Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

La Cité de Laiton by S.A. Chakraborty

30 reviews

linluvsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Fun and adventurous and well written. 
Many complex themes are explored and the perspectives of several sides are presented. This is a smart book, more than an adventurous romp (which would’ve been great as well). 
I keep telling myself not to fall into any more trilogies but then I return to fantasy and they’re inevitable… 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death, Racial slurs, Racism, Physical abuse, Trafficking, Slavery, Classism, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Religious bigotry, and Police brutality

Minor: War, Addiction, Hate crime, Infidelity, Cursing, Infertility, Kidnapping, and Self harm

bookishfaye's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/5 I can feel in my bones that this series is going to be groundbreaking for me 

🍂 positives:
- I love all of the characters and how complex they are & the dynamics between them all!

Nahri is such a bad bitch, Ali is so intriguing & his dynamic with Nahri makes my heart go pitter patter, Ali’s dad Ghassen honestly gives me president snow vibes if he had like a shred of empathy?? & his intensity is so wild & his almost cat and mouse game with Nahri is everything, I NEED to know more about Dara he is such an intriguing character, & also Ali’s brother!!! Is queer!!!!????? We love to see it!!

- the world is so interesting & vivid & the magic system is so unbelievably cool & unique
- I love where the storyline is going & how this set up the next book is absolutely *chefs kiss*
- I love how easily digestible this writing style was

🍂 negatives:
- the beginning 1/3 of this book felt a tad info dumpy on Ali’s perspectives,

I really didn’t comprehend his entirely until he was with Nahri like halfway through the book.

I did really enjoy Nahri’s POV’s though!
- the pacing throughout the middle chunk of the book did feel quite slow at times & almost took me out of it here and there

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Violence, Colonisation, Classism, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, War, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, and Sexual violence

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

isleoflinds's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Toxic relationship, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, War, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Rape, Xenophobia, Body horror, Gore, Genocide, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Animal death, Colonisation, Incest, Sexual content, Torture, Infertility, and Infidelity

macknificent's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious 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

3.0

It's not a great book but there was some fun to be had.  Very much high fantasy with training wheels, especially entertaining if the reader is coming from a romance background. 

I was fine with only reading one of the books until I got to the very end, now I'll need to read the next entry in the trilogy. I'm not mad it's just a rather cliche trick to pull. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Xenophobia, War, Slavery, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Misogyny

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Grief, Infidelity, Islamophobia, Cancer, Confinement, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

kueki's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, War, Blood, Violence, Slavery, Racism, Torture, and Genocide

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, Vomit, and Death of parent

emilyplun's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

(warning for very general spoilers, nothing specific)

I loved the world/setting, but the book overall left me frustrated. The whole story is full of "mysteries," but half of those are the main character just not knowing the basic workings of the magical world or its society, or an event in magical history that every other character is aware of. There are a lot of "who's behind this event?" mysteries too, but it's hard to get into that when the reader is only given a tiny trickle of info about how anything works. The ending was frustrating-- many mysteries weren't solved (which is fine) but a few that were solved weren't satisfying, and then more questions were introduced. I felt like I was drowning in things I didn't understand. As a reader, I wanted to know at least the basic facts that are relevant to a situation (like how x magic works, what happened during x event that everyone keeps referring to), even if the main character doesn't know.
This is really unfortunate since I love the world-building and the basic plotline. I might have to read the plot somewhere and intentionally spoil myself so I can read the sequels.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Hate crime, Medical content, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, and Trafficking

Minor: Rape and War

cameronreads'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? No

5.0

Y'all this book! I haven't read a book with such a complex cast and plot in a while. The characters were so immensely developed; each with their own complex backstory and motivations, all of which were thoroughly believable. The worldbuilding was amazingly done, and the politics and history was rich without being too complicated or hard to read. I loved the writing and the plot, and was completely gripped from the moment I read the first sentence to the epilogue. It was incredibly unique, unpredictable, and exciting. I did have a slight issue with the ancient immortal x young woman trope, as well as the mild queerbaiting (which I hope will be confirmed in the sequel), but otherwise I adored this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Torture, and War

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Child death, Cursing, and Slavery

_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

marissaboone's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

A solid mix of slow paced, political challenges and quick adventure.  I couldn't put it down truthfully and found myself rooting for all the characters despite their differences and rivalries. Excited to read the next novel in S.A. Chakraborty's trilogy!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood, Child death, Death, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Rape, and Murder