Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

43 reviews

judassilver's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, War, Child abuse, Self harm, Death, Blood, and Confinement

Moderate: Child death, Torture, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Vomit

Minor: Suicide and Pandemic/Epidemic

corallydeer's review

adventurous dark hopeful lighthearted mysterious 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

This was a great read! I had heard that Rogerson was a phenomenal writer and I heavily agree after this first foray into her works. I loved her writing style and thought it was a great blend of fairly direct writing with prose-y styles. I loved the characters and the world so much; the banter between the revenant and Artemisia was always a great time and the world they existed in felt so unique and fresh. The beginning felt a bit slow to me, so I was sitting more at a four-star rating for a while, but the second half of the book really picked up and suddenly I felt like I couldn't put it down and now I even want to reread it! The second half quickly shot the book up to a full five-star rating for me and I can't wait to read more of Rogerson's works now!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Moderate: Violence, Child death, and Self harm

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, and Suicide

Death

(the book is about spirits and ghosts so death is a huge part of the overall world and plot)

| Blood

(blood is brought up on multiple occasions and used for things)

| Fire/Fire Injury

(Artemisia has extensive burn scars on her hands that come up frequently through the story)

| Child Death

(some of the spirits depicted in the book are dead children)

| Violence

(there are a number of battles throughout the book)

| Confinement

(Artemisia is confined on multiple occasions when arrested)

| Animal Death

(some animals die here and there as minor details)

| Self Harm

(Artemisia has to cut herself to acquire blood for runes and is depicted throughout the novel not being afraid to singe/burn herself for a purpose)

| Suicide

(Leander's brother committed suicide which is explained in passing)

crystalisreading's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Blood, Violence, War, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Grief, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Minor: Bullying, Animal cruelty, and Suicide

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? No

5.0

5 ⭐ CW: Violence, blood, self-harm, death, suicide mention, immolation 

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson is a YA standalone fantasy. This is the second book I've read by this author, and it didn't disappoint! I wasn't sure what to think at first, but I quickly fell in love. Our MC has PTSD and has disabled hands. I also suspect that she is also neurodivergent and possibly aroace, but these are really just headcanons. 

We follow Artemisia, a novice nun with scars on her hands and the official Creepy Weird Girl of her cohort. When Confessor Leander comes to tests the novices for their placements, the convent is besieged by thralls (people being possessed by spirits), and Artemisia is given a powerful tool called a Saint's Relic containing a Revenant. Spirits are dangerous, and it takes training to be able to control them instead of the other way around, but Artemisia finds that her revenant isn't so bad. 

I loved the relationship between Artemisia and the Revenant. Because of her PTSD, Artemisia is disconnected to her body, so it takes having the revenant inside her I'm order for her to do self-care such as feeding herself, sleeping, and drinking water. The revenant reminds her that her body also carries her and she should take care of it. The Revenant had great growth. It was sarcastic, cranky, and sassy, but a good compliment to Artemisia. I found the foil of the character Leander to be fascinating as well. He seemed to be a mirror, if flawed, to Artemisia. The twist came out of nowhere! I never expect it, and it was wonderful (well, not for the characters 😆) 

I loved seeing a world with so many powerful women, especially in a religious sense. Even their god is a Lady. Many powerful nuns. Don't mess with nuns.  We get a lot of themes about consent, especially in regard to binding spirits and using them. It was a great magic system, and I wish I could stay in the world a little bit longer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Self harm, Death, and Blood

Minor: Suicide

vagorsol'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Self harm

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, and Violence

Minor: Suicide

sonygaystation's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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

4.5

The character growth in this book was so *chef’s kiss*!!! Also the revenant has my whole heart

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Abandonment, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Blood and Death

Minor: Child death, Grief, Gore, Suicide, and Body horror

celinbean's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

margaret rogerson truly loves her fearsome powerful and petty demons with a weakness for humans and you know what? So do i. 

it was a little predictable but that didn’t really dampen my enjoyment of the whole thing i was giddily waiting for everything i assumed was going to happen to happen and it delivered every time 😌 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Eating disorder

Moderate: Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, and Self harm

aas's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Confinement, Abandonment, Body horror, Violence, War, Grief, and Murder

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious medium-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? Yes

5.0

I think I just love Margaret Rogerson stories and characters. 
This one is much darker than Sorcery of Thorns, but I loved the atmosphere so much. The story takes place in a France inspired fantasy world that reminded me a lot of the atmosphere in A Plague Tale (just with ghosts/demons instead of rats). I also loved the characters with all my heart. Artemisia, the traumatized nun with social anxiety and a penchant for self sabotaging, and the Revenant, an ancient, grumpy demon that wants to kill everyone, are just a great pair. Their banter is the best and the way their "relationship" develops is so wholesome. Also, amazing side characters, character dynamics and character development in general. And it never gets boring, the plot progresses at a constant pace and although you see a lot of things coming, there are still some unexpected twists. 
There was some really interesting discussion about the masses idolizing/worshiping a person and basically making them a symbol for their religion and how this affects this person. 
I'm actually sad to leave this world behind. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Child abuse, Confinement, Eating disorder, Blood, Death, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Violence, and War

Minor: Bullying and Grief

jenniferwong's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Self harm and Blood