Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

He Who Drowned the World by Shelley Parker-Chan

70 reviews

judythedreamer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

  I had the impression after the first book that Shelley Parker-Chan has difficulties maintaining tone and was proven right, because I just read the most hippie ending to an exceedingly grimdark and trigger-filled book. It's such a weak ending compared to all the existential horror and gore that came before. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, War, Self harm, Infertility, Sexual assault, Dysphoria, Death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Violence, Classism, Bullying, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Gore, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Ableism, Abortion, Body horror, Emotional abuse, and Sexual violence

themdash's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Grief, Infertility, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Ableism, Blood, Sexual assault, War, Death, Body shaming, Sexism, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Rape, Colonisation, and Violence

mcampany's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Slavery, Torture, Homophobia, Infidelity, War, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, and Sexual content

ka_cam's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I don’t know if I’ve read a book with so many complex and tortured relationships to gender. Ambition, sacrifice, autonomy, revenge, regret, grief, sadism and masochism, spirits destroyed and indestructible, actual spirits both benign and lethal… plus conquest and war strategy- a lot happening here. Some parts dragged a little for me but all in all a compelling and thought provoking read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abortion, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Grief, Sexual content, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Sexism, Blood, Misogyny, Violence, War, Murder, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Torture

throwback682's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

As I’ll mention in the content warnings section below, this book is much more triggering and more violent in specific ways than the first book (She Who Became the Sun) in this duology. 

That being said, I couldn’t put it down. I finished this one much more quickly than the first. It was very gripping. The reason I gave it 1/2 star less than its predecessor is just because of the r*pe scenes honestly. 

Re: the title

I wondered if the title of the second book referred to the main character of the first book just with a different pronoun but this book focuses more on a different character, who was in the first book but didn’t play such a major role.

He sort of comes from behind unexpectedly and becomes a major player in this installment.

The backstabbing really gets kicked up a notch in this book too. 

I kind of thought at one point that the book was getting a bit predictable/tired and then OPE THERE’S A TWIST and then WHOOPS ANOTHER ONE. Hang in there. 

The protagonist of the first book continues to beat the odds in unexpected ways as she did before and again it’s spectacular. Also as before, I found myself rooting for and even loving really cruel, dark, awful characters. The author has a talent for coaxing out empathy for the worst baddies. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Grief, Slavery, Sexual content, Ableism, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Self harm, War, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Violence, Pregnancy, Rape, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Abortion, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Torture, Animal death, Body shaming, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Confinement

Minor: Vomit

There is a lot more triggering content in this book than in the first installment of the duology, She Who Became the Sun. Specifically there are multiple rape scenes: - one is marital

as a punishment visited on a wife by her husband

- one is sort of in the context of a gay relationship but

first of all the “relationship” starts off as a manipulation tactic and is coercive and abusive

and secondly

the specific rape scene itself is forcible and in anger.

- another is in the context of a king/consort relationship, which already means consent can’t apply because of the power dynamic, and then

he is purposely trying to hurt her emotionally with the specific rape.

There are also numerous incidents of self harm (many of them are actually perpetrated by someone else, but still falls solidly in the “self harm” category in this context). Like the last book, there is a child who dies -

murdered by a soldier.

He also

has his blood let as proof of life to send to his father to gain his army’s compliance.

I marked both miscarriage and abortion but really it’s neither of those exactly.

A woman is happy about her pregnancy and then another woman gives her poison that ends it without her knowledge or consent.

There’s also someone who has been mutilated.

A servant has her eyes and tongue removed

so that she can be used in a specific way to test someone’s magical powers. There’s also a man who is executed by

being cooked alive in a bamboo steamer.

Yes, the first book was violent and about war and cruelty. But I think this book takes it to another level in several ways. Read with caution.

and_opossum's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Rape, Self harm, Violence, Death, Murder, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Child death, Infidelity, Grief, and Suicide

emrosch's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

It more than just surpassed all of my expectations. All this book did was make me miserable.

It's absolutely brilliant. This entire duology is like nothing I've ever read before. The prose, the characters, the vividness of everything... It's simply phenomenal.

Here's to hoping Shelley Parker-Chan releases more books in the future!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Homophobia, Sexual violence, and War

ysary's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-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

4.5

I loved this book! 
The plot is amazing with a lot of twist and turn where you don't expect it. Seeing all the POV of the different Mandates makes you root for each of them and want to scream at the other when they fall into their traps. It's a very gruesome book with a lot of detailed violence that made me sometime have to take a minute before continuing reading.

In the end I knew I wanted Zhu to win but I had no idea how she would do it, everything was against her. Some of her action where more than questionable and some of them I did not understand but all of it is for the greater good. She scarified so much to get her empire but was it worth it? To me it wouldn't and I love that she also as moments of doubt because I was right there with her.

I usually don't like military books but I could not put this one down because more than armies they  are people and they aren't just fighting for power but for their future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Classism, Death, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, War, Gore, and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual content and Homophobia

Minor: Abortion

dmteralie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I felt conflicted about whether I liked the book the whole way but I found it addicting to listen to. This book is dark and sad pretty much the whole way down. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Torture, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, and War

shibh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

A bittersweet end to the duology. These books look at gender and the human experience of it in a way that has left me feeling exposed and crying. In a good way though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Physical abuse, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Animal death, Homophobia, Body shaming, Classism, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Medical content, Sexual assault, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Murder, Abortion, Confinement, Genocide, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Rape, Lesbophobia, Addiction, Misogyny, Child death, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Gore, Infertility, Pregnancy, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, War, Vomit, Xenophobia, Sexism, Transphobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture