Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

88 reviews

kkm88's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Abandonment, Blood, Bullying, Classism, Trafficking, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Suicide, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, War, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Grief, and Genocide

Minor: Racism, Vomit, Rape, Pregnancy, Abortion, and Child death

ktkeps's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Child death, Death, Slavery, Sexual assault, and Abandonment

Moderate: Sexism, Torture, and Bullying

marissasa's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

This book made me love the dystopian genre again, and pulled off the angst and pain iconic to this genre incredibly well while still having believable characters on both the "good" and "bad" sides. I live for characters questioning their morals and their identities, and our main two Laia and Elias were constantly doing this throughout the story. I also loved that despite the harrowing situations they lived through and are still facing in the story's current timeline, they are still teenagers and actually act like it at appropriate times. They may be hardened by the realities of losing their families or being raised as ruthless soldiers, but they still show raw emotions and act based on their feelings, they still long for freedom and try to maintain friendships despite being in situations where self-preservation is more logical. There was also more brutality and violence than I expected in the book but it wasn't without purpose, as it helped define the world that they live in and the harsh reality of the relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. Sabaa Tahir did so well at building tension and having real, meaningful stakes in both Laia's spy mission and in Elias' decisions during the Trials. The last act of the book was particularly great to read, I actually felt my heart pounding at some of the very tense life or death moments and felt satisfied with the ending as it was but engaged enough to be excited for the rest of the series to pick up where it left off. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Violence, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Slavery, Torture, Death of parent, Genocide, Vomit, Blood, Colonisation, Grief, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

merwitch's review against another edition

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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Sexual violence, Child abuse, and Torture

eve_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

Overall Thoughts:
⁕ The character development is strong, especially for the two main heroes. Laila's growth into bravery especially can be well tracked and pinpointed to specific moments. 

⁕ There was a lot of scenes of violence (many of them tied to enslavement and/or sexual harassment). Sometimes these scenes served to aid the plot or character development, but other times they acted as unnecessary shock value.

⁕ Roman history/culture has a decent influence on the world-building. If this is something that interests you, it's pretty obvious but well done!

To read my full review, visit: https://evereads.online
For regular book-related content, follow my Instagram account: @eve_reads  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Child death, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Violence, Slavery, Genocide, Gore, and Torture

scandinavian_queen's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, War, Xenophobia, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Classism, Colonisation, Sexual violence, Genocide, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, and Violence

Minor: Abortion

rillastone's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Death, Murder, and Rape

cgn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

Holy SHIT. I was nervous about picking up a fantasy given how I’d barely just gotten back into reading, but this book gripped me from the beginning so hard that I literally did an all-nighter to finish it the night I started. I haven’t done that in like a decade. Super enjoyable, super memorable, can’t wait to continue the ride with the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Death, Death of parent, Child death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy and Blood

Minor: Torture

faitherslibrary's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, and Rape

allyordyna's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Very well written, extremely fast paced (every chapter was interesting), mature audience

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Rape, and Trafficking