Reviews with content warning for Genocide - Born of Blood and Ash

Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Born of Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

6 reviews

anotherrandomuser's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

Ok first I’m going to talk about the book, then the series, and I’ve tried to avoid any and all spoliers:

This book was SO GOOD! The tension throughout the book was really nice. I don’t know how many times I yelled, “that a**hole” in agreement with Sera, Nyktos, Attes, or Nyktas. The spicy scenes were just as good as they were in the first book and I can’t believe this part is over 🥲.

Plot:
Overarching and ties together very nicely. There were a few times when I got confused with the prophecy, but then again- is it truly a prophecy if not confusing?

Characters:
I felt a deep emotional connection with each of these characters at least once. A book hasn’t made me start balling in a while but Sera’s stages of trauma really got to me.

(My fav characters are Saion, Nyktas, Sera, Nytos, Attes - in that order)

Romance:
I think the main thing I loved about this series and this author is that she doesn’t fully romanticize romance. She gives us the struggles and the hardships that come with it, as well as the fun times.

Rocking the Steamboat Scenes:
Holy- mother of everything- if you want spicy scenes you’ve come to the right place!

The author overall does an amazing job with human emotions and intentions, writing the fine line of when they can get blurred.

I can’t wait to read the next series!! 🤩🤩

Content Warnings

bremorrissey's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous dark emotional 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: Yes

Content Warnings

zanazy's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious 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: Complicated

Sera and Ash’s story comes to an end in their timeline, as this series and FBAA are set to intertwine in the next book. Nyktos remains my favorite, but Attes is a close second.

Sera and Ash are reunited and Sera has a lot of PTSD from her time with Kolis, but she’s in denial and fails to address it for most of the story, which has serious implications. Sera gets reunions with her Lasania family while also building her chosen family with Nyktos and friends in Illesium. I loved both for her.

Nyktos shows care and starts to allow others to see him happy and as Ash, which made me happy as both he and Sera acknowledge the chosen family they built.

Hollander returns and makes a few brief appearances that surprise and inform.

While a lot happens, this book ends

just as Kolis is entombed. Without the birth of the twins. The last chapter is from the POV of the ancients which both excites and scares me as we await the POBAB release. We definitely get more information and what I hope is the final official prophesy, but I have new questions too.

Content Warnings

zomigi's review against another edition

2.0

dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The politics of this book is bonkers to me. I'm supposed to believe that the good guys are the ones who declare that there needs to be a single-party system and anyone who won't swear allegiance to them they'll murder and then install one of their lackeys on the seat of government for each sub-country? What kind of fascist USSR bullshit is this? And after Sera commits literal atrocities the lesson she takes away from it is, I should never have tried to be a better person, I should have leaned all the way into being a murderous unhinged monster from the start?? Wtf? Yeah, Kolis is worse, but that's not saying much. A jar of expired mayonnaise would make a better ruler than Kolis—it doesn't mean that Sera and Nyktos are actually good. This book made me deeply dislike Sera, which is a shame, because I had been enjoying Sera/Ash more than Poppy/Cas. It was also deeply unpleasant to read about her dealing with her trauma, I think even more so than reading the actual trauma occuring in the last book. Btw, why'd you have to retcon her abuse to include fingering now Jennifer?? Just to twist the knife? It would have made a better point about her assault not being "nothing" if you didn't include touching genitals but showed that this is assault regardless. I was also stressed out the whole time about the effect Sera's PTSD/depression would be having on her babies, and pissed off that once she learned she was pregnant she refused to stop fighting to protect them. I am getting so tired of "badass" female characters who are only badass because they're aggressive, violent, and reckless. I want a female character to be badass because she is smart, calculating, and controlled! Show me the power in restraint! Anyway, Attes and Holland are wonderful and nearly everyone else is annoying to me at this point. I'm going to stick with the series because I've come this far, but man am I pissed at how much potential this series had and how far it went off the rails.

Content Warnings