Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas

74 reviews

jillaay_h's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Colonisation, War, and Classism

samanthaleereads's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence

Minor: Cursing

cheye13's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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 think expectations are absolutely key to enjoying this story. It is a dramatic historical romance with some speculative horror atmosphere. I found this to be a beautiful and nearly perfect story. The setting is so skillfully portrayed that it's seemlessly immersive. The emotions of the leads are nearly tangible. Within a single chapter, my heart ached for these two as if I knew them. And while there is technically a typical romance third-act conflict, it was so well executed, I nearly didn't notice it. An absolutely beautiful story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Racism and Sexism

Minor: Sexual content

crystalisreading's review

adventurous emotional hopeful informative

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

This was great.  As good as that GORGEOUS cover.  I'm a baby about horror, but I didn't find it really scary,  just very atmospheric. Excellent audio narration. Creative vampires.  Great treatment of violent colonizers and examination of unfair labor practices,  done so smoothly it was a part of the the story,  not a distraction. Has me thinking about the Mexican-American war now.  A book to enjoy but also digest later. Recommended.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual content

condls27's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

5.0

This was such a beautifully atmospheric and angsty story. I loved the parallels between the vampires and the white colonizers and the mix of historical fiction and folklore. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Colonisation, War, and Classism

v_neptune's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

extremely strong start, but from the middle onward it was narratively kind of weak. still enjoyed it though

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

nightmarebees's review

medium-paced

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

4.25

NOTE: don’t go into this expecting full gothic horror. it’s about 20% that, and 80% historical romance. that being said, i THOROUGHLY enjoyed this, and felt like the tone for how spooky it was gonna be was set pretty early on, so i made sure to adjust my expectations, getting more invested in nena and néstor than in potential dread and suspense. 

and boy howdy, what a pair they are. i’m biased personally bc i adore childhood friends to lovers, particularly “childhood friends who had a weird falling out but then reunite and oh no they’re hot.” this is certainly a play on the miscommunication trope, but i honestly feel like it was so well executed to give both characters believable reasons rather than arbitrary angst for the sake of prolonging them getting together. néstor was a stupid 13 year old who thought the man who controlled his life was gonna hurt him and his only friend who could protect him from that was gone. nena especially is valid in feeling abandoned and frustrated with néstor upon his return: from her perspective, even if he thought her dead, he got to run off and cavort in freedom while she had the cage of the eldest daughter built around her. their tension is excellent, the forced proximity on their journey is excellent, their dual POV gives each side so much more depth. 5 stars for the romance.

the horror aspect WAS a bit underwhelming, but it feels to me like that was more of a marketing issue than anything else. i would’ve liked the titular vampires to have more time on page, but i’m not mad at the end result. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and War

Moderate: Colonisation

lefthandlou's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

2.0

I really liked the setting of this story and the lyricism of much of the writing. Other than that, this is just a (bad) love story packaged as a horror story. The titular vampires actually appear very little, and most of the book is just a lot of internal monologuing by the characters, which got really boring really quickly. I feel like more and more books are falling into the “extensively narrate the character’s thoughts” trap, and I’m cranky about it. I also don’t like being bamboozled: this was marketed as a horror book, but it is not. It is 100% a romance with vampire curtains. Could have been a good book, but alas. If romance masquerading as fantasy is called romantasy, what is this? Hormance? Ugh. I was so excited to read this, too. Will still probably give her other book a try. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Blood, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

kaneebli's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse and Sexual content

apple_atcha_reading's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War