Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

La Cité de Laiton by S.A. Chakraborty

20 reviews

booksofaim'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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual content and Child abuse

errie's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Blood, Death, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Trafficking, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, War, Child death, Genocide, and Child abuse

ellenisntcool's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

The first 20% and last 20% had me hooked, I really enjoyed it. It was the middle the really dragged this down, as I felt confused about which tribe hates which and the conflicts that were happening.

And not to mention the romance. It really came out of nowhere and the whole cave scene could be cut out as to me Dara and Nahri didn't have much chemistry, so it doesn't make sense that after a month of travels that we barely saw they'd almost have sex in said cave.

Overall, it's good if you want a political fantasy set in a historical time period (akin to Poppy War which is much better) then this is good! I'll pick up the second book for sure, but I would recommend reading reviews and borrowing from a library in case you find its not to your tastes.  

(And also, because this is published by Harper Collins and you should support the HarperCollins Union that's still ongoing).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Child death

Moderate: Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

breadwitchery's review against another edition

adventurous 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: Violence, Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Child death, War, and Slavery

Minor: Vomit, Rape, Cursing, Child abuse, Ableism, and Pregnancy

relin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Medical trauma, Slavery, Violence, Religious bigotry, Racial slurs, Kidnapping, Grief, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Murder, Medical content, and Genocide

Moderate: Classism, Colonisation, Hate crime, War, Outing, Alcohol, Cursing, and Self harm

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, and Xenophobia

poppywarphan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

Nahri accidentally calls a djinn or Daeva as he prefers to call himself. He finds out she is a shafit (has Daeva blood) and is the last descendant of a powerful family of Daeva healers. There are dangerous creatures after her, so he takes her on a journey to Daevabad, (a magical city hidden from the human world) her family's ancestral home. This journey takes up quite a large portion of the book. I wouldn't call it boring, but it definitely dragged on compared to the rest of the book. When they finally arrive to Daevabad is when the good stuff starts. I'm talking really good shit 😌. The worldbuilding is stunning and characters complex. There's also a short glossary at the end, which helped me keep up with the terms. Definitely need to buy the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Medical content, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Death

Minor: Alcohol, Child death, War, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Slavery, and Trafficking

mscalls's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Colonisation, Death, Drug use, Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Religious bigotry, Torture, War, Genocide, Gore, Grief, and Medical content

kyladenae94's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

we do love djinni & political intrigue & morally complex characters & mutual pining & zealous young idealists & con artists & ~lies~. 

all of that. 
we love it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Trafficking

Minor: Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Xenophobia

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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

5.0

THE CITY OF BRASS is a fantasy balanced on a knife's edge, with a prince and a con artist working at occasionally-aligning purposes in a city filled with djinn and Daeva, with the partially human underclass just trying to survive.

This generally avoids infodumps by making sure that, when exposition is necessary, it comes in the form of telling someone information that’s truly new to them. Sometimes that’s a briefing for an unfamiliar situation, other times it’s a story around the fire. A lot of these explanations happen early on, and it seemed like a bit much at first (there are a lot of tribes, for one), but the main narrative only demands consistent recognition of three or four tribal names so it wasn't overwhelming once the story got going. The two main characters have very different lives and knowledge bases, and that works together to give the reader a fuller picture of the world and the secondary characters. 

I love the political wrangling and intrigue. Ali is pretty blunt, surrounded by much more subtle players with complicated aims, and there are a few places where people use insider terms to tell him what’s going on but he doesn’t realize that a double meaning is involved. Later when Mahri becomes immersed in it she's a much savvier player with the information she does have, and I'm looking forward to how she handles things as the the trilogy progresses. I love heists and thieves, so having Mahri the con artist as a protagonist is a treat. She's self confident but wary of the situation, and that blend of prowess and uncertainty is truly delightful. There's something great about taking a person highly skilled in one arena and dropping them into a wholly different one that brings out their known and unknown strengths in intriguing ways. Dara isn't a point of view character, and I think that's because he knows too much to be a good narrator. The story is so much richer for his presence, but he's stingy with information, doling it out only when he thinks Mara needs to know something, which is often well after he's acted on the knowledge. This leaves her to pick up the pieces each time, in turns fond of and exasperated by him as he drifts in and out of the scene.

The ending is rather shocking, managing grief and triumph as Mahri and Ali have to deal with sudden changes in the last chapters. It's not a twist of plot as much of the inevitability of consequence, as things that had been a little bit wrong for a while suddenly get out of control. I'm excited for the next one, I need to know what happens now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Torture, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Grief, Xenophobia, Racism, Colonisation, Genocide, Child abuse, Child death, Slavery, Mental illness, Drug abuse, Self harm, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Antisemitism, Excrement, and Rape

CW for major character death (graphic).

_savannahreads_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Grief, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Rape and Terminal illness