Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

6 reviews

micaelamariem's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense 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? No

5.0

This was a great read, inspired by Mayan mythology which I got to learn more about as I parsed my way through this. I love the themes of narrative and myths and accepting and/or changing destiny. I love the slow burn. I love the bittersweet ending. I love the descriptions of everywhere in 1920s Mexico contrasted with Xibalba. I love the healing journey the characters go through to end the cycle of trauma. There’s just so much here to love. It took me a while to get into it but that was just a me thing because I was so busy. Once I forced myself to be still, I really loved this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Bullying, Racism, Sexism, Animal death, Body horror, Colonisation, Confinement, and Suicide

leahfoko's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

I really liked this book. I haven’t read a book with Mayan mythology used like this before and I thought it was really unique and fun. I loved the setting of Mexico in the 20s. I thought the parallels with Hun Kame and Vucub Kame and Martín and Cassiopea were really interesting, and the portrayal of jealousy and spite being able to unnecessarily develop into hate to be really interesting. That we often hate others for what they show us about ourselves that we don’t like. I thought the discussions about class differences and public opinion towards independent women was interesting. I liked that the romance was not an essential part of the story and mostly contributed to helping develop the characters’ growth as individuals rather than being about the relationship really. That Cassiopea humanized Hun Kame and he helped her to gain confidence and self autonomy, and they both learned something about themselves but Cassiopea still got to go off on her own and live out her independent dreams in the end. I thought that was beautifully done, and I am living for the idea of Loray and Cassiopea just going off on adventures together. I want a spin off book about that LOL. I felt that the pacing was a little slow at times with them just going to a new city and getting a new piece of Hun Kame and then immediately leaving to the next, it kind of bled together as a bit of the same concept over and over, which is my only complaint about the book. Overall, really interesting concept and characters done in a really unique way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing

Moderate: Sexism, Colonisation, and Classism

kappafrog's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide, Sexism, Violence, Racism, Self harm, Bullying, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore

Minor: Body horror, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Misogyny, and Murder

emily_mh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

Unfortunately I didn't super enjoy my time with this one. This is a quest narrative but it didn't do the job as one for me. I think the beauty of a quest narrative is that you don't really know where it's going - as a reader you have knowledge of an end point and an initial plan, but something will throw the hero off course to keep you on your toes. However, the narrative followed the initial plan in a really linear and repetitive way, with only minor obstacles for Casiopea and Hun-Kamé (until the end). 

I did like the narrative voice as I found it unique and it had a fairytale-like quality to it. However, it came at the cost of feeling distanced from Casiopea and her inner-world. A final thing I didn't like about the book was how quickly Casiopea and Hun-Kamé fell in love. Even though we are told this happened slowly, they had only known each other for a few weeks so I just didn't find this believable.

So I was especially frustrated that they were both so close to throwing in the towel because of this love.

Also, I really don't like the immortal/mortal trope especially as Casiopea is only 18. 

Despite these negatives, there were a lot of positives too! I really enjoyed the opposing development of Casiopea and Hun Kamé, how they were switching from mortal to immortal or vice versa, and how they learned more about their initial state through the other's journey. I really liked where Casiopea ended up overall, too. Speaking of the ending, the last 50 pages were really fantastic - gripping and satisfying. And I really loved reading and learning about Mayan mythology too, like the duality of Xibalba that was cleverly reflected in so many other parts of the narrative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Death

Moderate: Cursing, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Terminal illness, Pregnancy, Confinement, Racism, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Gun violence, Colonisation, Slavery, Deportation, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, Classism, Gore, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Physical abuse, Death of parent, War, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Self harm, Body shaming, Ableism, Sexism, Misogyny, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: illness, colourism, ethnic racism, volcano, self-injury, insects, hurricane, earthquake

nicnevin's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

A mesmerising blend of myth and magic set in 1920s Mexico. It felt alive, bold and vivid depictions of different places both real and not. 

Sometimes I struggled with the main character in terms of her own agency but it blooms near the end. It did not end how I thought bit felt the better for it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Torture, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Violence

abominablesnowaro's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Violence, Sexism, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Gaslighting, Cursing, Classism, Bullying, Blood, and Animal death

Minor: Death of parent, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, and Alcohol