Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Malice by John Gwynne

3 reviews

missgarceau's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

3.5

I just really didn’t have a particularly fun time reading this tbh.

Had I checked content, I would have skipped it entirely.

Definitely do not recommend going in blind.

I did well with the prose, and overall plot and character development.

It’s only book 1- so there’s plenty left to be developed. That’s a given.
Like all big epics- I was mentally prepared for the information overwhelm. The amount of characters could give Wheel of Time a run for its money. 

I was disappointed in the strategies and political plots. Felt very “made for TV” and typically why I avoid political plots, in general.

A part of me felt like this was the typical “dude fantasy” that I avoid at all costs. I’m not entirely sure that’s inaccurate.

But, I still binged the shit out of it- and immediately dove into the second book. Guess that means I didn’t complete hate it. It’s complicated.

Commentary re CW:

The animal brutality was just sooooo unnecessary and I’m pretty sure NO ONE WANTS THAT!!! It was… a LOT! And the sound effects were just insult to injury. I wanted to DNF and chuck the entire thing sooooo many times. But people I trust have convinced me to carry on.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Abandonment

ladybugwrites's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I came into this book expecting, well, better... I heard about it from people whose opinion on books I value due to other recommendations and books I like that they like, but I'm left disappointed. It's starts slow, kind of interesting but nothing much happenes. And it starts with what I'd call beginner's mistakes with writing. I'm not saying the writing isn't good, because I did enjoy the book and it was easier to read than some other high fantasy books I've read before. Nevertheless, I spent the first 100 pages commenting on the writing, things that lacked excitement, or tension, or just unecessary uses of the words "then" and "suddenly" which most of the time had me read again.

I decided to try not to focus on that (but as a writer it's hard), and I did actually enjoy the book. It picked up the things I commented on in the beginning and they didn't appear by the second half of the book. I am thankful for that because if it did, I'm not sure I would've made it through.

With that said, the story itself is intriguing and, despite only giving this 3 starts, I will pick up the next book mainly because I want to know what happens to the characters I like and if my countless predictions are correct. As with any intriguing book, it's always nice to know when you've noticed the foreshadowing.

Now, I gave minus one start, maybe some more, due to the annoyance of the writing at the start. But the rest of the minus goes to the dislike of characters, generally. I absolutely adore Corban, and Cywen and most of the people that are part of those POVs. I liked Veradis and Kastell the first few times I read their chapters, btu eventually, I came to be completely indifferent towards them. Even if what their chapters were about, I wanted to skip them, and that is a major downside to a book. I want to be engaged all the way through, I want to want to read every POV, but frankly, only Corban's really made me keep reading. He's also the main reason I'm reading on, because I like him and I want to know what happenes to him next.

I don't actually know if this books is worth picking up. It's definitely intriguing in it's own way, and reminds of Game of Thrones with the intrigues and games played, but it also has some originialty. I do wish, that for once, I could pick up a high fantasy written by a man that isn't also misogynistic (because that is a choice they all make and it's annoying), that said the female characters were well written and I am thankful for that.

I don't know what more to say. Kinda annoyed I didn't like this considering all the five stars, but you can't like everything. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny

jaedia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Sexism, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Genocide, Self harm, Terminal illness, Torture, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury