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equleart's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
complicated feelings on it. CONTENT WARNING for..everything, jfc SPOILERS too
-so maybe I just stumbled into a genre I just don't get? but holy fuck that was the most rapey story I have ever read and holy fuck that includes Hiroaki Samura's entire catalogue.
-I really like the protagonist Nora, she's extremely entertaining, proactve, makes you want to root for her.
I really enjoyed the glimpse we get of the world and its history and magic, and I was hooked and thoroughly entertained pretty much from page one.
-The action was also a ton of fun and very well presented, there were quite a few very interesting and new character dynamics, at least among the few non-rapists in the book. and that's kinda where shit goes sour for me.
-The amount and kinds of rape and sexual assault in this are stomachturning and unnecessary.
SPOILERS from here on.Nora gets almost raped in like the first chapter. And as much as I disliked reading it, it had a point.
-set up the dangerous company, drove a wedge between Nora and her brother, who apparently couldnt give less of a shit, and makes Nora's situation a very interesting one, not in small part because she is otherwise, despite the circumstances, an extremely sex-positive person.
-SO anyway, she breaks the dude's nose. and flees. into her home village, where all the women are being kept as sex slaves by bandits. she kills them. and goes back to the bandits that first tried to rape her.
-They arrive at a very nice, pleasant fortress where everything is neat and two separate characters (whom she travels with for the whole book) threaten to rape her. the place gets attacked and she witnesses.. oh boy, mass rape.
-so they leave. on the way, one of them sneaks up on he while she pees in the dark, cuts her privates and surprise, threatens to rape her.
-They arrive at basically a magical brothel cult place, of the you-are-never-going-to-leave variety. A woman breaks the rules, her child gets sacrificed and could you have guessed? she gets gangraped to death.
-Nora witnesses this and only escaped being also raped by the crowd waiting to rape the first woman by being sexually assaulted as a signal that she's 'taken'
-she's thrown into a fighting pit with the implication that she's gonna get raped to death if she loses.
-in the last place, there's also a male character getting both on screen and implied raped multiple times, just for good measure
-THIS ALL HAPPENS IN 340 PAGES. THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY.
-It's so extremely prevalent that when she gets confined at the end, completely helpless, it feels WRONG that she ISNT being raped also.
-it goes so far beyond any real need as past the first incident, it doesnt even seem to affect Nora for more than a page and the theme never goes anywhere. hell she even keeps the flirty relationship with one of the bandits from the start going, even though his father keeps threatening to rape her.
-it's puzzling and seems to actually just be there for shock value. the author mentions in the endnotes that that child-sacrifice brothel cult was actually based on biblical, if not real historical events. except, for the entire male clientele lining up to rape a fresh mother who's catatonic from having her newborn sacrificed until she dies.
so again- I'm torn. I like the non-rape parts of the book, but it's a lot of rape for me to go 'yeah, I wanna read this' cause I don't, really. I wouldn't have started this if I knew the contents. I've dropped longer books for half the shit in here and if I didnt finish it in a very short week of reading I wouldve DNF'd this as well, and even though I finished it I have this extremely bad taste in my mouth. cause you couldve literally just removed every rape past chapter 1 and not lost anything of value. I conclude that it wasnt for me.
-so maybe I just stumbled into a genre I just don't get? but holy fuck that was the most rapey story I have ever read and holy fuck that includes Hiroaki Samura's entire catalogue.
-I really like the protagonist Nora, she's extremely entertaining, proactve, makes you want to root for her.
I really enjoyed the glimpse we get of the world and its history and magic, and I was hooked and thoroughly entertained pretty much from page one.
-The action was also a ton of fun and very well presented, there were quite a few very interesting and new character dynamics, at least among the few non-rapists in the book. and that's kinda where shit goes sour for me.
-The amount and kinds of rape and sexual assault in this are stomachturning and unnecessary.
SPOILERS from here on.
-set up the dangerous company, drove a wedge between Nora and her brother, who apparently couldnt give less of a shit, and makes Nora's situation a very interesting one, not in small part because she is otherwise, despite the circumstances, an extremely sex-positive person.
-SO anyway, she breaks the dude's nose. and flees. into her home village, where all the women are being kept as sex slaves by bandits. she kills them. and goes back to the bandits that first tried to rape her.
-They arrive at a very nice, pleasant fortress where everything is neat and two separate characters (whom she travels with for the whole book) threaten to rape her. the place gets attacked and she witnesses.. oh boy, mass rape.
-so they leave. on the way, one of them sneaks up on he while she pees in the dark, cuts her privates and surprise, threatens to rape her.
-They arrive at basically a magical brothel cult place, of the you-are-never-going-to-leave variety. A woman breaks the rules, her child gets sacrificed and could you have guessed? she gets gangraped to death.
-Nora witnesses this and only escaped being also raped by the crowd waiting to rape the first woman by being sexually assaulted as a signal that she's 'taken'
-she's thrown into a fighting pit with the implication that she's gonna get raped to death if she loses.
-in the last place, there's also a male character getting both on screen and implied raped multiple times, just for good measure
-THIS ALL HAPPENS IN 340 PAGES. THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY.
-It's so extremely prevalent that when she gets confined at the end, completely helpless, it feels WRONG that she ISNT being raped also.
-it goes so far beyond any real need as past the first incident, it doesnt even seem to affect Nora for more than a page and the theme never goes anywhere. hell she even keeps the flirty relationship with one of the bandits from the start going, even though his father keeps threatening to rape her.
-it's puzzling and seems to actually just be there for shock value. the author mentions in the endnotes that that child-sacrifice brothel cult was actually based on biblical, if not real historical events. except, for the entire male clientele lining up to rape a fresh mother who's catatonic from having her newborn sacrificed until she dies.
so again- I'm torn. I like the non-rape parts of the book, but it's a lot of rape for me to go 'yeah, I wanna read this' cause I don't, really. I wouldn't have started this if I knew the contents. I've dropped longer books for half the shit in here and if I didnt finish it in a very short week of reading I wouldve DNF'd this as well, and even though I finished it I have this extremely bad taste in my mouth. cause you couldve literally just removed every rape past chapter 1 and not lost anything of value. I conclude that it wasnt for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Incest, Sexual assault, and Torture
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