slavery, Classism, Violence, Emotional abuse, Drug abuse, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Addiction, and Drug use

Moderate: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Genocide, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts

kendal_reads's review against another edition

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Blood, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, and Ableism

Moderate: Sexual content, Classism, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

kylosten's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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: Addiction, Xenophobia, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Slavery, Racial slurs, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Genocide, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief

miraileah's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative mysterious reflective tense 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

4.0

4.0. Although this book started out not keeping my attention, I ended up becoming really invested in the plot and the characters stories. I’m not sure when I’ll read the next one, but I’m glad I kept with this book, for the themes of colonialism and making social change. I thought that (both Sylah and Anoor’s journeys to better understanding of what their ideal world looks like) was the best part of the book, and it was done excellently. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Violence, Xenophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, Physical abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual content

ewinnk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Murder, Slavery, Death of parent, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Violence, Ableism, Blood, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, and Classism

barda's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

3.75

I really enjoyed the worldbuilding and diversity of characters in this book, though it was brought down by some flaws and overall tone.

I broadly liked the charactres, with Hassa being a standout in particular. I do wish she had more POV, but she was a delightfully mysterious character and her friendship with Sylah was heartwarming. The autocratic world that the author created was also very interesting, if not the most unique; I found that the twist regarding the map really opened up the world more and makes me eager to learn more in the next book. 

In terms of what I didn't like, it's a pet peeve of mine when the author switches POV's multiple times in one chapter with no breaks in between characters, and this book has tons of it. It also had some random characters that had only one or two POV's in the whole book and these seemed unnecessary. The romance(s) also seemed very abrupt and tacked on, and I wonder if the book would actually do better by removing romance entirely (though the book was very good at developing the overall friendship between Anoor and Sylah, if not the romance aspect). I also found the tone at times to be a bit too grimdark for my tastes; I can completely understand why the author wanted to show the horrors of slavery and discrimination, but the inclusion of sometimes graphic descriptions of death and torture made the happier moments between characters seem incongruous.

Overall, it was an interesting book to read and will be reading the next one, but I do hope that the issues with multiple POV's in particular are fixed in the next instalment.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Drug use, Slavery, Drug abuse, Addiction, Self harm, and Blood

Moderate: Violence, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Death of parent

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Murder, War, Vomit, Sexual content, and Rape

_james_'s review

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Violence, Confinement, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Torture

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Cursing, Religious bigotry, Kidnapping, Excrement, and Toxic friendship

readingthroughinfinity's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Buddy read with Lauren!

This is a spirited adult fantasy about three women trying to find ways of surviving and changing their fates in a world where blood determines social standing. With inventive world-building and a tournament-style plot, this story really takes off at the half way point (though that does mean that the first half is, unfortunately, slow-paced).

Sylah, Anoor, and Hassa are all interesting characters, but Sylah and Anoor frustrated me at the beginning with their complete lack of interest in anything around them (Sylah) and entitled, naïve outlook on life (Anoor). They did, however, develop and grow significantly throughout the book, making it satisfying to see how far they'd come in the closing chapters. The romance also drew me in, but I just wanted to see more of it! Hopefully we'll get that in book two, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Classism, Drug abuse, Murder, Addiction, Ableism, Blood, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Child death, Cursing, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

cozyscones's review against another edition

challenging 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Alcohol, Colonisation, Slavery, Classism, Gore, Sexual content, Death, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Addiction, Confinement, Police brutality, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Body shaming, Torture, and Fatphobia

Minor: Vomit and Excrement