Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

24 reviews

lolajh'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A BEAUTIFUL lesbian slow burn romance

(first kiss isn’t until after page 400)

between a princess and her maidservant, set in India and depicting the varieties of Indian cultures, histories, stories, and morals from different regions. And plant magic! The main characters’ corruption into morally grey characters was perfectly illustrated, creating a lot of tension and pining and unsaid thoughts between them that gave me butterflies a couple times. Their chemistry and love and developing trust for each other leads to the pair discovering and learning to love all parts of each other. They are perfect. Loved seeing some women experiencing rage and revenge and strength, especially Malini, the princess, who proved to not be the “pathetic” person women in royalty is often portrayed to be like and rather someone wanting to overthrow her brother, the emperor, for the good of her empire and people. Both Priya and Malini are such unique and independent people on their own outside of their relationship, which makes their story so special and enjoyable to read. Priya has to learn to control and manipulate her powers well enough in order to fight, (would love to see some training scenes with her and Bhumika in the next book to see her develop her fighting style) and Malini has to stand up for herself after being a doormat walked on for a lot of her life.

That forest scene where they’re surrounded and Priya circles Malini trying to protect her? SO GOOD. And then Malini proving her own power by manipulating the attackers, overcome by rage and wanting to avenge her empire from the rebels so much that she puts both of them in danger and no longer being under Priya’s protection really showed her character that I ended up truly loving. And then every single kiss scene between them is perfect - the imagery and descriptions of what each of them are thinking and doing gave me butterflies! Like the waterfall scene was perfect, as well as the scene in the tent at the end, and when they’re in the woods kissing in front of everyone and not caring about who sees. Even before they confess their feelings when Priya is still her maidservant, her being company to Malini as she gets sicker and holds her hand and washes her and tells her stories FUCK.

And when they are together, boy are they just perfect: the face touches, breathing each other’s name, forehead touches, just everything is so pure and wonderful. And despite Priya’s overwhelming strength that could overpower Malini easily, she NEVER hurts her, even when Malini is hurting Priya. She cannot bring herself to ever harm her. This book BREAKS ME.

And that ending????? Priya becoming a thrice-born elder of Ahiranya and Malini the Prijat empress? These women are powerful as FUCK. Especially Malini just becoming empress when her brother refuses, god I love her.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, Xenophobia, Body horror, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Grief, Lesbophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Terminal illness, Violence, Homophobia, Medical content, Slavery, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Blood, Gore, and Torture

mjwhitlock18's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

A powerful sapphic South Asian-inspired high fantasy with morally grey complex characters, political machinations, badass women, and nature magic, which ticks basically every box for me, and I soooo wanted to love this. 

I had trouble getting started and definitely feel that the plot lagged at points, which affected my ability to get connected to the story. I also think this one almost has the feeling of a prequel, like this book exists solely to set up the next one, which leaves it feeling a bit lackluster. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, and Addiction

Moderate: Homophobia, Pregnancy, and Misogyny

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Chronic illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Blood, Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Xenophobia, Classism, and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Domestic abuse, Vomit, Sexual content, Homophobia, Gore, and Suicidal thoughts

freya_amber's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Confinement, Death, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Sexism, and Violence

Moderate: War, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Grief, and Genocide

Minor: Suicide attempt and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

bisexualwentworth's review

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

3.5

I really enjoyed this book. I just didn’t love it as much as I wanted to.

The worldbuilding is fantastic. I loved the way the different cultures played off of each other. The plant magic was intriguing. The different creation myths were fascinating. The use of language and geography and food was rich and realistic.

And Priya and Malini’s relationship was such a strong centerpiece to this book. I loved how they played off of each other, and I loved how balanced their relationship felt even though one of them always had more power than the other.

The pacing was rough at times. I know this is a controversial opinion, but I didn’t like all of the extra character POVs. I don’t think they added anything, and in fact I think that repeatedly meeting minor characters and getting a chapter from their POV

only for them to die at the end of that chapter

ruined the book’s momentum and made those scenes much less impactful than they would have been from the perspective of Priya, Malini, Bhumika, Rao, or Ashok. 

Also, why did no one warn me that the magical cure trope was such a big part of this book? It’s an ableist trope that I’ve definitely seen handled worse but that certainly wasn’t handled well in this book, and I’m disappointed in the dozens of reviewers I’ve seen recommending this book for the sapphic romance without mentioning any other aspect of it.

Overall, I would still recommend this book, and I look forward to the sequel, but I wish I’d loved it more.

EDIT: Looking back on this book a year after reading it, I still think that the characters and the worldbuilding are fantastic. However, my interest in reading the sequel has dropped to almost nothing because this book put me off of high fantasy for several months with how rough the pacing and use of point of view were. I know that this is an unpopular take on this very popular book, and that's fine. I just found it to be such a struggle that I honestly would not recommend it to anyone who pays a lot of attention to craft and pacing issues while reading. If you're only there for the sapphic aspect and the interesting lore, you'll definitely like it better.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Pregnancy, and Suicidal thoughts

Additional content warning for immolation because a LOT of women are specifically burned to death in this book and I think it’s important to know that going in.

kathleencoughlin's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

4.0

My final and favorite of last year's sapphic trifecta. The magic system was interesting and the characters were dynamic and complex. Good stuff 👍

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement and Death

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Misogyny, and Xenophobia

Minor: Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

starccato's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Xenophobia, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Murder, Blood, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Alcohol, Violence, Terminal illness, Slavery, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Racism, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Torture, Child abuse, Grief, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent, Abandonment, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, War, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia

booksthatburn's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

I love the worldbuilding, but where THE JASMINE THRONE really shines is in characterization. The various factions are complicated enough to imply tangled motivations and longstanding tensions, but the focus on just a handful of really important characters makes it easier to track. Priya and Malini are the heart of this books, with a few other characters occasionally taking turns in the spotlight as their unique perspectives become relevant. By the time each minor or secondary character gets their chapter they’re already known, so it feels like filling in a missing piece and it makes the whole narrative better.

There was a hugely traumatic event which is a political concern for some characters but a world-shattering transformative event for others. The details of what happened are slowly described throughout the story as they become relevant, sometimes as information someone needs to know and sometimes as catharsis when an affected character talks about what they went through. There’s a lot of grief and pain from that night, bubbling out to shape current events as some want to move on, others want to fix things, and a powerful few want things to keep burning.

A great story and an excellent start to the series, read this for a slow burn sapphic romance with many secrets.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, and Vomit

Minor: Child death

mothie_girlie's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Lesbophobia and Misogyny

Minor: Pregnancy, Vomit, and Suicidal thoughts

troisha's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Confinement, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, and Gore

Minor: Drug use, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Vomit, and War