Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick

24 reviews

dragonflight's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective 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: Racial slurs, Classism, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Blood, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Slavery, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Vomit, Cursing, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Kidnapping, Police brutality, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

weareinheritors's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

This is a very dense book with a lot of phenomenal worldbuilding. It takes nearly half the book before the actual main plot kicks in, then it gets really fast-paced and chaotic. 

I'm really excited to see how the threads that were spun in the final 10% of the book are addressed in the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Drug use, and Violence

Moderate: Stalking, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, and Trafficking

Minor: Incest, Rape, and Cannibalism

cardanrry's review against another edition

challenging funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Classism, Kidnapping, Murder, and Child abuse

Moderate: Addiction and Grief

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Death of parent, and Incest

aklovekorn's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Confinement, Death, Grief, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Blood, Child abuse, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, and Violence

soniajoy98's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Violence, Cursing, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Drug use

Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racism, Child death, Gore, and Murder

Minor: Kidnapping, Rape, Sexism, Police brutality, Slavery, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

strange_little_ranger's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Medical content, Physical abuse, Animal death, Blood, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Drug use, Toxic friendship, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Murder

booksthatburn's review

Focused on descriptions of what everyone is wearing, too visual for me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Vomit, Blood, Child abuse, Violence, Murder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Death

miraclesnow's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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? Yes

5.0

~Reread May 6-20 2023~

I love everything about this book.

 It has it all: The perfectly balanced court politics, well made worldbuilding with its very distinct and important differences in religion and culture of the two major peoples living in the city (so much so even their types of magic are wildly different), THE CHARACTERS (Ren, Vargo, Leato, Serrado, Tess, Sedge) UGH my babies who are so flawed but deserve all the success in the world, the mysteries and lies being so interconnected to the bone & sinew of the world itself, the magic being so unique and even tarot (aka pattern) having its own life in the story. A reread lets you understand the card readings explain exactly what’s going on in the future and that fighting fate only helps if you know what hand you’re being dealt. 

This book also is dripping with atmosphere. The authors knew exactly what they wanted to portray and did so with such style and so little flaws it’s the closest book other than The Last Unicorn and Howl’s Moving Castle that I call perfect for me.

This reread has solidified it as my favorite adult fantasy, and if not one of my favorite books of all time. Read this with some friends and a MILLION out of ten, would recommend.

If you’ve read this review and my ravings, please try this book out. It deserves way more love. 

I can’t wait for The Labyrinth’s Heart release! Thanks Marie & Alyc for making this series, so we can see the face and not the mask 💙

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~Original review~

Wow, a wild ride that I’m in it for the long haul. The authors managed to surprise me more than once, and the character work is delectable. A very soft magic political drama, with amazing multi-POV scenes that blend it extremely well to each other.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Colonisation, Classism, Death of parent, and Violence

szuum's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child abuse, Classism, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, Sexual content, and Police brutality

spacewhombus's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

5.0

AHHH THIS WAS AMAZING! It has been a while since I have been so drawn in by a new series!!! Immediately got the second book because I don’t want to leave this world yet, even after 700 pages :(

And that’s because the world building was incredibleeeee, like it started off a bit slow but the story kept building layers upon layers and really drew me in very quickly without being overwhelming, despite the complex religious systems and magic. Although the whole story takes place in one city, Nadežra, there was such a rich variety of neighborhoods and groups of people there that it felt much bigger than that!

The main characters came from both the privileged nobility and the struggling indigenous population, and this book explored a lot of the effects of colonialism and wealth, and the blurred lines between good vs. evil and doing things for others vs. doing them for yourself. 

Ren was my favorite, she was so creative and smart and I loved reading about her relationship with her siblings, as well as trying to figure out how she would handle all the twists and turns her character was thrown. Vargo was another favorite character of mine, and I won’t spoil anything but let’s just say I am DYING to learn more about what’s going on with him in the next book! The authors wrote this whole society as very LGBTQ+ friendly as well, and there are queer characters all over the place without that being the only facet of their identity.  

There were many smaller side plots alongside the main storyline, and quite a few mysteries as well- my heart STOPPED when I got to the last chapter because of the reveal of the Rook, omg. Again no spoilers but I did not see that coming! The authors are great at keeping your interest while slowly unraveling the overall mystery and pulling the loose ends together into one larger storyline. 

If you like books with a lot of political intrigue and drama, you would love this! There was so much going on, it never got boring.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence and Colonisation

Minor: Drug use