Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Justice of Kings by Richard Swan

7 reviews

fran's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Excrement, Alcoholism, Death, Body horror, Child death, Medical content, Death of parent, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Grief, Kidnapping, and Sexism

_qwert's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Death, Genocide, Torture, Slavery, Murder, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, War, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism

Minor: Racism

kingcrookback's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

This took a bit to get into. It's is an interesting consideration of justice, morality, and power. As a lawyer, Swan is clearly invested in the exploration of these themes. The conceit of the story being told via the recollections of the protagonist in the distant future was an interesting choice in that it prompts curiosity as to what happens in this book that warrants keeping a record of it. But I found that sometimes that compulsion to keep reading was offset by wondering, "To what end?" Transcription and the recording of events is a running motif in the plot, but the fact that I kept getting distracted by what might be happening outside of the story - by what possible event, outside of the story we're actively following, prompted Helena to commit everything to paper - detracted from my engagement with the actual story. Even when I was engaged with the story, though, I found myself feeling somewhat detached from the main cast of characters, though that may just be an effect of the temporal distance of the older Helena's recollections.

I'll pick up the sequel because I'm curious as to where this all goes, but I'm not dying to find out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Grief, Animal death, War, Confinement, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Rape, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, and Child death

blacksphinx's review

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, War, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Moderate: Colonisation, Confinement, Vomit, Torture, Xenophobia, Fatphobia, Grief, and Kidnapping

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Child death

dogearedbooks's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Death of parent and Confinement

Minor: Violence, Torture, Rape, Kidnapping, War, Grief, and Sexual assault

emilyacres's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Colonisation, and Blood

Moderate: War, Grief, and Sexual violence

Minor: Ableism and Child death

ideal_casie's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Violence, Death, Gore, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism and Mental illness

Minor: Child death and Grief