Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Final Strife by Saara El-Arifi

87 reviews

talonsontypewriters's review

adventurous dark 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Grief, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Fatphobia, Rape, Vomit, and Pandemic/Epidemic

aurora4847's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

I get the hype behind this series. The balance between political intrigue, action, and character development was perfect. I could not stop listening. It helps that I love the narrators' voices. I'm so excited to continue the series and see where everything is going next!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Racism, Self harm, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Child death, Fatphobia, Gore, Racial slurs, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Eating disorder, Sexual harassment, and War

This book is intense. There is a strong caste system with all the racism and classism that goes along with it. There are 2 public executions described with varying amounts of detail. Multiple characters experience the death of family members (including parents). The magic system is based on blood, so self harm for rituals is common. One caste suffers mutilation as children (process not described, only results). There is police brutality similar to that in the United States. There are flashbacks to child abuse, and multiple characters are involuntarily confined in varying spaces (including solitary confinement). The main character struggles with addiction through the whole story, and there are depictions of drug use, interventions, and withdrawal symptoms.

mlkai's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

spoiled the ending and the beginning kind of dragged but i enjoyed this. i’ll continue the trilogy, not sure if right away though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Alcohol, and Colonisation

richy_qu33r_readzz'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

4.75

Incredible world-building, and strife is right. El-Arifi devises unique but very clear allusions to the social disparities societies create between race, class, disability and how those in power weave history to support their claims and protect the status-quo. The characters are richly developed, interesting, and create new stories while still fitting the “young person take on the empire” trope. 
There are a few inconsistencies in the small details which distracted me, but otherwise a wonderfully consuming read. Can’t wait for the next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Police brutality, and Classism

fanboyriot's review against another edition

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

Read For:

✓ Slow Burn

✓ Queer POC

✓ Grumpy x Sunshine 

✓ Queernormative World 

✓ Interesting Magic System

˗ˏˋ ★ REVIEW ★ ˎˊ˗

Not going to lie this book intimidated me for the longest time, fantasy books with small fonts tend to do that.  However, I really enjoyed this book once I started reading it.  Both the world building and character development were done well.  The queer representation was done so nicely and the topics of addiction were written with care.  It showed addiction in a more realistic light than some books, and showed the cycle of abuse along with recovery.

While it was a little slower in the middle of the book the beginning and end really made up for it.  Overall, the hierarchy of the different colors of blood was such an interesting idea and played well into the plot.

Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️

Angst Level: 💧💧

POV: Third Person 

Release Date: 23, June 2022

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Police brutality, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

raila_h's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Racism, Blood, and Colonisation

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Fatphobia

crybabybea's review against another edition

This will be my biggest disappointment of 2024, damn I was excited for this. 

It was fine, but the world-building was lackluster despite some really cool ideas. Main characters have really unique struggles that made them interesting. I can't get past the heavy exposition dumping, messy writing, and whiplash tone changes. If I were more interested in the plot I would keep going, but I have no interest in reading a training/trials story. Feels uninspired and overdone. Also there's a borderline incest romance happening and I just can't handle that lol

Might pick it up later but I feel myself actively avoiding reading it so I'm giving up for now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Torture, Violence, Blood, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ashley_mrose530's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

This was such a good book. I thought the world was so interesting and different. It took me a little while to understand the differences between each group of people and I even I had to start the first like half hour of the book over so I could make sure I was getting it all, including the POV shifts, but once I understood it, it was such a good read.
I really liked the world building in this book. The three separate blood types making a caste system was intriguing. I really enjoyed that the book played heavily with the fact that you truly don't know someone's blood color just by looking at them so there were many who were able to pretend to be in one caste over the other and as long as they never got an open wound, they would essentially be able to masquerade for as long as they wanted.
I also liked the idea of the blood magic they had

though one of my very first questions was why only the red blood people could do it which ended up being one of the big reveals at the end - in actuality, anyone can do it. I figured this would be the case but I still enjoyed the reveal and how it connected in a way to our real-world history of colonization.

This book has so many obvious parallels to our current world and political climate and that was no accident. It's amazing how much the author was able to fit in this world to make it so similar to ours but so different at the same time. 
I also really liked the portrayal of addiction throughout this book. It was great to see how realistic it was and how Sylah was still dealing with the withdrawal effects even 5 months after quitting cold-turkey. I liked that it wasn't just forgotten about and dropped in the middle like it easily could have been. It was very much routinely brought up and focused on which is a very real issue that addicts deal with. I loved seeing that representation and I hope it continues throughout the series.
Finally, I loved seeing these characters grow throughout this book. Syla goes from being completely hopeless and giving up on herself and the empire, to being inspired and passionate and full of determination to fix the systemic issues within their country and helping the ones who are being oppressed. And Anoor goes from being a very naive and kind of spoiled rich girl to having her eyes opened to how other people are being treated in the government that she was benefitting from and being determined to change it and help them. I hope they both continue to grow and find their own power as the series progresses.
I can't wait to finish reading this series. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that my library doesn't have the other two books so I don't currently have access to the rest of the series. It might be a while before I can finish it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, and Classism

tattooedbibliophile's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Xenophobia

Moderate: Ableism, Slavery, and Blood

Minor: Child abuse, Violence, Suicide attempt, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, and Excrement