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Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Sexual content, Torture, Death of parent, Abandonment
Minor: Infidelity, Rape
I liked the characters, they had their archetypes and fleshed-out motivations. Everyone had a secret close to their hearts. They checked off most of your original character questionnaires floating around. Some were likeable, and some were irritating.
What was delivered in the book differed from what was advertised.
The world-building was a mixed bag. The world itself was carefully thought out, with various climates and accurate travel distances. The magic system is straightforward - the magic items will give you a gift but it comes with a consequence. But there was a lot of telling of the lore through the character’s POV. The world is filled with
Was this a well-crafted piece? No. The first-person POV became repetitive sometimes. But I still continued reading and found it comedic at times. One can say that the characters grew on me, especially when
POV: 1st Person (Multiple - Six in Total)
Author’s Trigger Warnings:
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Violence, Blood
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Drug use, Slavery, Alcohol
Minor: Genocide, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Colonisation, Classism
Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder
Moderate: Genocide
Minor: Rape
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Colonisation, War
Moderate: Drug use, Sexual violence
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder
Moderate: Sexual harassment, Colonisation
The story follows six people (the Five Broken Blades of the title journey with an extra character) who have been brought together to commit righteous vengeance upon their king. Over the course of them travelling to meet up and then travelling to get to the king you gradually find out everyone's backstories and motivations, and there is occasional action.
It sets up everyone pretty well. The backstories are mostly compelling and interesting. It's about an even split for sympathetic characters and characters who just seem like bad humans it was hard to muster any empathy for. The writing is very good at evoking who these people are and what motivates them. These people can't decide how much they trust each other so there is a bunch of interpersonal drama.
There is a lot of dark stuff like indentured servitude, genocide and murder. The world is asian inspired and interesting enough. Despite a lot of the book being interpersonal conflicts and character backstory it still feels like it flows smoothly and keeps a fast pace.
I really enjoyed it until the end. Without going into spoilers, the way it ends feels more about setting up the next book than paying off anything from this book. There wasn't much sense of conclusion. So that was a bit of a let down.
I am still left wanting to read the sequel and found this one worth trying even if I would have preferred a more satisfying ending.
Graphic: Murder
Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Minor: Gore, Sexual violence, Medical trauma, Alcohol
Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, Classism
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual content, Blood
Minor: Genocide, Misogyny, Rape, Terminal illness, Grief, Stalking
Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Classism
Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Confinement, Drug abuse, Infertility, Vomit, Police brutality, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol
Graphic: Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Genocide, Misogyny, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Classism
Minor: Animal death, Cursing