Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The Well of Ascension by Brandon Sanderson

13 reviews

rikuson1's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative 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

4.5

I Really Liked It 😊
-★★★★✮- (4.50/5.00)
My Grading Letter Score = 90% (A)

When I finished The Well of Ascension, the first words that came out of my mouth were "simply incredible." But at first the pacing of this book at the start, I completely understand why some people would consider this weaker than The Final Empire if we are discussing overall pacing because The Well of Ascension was constantly going from slow to fast to slower to faster. For me, I'm not really someone who heavily focuses on pacing if what is being provided to me is engaging and if it's building up to something that is paid off when it's due, which this book mostly everyone agrees it does just that. So, regarding pacing consistency, sure, you can go ahead and give The Final Empire the upper hand when it comes to that. But honestly, outside of that, I most definitely feel like The Well of Ascension is tied with The Final Empire in almost every other criteria, and/or The Well of Ascension did it better.

The two categories I feel The Well of Ascension did better were characterization and character development. Every single character that was focused on in The Well of Ascension, for the most part, felt like they were given the time they needed to be fleshed out enough to be commended at least above what the characterization execution was provided to us in The Final Empire and goes for the development they went through in this book. World-building, Lore, Action, and Prose are all categories that can be debated which one did it better. I don't really care since I enjoyed all of these things in both of these books. 


Verdict
At first, I was Team Final Empire, until around Chapter 47 when my favorite fight scene in the series so far occurred did I start to lean over to Team Well of Ascension, after that the pacing slowed back down and then I started to lean back over to The Final Empire and then the last fifty pages of this book leveled me out. It brought me to the conclusion of thinking that I like both of these books equally critically, to be honest. If I was held at gunpoint and forced to choose one over the other, I might say The Well of Ascension, since the hype of just finishing it is still on me and I love great characterization which this book gave me a whole lot of. But I love both of these books equally and I'm glad I did not come out of it thinking less of it in comparison to its predecessor, a successor should be as good or better than what came before it and I feel The Well of Ascension accomplished just that. So regardless of what the majority of people state or what the rating score in comparison says about this book. 

I Really Liked It.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Xenophobia and War

Minor: Sexual assault, Classism, Physical abuse, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Gaslighting, Murder, Bullying, Confinement, Genocide, and Xenophobia

tilo's review against another edition

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I am unsure if I have ever experienced a book like this one, where with every new chapter a new information is dropped that almost always completely twists one of the many exciting narratives. From the first page on, I was surprised and as it kept going I could not fathom all the plottwists coming. And none of them seemed over the top nor misplaced, as the world, its history and its characters, whom I am attached to deeply now, are so well construed that it read so fluently.
Not to mention, the amazing and captivating writing style!
Due to the ending, I am both extremely curious and mortified to find out what is waiting in Book Three.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Self harm, Grief, Blood, Body horror, Death, Stalking, Genocide, Murder, Toxic friendship, Violence, Classism, Colonisation, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, War, and Slavery

Moderate: Infertility, Rape, Infidelity, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Sexism, Sexual violence, Animal cruelty, and Racism

Minor: Sexism and Ableism

Mentions genital mutilation

blythemind's review

adventurous slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Abandonment, War, Child death, Genocide, Death, Sexual content, Murder, Rape, Addiction, Alcohol, Mental illness, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Emotional abuse, Grief, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Slavery

mkaiww's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

The middle of the book drags and I was planning on taking a break from the series after this book but after the ending I was permanently hooked on the cosmere

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Classism, Violence, War, Stalking, Murder, and Mental illness

Moderate: Sexual assault, Genocide, Child abuse, Gaslighting, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Dysphoria, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Drug abuse

tgaddie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Violence, Addiction, Death, and Blood

hayleyvharrington's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Blood, Violence, War, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

saemiligr's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.25

 <spoiler >I am going to finish this entire series but I am SO FRUSTRATED by these characters and their actions. This whole book felt USELESS. Nobody in the kingdom was saved, people were still slaughtered, and the "hero" was just a murderer at the end. The themes of racisms are infuriating,   and the poor in the moment decisions had me taking my hair out. Not to mention Vin, for all her paranoia, fell for every single fucking trick that was thrown at her. What was the point there, showing that trust was useless? She didn't trust a single person that had been there for her, and chose the weird stranger that looked like her boyfriend. Tindwyl was done absolutely dirty in the book, along with some of the other major players from book one. It wasn't that they died, it was that they had a POINTLESS death. Again, I am so frustrated. Because I love the world, the characters, and the lore., and I WILL finish this series. But I don't like Vin and I don't like the decisions.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, Blood, Slavery, Mental illness, Death, War, and Genocide

Minor: Child death

sh543's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Slavery, Murder, War, Genocide, and Blood

aseel_reads's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

4.0

I really liked this a lot but God, was it slow and long. If it wasn't for that, the plot was super interesting and intricate and the world was well built 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Violence, War, and Death

Minor: Classism, Rape, Child abuse, Genocide, Sexual assault, and Slavery

beckycarter97's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Death, and War

Moderate: Blood, Genocide, and Addiction