Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

32 reviews

porcupine_girl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Self harm, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Dysphoria

Minor: Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, and Fire/Fire injury

musebeliever's review against another edition

slow-paced

1.0

I really wanted to enjoy this book, but I could not get on board with too many things. The book is clearly not for me, and some aspects were too flawed for me to get into the story. 

I really liked the idea of the two protagonists being swapped at birth and was curious about how it would play out in their lives. However, I was not at all on board with the magic system relying on a biological element. This has big chosen one and essentialism vibes, which I just could not deal with. 

I also struggled with the writing style and the characterisation. The fact that we are privy to every single thought created, in my opinion, very unidimensional characters. Despite this shower of information, some of Sylah's actions just do not make sense to me, and too much of the plot relies on Sylah's poor choice or negligence. I can understand this happening once or twice, but how am I to believe that we are in the presence of the person who will overthrow an empire. This did not work for me. 

I found everything very bleak, which makes sense for a dystopia, but also extremely heavy-handed. This read like YA to me, which is not my favourite writing style. The clues as to where the plot is going are underlined and surrounded by blinking lights. 

I was also taken aback by the inconsistence in tone.  There is a moment in the book when Sylah reminisces her tragic past while she watches the new tyrants of the Empire being chosen. She looks at one of them and thinks, "68 never looked so good." This sounded taken out of a gossip instagram reel commenting the Met gala. It felt really out of place. There were many moments like this when I was thrown off by sudden tone changes that did not match the atmosphere of a chapter. It feels like the book has not been edited.

Finally, fatphobia and foodshaming are frankly painful to read and so unnecessary. Sylah calls Anoor the lump, foodshames her, finds her dresses ridiculous because they are big. She seems to justify her fatphobia because she thinks that Anoor is fat because she is rich and privileged. This does not seem to be coherent as Anoor is mocked by her peers. The author also depicts her as a bit silly. Someone who chooses her seat in a room to have a better view on the dishes that are being served. We are clearly supposed to find that funny. Let's be serious one minute.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Toxic friendship

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Vomit, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Bullying

chroniquesdekellen's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

thethingwithfeathers's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

tardisbookcat's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, and Classism

kylosten'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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Xenophobia, and Classism

Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Genocide, Gun violence, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

ewinnk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

arguhlincozzi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

5.0

I loved this book! A map was at the heart of the story (a geographer's fav), critical discussions about justice and how to achieve it, plus more twists and turns than I anticipated! So excited for book two!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Death of parent, and Abandonment

kathyreadsalot's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

4.0

*Spoilers!* So I was a bit skeptical about this when I started. It is definitely heavy with very early mentions of

slave labor, torture, maiming, child abuse and whipping/beatings etc

and the overall like tone of how the kingdom hierarchy is set up is brutal. It can a bit gory in parts as well. 

What I liked: the overall story has promise and it was intriguing enough for me to finish; the LGBTQ+ representation, the political intrigue, the plot twists at the end and the character development of Sylah, Anoor and Hassa. I am definitely looking forward to reading Book 2 because i am keen to see how the story progresses. 

What I didn’t like: the pacing of the middle part of the book was a bit too slow at times especially during the training scenes with Anoor and Sylah, how Anoor’s weight was treated at times, and that we didn’t get equal treatment of Hassa’s storyline vs Anoor & Sylah. 

If you are not in the mood for oppresive and violent government regimes as part of the story lines, I would say skip this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Murder, and Toxic friendship