Reviews with content warning for Torture - Dark Rise

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Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

42 reviews

dododenise's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.25

Damn, this book really won me over. It was slow to start with and I needed to take my time with it, but with each new chapter I was pulled into this world more. By the end I just wanted to keep reading, get to know these characters even better and see their relationships develop. All the relationships of the main characters are so interesting. It took me one to two scenes for me to be on board with a certain dynamic and craving for more. It was masterfully done.
The twists and turns of the story kept me on my toes and I can’t wait to see where it will go.
Now I desperately want to continue reading.

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onthesamepage's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.0

I spent 80% of this book thinking about how slow paced it was, how much it followed the standard good vs evil, light vs dark plotlines that we've all seen a million times before, how the writing and the characterizations were uneven, and how much I really dislike instalove. Our main character has the personality of mashed potatoes (bland and inoffensive) except for those moments where he is suddenly either charismatic and charming, or kind of ruthless. It almost gave me whiplash trying to keep up with how often Will changed to suit the plot. But the last 20% was a trip with twists that I did not see coming, and that makes me very curious to see where this series goes.

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littletiramisu's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

Good LORD! The ending just BLEW MY MIND. I need a sequel!! I cannot live without a sequel!!! Omg omg omg!

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bugcollector's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

what is this bs
and when is the next one coming out 👹😀

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freckled_frog_boi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.5

I had really high hopes for this one because it was set in old London, with a magical world hidden from the eyes of humans, and an ancient war the main characters are thrust into. Plus, we have some queer and poc rep!

However, it felt lacking on quite a few levels. Maybe because it's a YA novel, and I just didn’t check the genre beforehand? Idk. But I believe YA could be good if it were written well; this book was… not.

First of all, do you know the miscommunication trope? It felt like the author was miscommunicating to the readers the whole time. Yes, there was foreshadowing, but it was to lead us all in a different direction, only for the author to “plot twist” us all in the last 50 pages. While some foreshadowing worked for both storylines, the original wrong one and the plot-twist right one, there was no way we could have seen the twist coming, which is the opposite of the whole point of foreshadowing, I feel.

The author also had the mc spout monologues to explain what was going on, as if the mc just ~Knew~ what was going on the whole time. And even though we were in his POV most of the time, there were no hints as to what he actually knew.

AND THERE WAS NO HUMOR??? Literally, the only two funny parts were unintentional. It was not meant to be funny, but it was too absurdist not to chuckle. PSA! WE NEED MORE HUMOR IN FANTASY! PLEASE!

Also, it tried to follow the trope of having all MC parents be dead/abusive so they wouldn’t hold the heroes back from their adventure. It felt overdone and didn’t help me get into the novel. I felt like rolling my eyes.

For example, the author made a POC character, only to

have her adopted parents be racist and abusive in order to force her into a hero’s journey. And then it was never discussed again.

Being Indian isn’t a plot device; it's part of her character, and I wished there was more fleshed out for her. She was also described as boyish/manly, which I didn’t appreciate. Not simply because she was the only POC character as far as I could tell, but because

she trains to become a strong fighter, and her “manliness” is given as one of the reasons she’s interested in swords and learning to fight. You can be feminine and like swords, goddammit. She doesn’t need to be masculine to like sword fighting!

Second of all, the queer rep was disappointing. We don’t really get a hint that Will, our MC, is bi until he

kisses a girl who I’m pretty sure is his cousin. Gross. And it’s not explained away. Later, when we realize he somehow knew the truth the whole time, none of the characters even blink once about it. It’s just not addressed.

Prior to him

kissing his cousin,

we are lead to think he’s gay; given what we are told, he appreciates other people’s “boyish” looks. To me, it felt like his attraction to women was just a plot point to build a single point of unidentifiable foreshadowing. It was not written to be a part of his character. Which sucks.

Another weird thing for me was reading the POVs of the women in the book. They all had an underlying tone that they had crushes on Will. There was no reason that needed to be in there. Like the author could have just written it, so that wasn’t the case. Idk why they chose to do that; there was no point in us reading about a bunch of women crushing on, who we thought, was a gay man. It’s just uncomfortable.

And finally! The gay romance. Firstly, the only queer romance in here was between MLM, white, pretty boys. Which is OK to have in a book, those types of characters can be wonderful. But this story wrote all of them as being extremely powerful but extremely submissive, which is just another form of harmful representation. And all of the gay romances are highly sexualized, down to stabbing scenes containing crazy sexual subtext. It made me extremely uncomfortable to read, and that’s REALLY saying something bc I like a good horny romance. This is just not a good horny. Rip.

I don’t know. With how this book was explained, I was hoping to see more of a variety of queer rep, at least healthy queer rep!

It just didn’t feel well done. Sorry guys!

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ibjilln's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-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? No

1.0

I don't think I've been more bored reading a book than I have been while reading this one. The narration was so dry 5 chapters felt like 20.

I was so frustrated while reading this, the premise was promising, and there were elements that typically make a great fantasy read for me, but this just wasn't it and I wanted it to be so bad that I kept going. I finished it, unfortunately.

It's been made clear to me after the fact that this is apparently the first installment of a series, but I can guarantee this one is staying in the proverbial grave for me.

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