Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Clockwork Boys by T. Kingfisher

6 reviews

tays_books's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Death

Moderate: Misogyny, Alcohol, and Animal death

Minor: Vomit, Confinement, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Sexual content

jwells's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious fast-paced

I was grabbed by Slate's voice right away, and could hardly put this down. Great mix of humor and darkness.  Be sure to have the sequel ready to read next! This one does not stand alone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

There's an extremely sexist character, whom the other characters consider clueless and offensive. He does learn and grow.

maryellen's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Confinement

purnuhja's review

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

3.75

A light fast-paced story; it has interesting worldbuilding with funny characters that stop the story from getting too dark and moody. Despite this, there is a surprising amount of depth to the characters and story as well as a plot with some real stakes. Sometimes it felt like not much actually happened, but hopefully this is just to properly set up the conclusion in the second book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Misogyny, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

4.5

Bleak and humorous, CLOCKWORK BOYS follows three convicted criminals and a scholar sent to find out what they can about the terrifying and murderous "Clockwork Boys" who have been devastating their towns and villages.

As a journey narrative, CLOCKWORK BOYS focuses on the dynamic between the members of the party, as well as the internal struggles of the two point-of-view characters. Slate is a forger, Brenner is an assassin, Caliban is a paladin who has a dead demon rotting in his skull, they're on this trip in hopes of a pardon if they survive. Learned Edmund is a formerly cloistered misogynist from an order who prizes learning and instills a fear of mere proximity to women. There's a mix of genuine character growth and learning each other's edges, the kind of forced intimacy which is fostered by a suicide mission with terrible travel conditions in the middle of a war. The worldbuilding is conveyed through a mix of exposition, character reactions, and things encountered as they travel. Slate and Caliban think about themselves and their companions, often thinking things they don't dare or don't know how to say out loud. 

CLOCKWORK BOYS ends on a cliffhanger, as the characters joined together and undertook a journey to a particular city, and the narrative abruptly ends when they arrive at their destination. The story is continued in THE WONDER ENGINE. Since it's the first book in a duology, it doesn't completely tie off anything before it ends, except perhaps that stage one of the plan (the journey there) is done and what remains is entering the city and maybe surviving (maybe not). The characters have been changed by the journey, now it remains to be seen whether they'll survive their destination.

I loved this and am excited to read the sequel!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Animal death, Murder, Misogyny, Cursing, Drug use, Vomit, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, War, Sexism, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Blood, and Death

Minor: Terminal illness, Violence, Mental illness, Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Child death, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

wickedgrumpy's review

adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

I will very likely be making my way through the majority of T. Kingfisher's (and perhaps even the Ursula Vernon) backlog this year since I haven't had a single miss yet.

Also, I cannot tell you how much I appreciate "older" characters who actually act their age (or at least somewhat believably so).  The main female is 30, one of the main male characters is 37.

The worldbuilding was interesting though somewhat sparse (what's the deal with the gods?, what's the reason for the war?, what's the deal with demons?), and the back and forth between the ragtag bunch on a suicide mission was hilarious.  I do think that it didn't need to be split into two volumes since it ends pretty abruptly.  I would have happily read more than a thousand pages in this series.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Toxic friendship, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Torture, War, Alcohol, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Drug use, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Violence