Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey

16 reviews

willow1113's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Emotional abuse, and Medical trauma

maya_mckenzie's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, and Rape

arnoldrm's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.25

I love this book. Very intense world building, complicated characters, dense plot. I love the setting and the alt-history feel. This book is long, but it used every page. I’ve never read anything like it. It takes a very dark premise and treats it with respect. When I realized what the book was about, I almost gave up on it - the main character is sold into sex work as a child, although she doesn’t actually have sex with patrons until she’s of age in the world’s culture. The tone and style make it so that as a reader I never felt like a voyeur, or complicit in the things the protagonist faces. Phedre is one of my favorite fantasy protagonists of all time. It’s not for everyone but to me it’s a masterpiece. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Slavery, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, and Sexual violence

hippievamp's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Sexual violence, War, Rape, Slavery, and Sexual content

Moderate: Pedophilia, Death, Misogyny, Racism, and Adult/minor relationship

vivillini's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

This book is politics, politics, politics. There are DOZENS of characters, family ties, lands, and rivalries you have to keep track of. Also, there are never any mentions of emotions; it’s very cold. I like the prose, but it’s so tedious and with no exciting event on the horizon. Cool world-building, but you’re just swept from one procession to the next. 2 stars for the prose.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, and Adult/minor relationship

chaoticbookgoblin's review

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.25

Listen. This book is a political masterpiece. I loved every second of it. I only marked it down because there were a lot of terms that were made for this book and not real words that never received a definition. I had to pull apart from context what they are and for some of them it took a while. 

I loved the main characters and anguished when they anguished, rejoiced when they rejoiced. The ending was exactly what I expected and I loved every second of it. I felt so much reading this book. It is worth every page of the 900 pages.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

savvypotions's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Slavery, Violence, and War

Minor: Xenophobia and Antisemitism

bkmckown's review

2.0

This book was recommended to me by MANY people. It’s was such a slog to finish. Over 1,000 pages and I would’ve quit if I hadn’t needed it for many of my reading challenges. I’ll start with the positive:

The overall story was fairly interesting. The sexy parts were indeed spicy. That’s about it. 

Now for the stuff I did NOT like:

 Let me preface this to say that I don’t like fantasy that much. Especially the ones who refer to characters in full name, the ones that have names that are difficult to pronounce, the ones that have exotic names for every group of people, location, position, etc

The main character is basically a child who is taught in the erotic arts. HUGE WTF! She’s a sex slave. Her first “master” just enjoys inflicting pain- which part of her “curse” makes it pleasurable to her. I felt like it wasn’t BDSM, but just abuse. Maybe there was a time in my life where I’d find this read enjoyable, but this isn’t it. 

I did give it 2 stars because the author did create and intricate cast of characters and story, but honestly, I would’ve DNF at any other time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Classism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, War, Death, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Cultural appropriation, and Misogyny

lanid's review

adventurous dark mysterious

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Rape, Death, Body horror, War, and Sexual content

Minor: Slavery, Confinement, Xenophobia, Adult/minor relationship, Torture, Religious bigotry, Animal death, Blood, and Classism

zone_a3's review against another edition

adventurous 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

This book is a political intrigue, erotica, epic fantasy.  In that order.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, War, Death of parent, and Torture

Moderate: Trafficking, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Rape

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Abandonment