Reviews tagging 'Child death'

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

105 reviews

maisiemcauley's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Such a good opener 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, Slavery, and Child abuse

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? No

4.0

 - I am extremely late to the AN EMBER IN THE ASHES party but whew I am here and this book is GOOD.
- I didn't expect it to be quite as dark as it is, but once I adjusted to that, I couldn't turn the pages fast enough.
- Given that this book is from 2015, there are some YA tropes that are a bit tired now (she didn't know she was beautiful, a love triangle, etc.) but I was invested in the world nonetheless. Can't wait to read the rest of the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Torture, Bullying, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Classism, Confinement, Kidnapping, Medical content, Slavery, Physical abuse, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Rape

griffinthief's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Blood, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Vomit and Trafficking

bookish_kori's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

3.5

The book has a ton of high quality commentary and, though I’m not quite sure it’s in line with the booktok hype, the premise is really interesting and I’m excited to see if it gets better as the series progresses. Overall I felt it had a really strong beginning and a fairly strong ending with a lull in the middle. The focuses on the complexities of motivation, nature v. nurture, questioning those in power and their methods, and being close to people who end up forming completely different opinions and views of the world than you was super in-depth and a great read. The fact that *both* POV characters somehow required a love triangle and the way those relationships developed throughout the first book was off-putting for me, but I may be alone in that. I will be reading the rest of the series and I’m sure these characters will more than exceed my expectations from here :) 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Abandonment, Pregnancy, Rape, Trafficking, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Abortion, War, and Confinement

If you read modern YA or NA fantasy, this isn’t really out of line with that. Check out specific trigger warnings because there are a few that are more unique to this book than others but overall I’d say if you’ve read Stalking Jack the Ripper, Throne of Glass, A Good Girls Guide to Murder, or anything like that then this won’t be much of a stretch. Some of my trigger warnings were a little bit like “oh yeah this happened” but I didn’t notice it at the time as that thing. Specific events:

there’s a child whipping/execution, a description of an attempted abortion and subsequent abandonment of the infant, semi-detailed description of torture involving a knife, and two fairly detailed descriptions of loved ones being murdered (also involving blades)

It’s dark of course but not horrendous.

kkenna7's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

Good enough to make me wanna read book two, especially in the last third of it. Helene is an absolute nightmare of a character but I suppose that's on purpose so who can be mad, really. Curious to see how the rest of the series turns out!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Classism, Murder, Physical abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Sexual harassment, and Slavery

karapillar's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Stalking, Sexual assault, Blood, Emotional abuse, Death, Child death, Child abuse, Torture, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Vomit, Violence, Trafficking, Slavery, Murder, Kidnapping, Racism, Abortion, Confinement, Death of parent, Abandonment, Xenophobia, Rape, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Pregnancy

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

kinsportch's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Slavery, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Trafficking, Sexual harassment, Rape, Gore, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Classism, and Colonisation