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Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Raybearer by Jordan Ifueko

6 reviews

thatenbyisisreads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective 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

3.5

Tarisai's journey makes a lot more sense once you learn about her mother's backstory. However, her mom grew up with the wrong mentality and affected everyone around her, including her daughter. She is very manipulative and uses things against others in order to help herself in the long run. I appreciated the conversation Tarisai and her mother had at the end, it showed that her mother was regretful of the things she did and actually sympathetic towards her mistakes. I'm excited to see Tarisai as a Redemptor persuading the eleven vassal leaders to not only join her council, but to love her as well. I loved seeing the asexual representation with Ekundayo! I'd love to see more of that representation in more books! Although, I did find it extremely weird and unnecessary to have Woo In, who is about 5-9 years older than Kirah, to have a romantic relationship. Overall, this was a great fantasy and I'm excited to start the second book!

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hiddeninfantasy's review

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-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

4.75


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lizzyc_16's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0


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traeumenvonbuechern's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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


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whatellisreadnext's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨: 𝘈 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘷𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯 𝘸𝘢𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘣𝘶𝘪𝘭𝘵 𝘰𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘤𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘯.

Tarisai was raised in isolation by her mysterious and often absent mother. Now she is being sent Artisar to become one of the coveted eleven that the Prince keeps as council. But she is bound by a wish her mother made, once she gains the trust of the Prince, she is to kill him.

Is it really a surprise to anyone that I loved this book so much? Most of you have been yelling about how good it is for months, and I'm just super late to the party. I'm not going to lie I saw 'fairies' mentioned in a few reviews, and it totally put me off. Well let me tell you, I was wrong to deny how good this would be, and fairies play a very small part, plus they're kind of cool💁🏻‍♀️ 

The world building is incredible, and I love all of the characters so much. Tarisai is a complete badass and Sanjeet is a sweet baby angel. The stakes are super high, and the journey the main character goes on is so so fascinating. And THAT ENDING. Don't even get me started on how good the ending is, I need the next book Redemptor like now please.

If you love fantasy, you need to read this book immediately. It is SO FRIGGIN' GOOD

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Raybearer is a powerful and empathetic fantasy about what one does when it turns out the empire isn't perfect after all, for nothing good can be built on the pain of children.

This story plays with the line between and ill-informed narrator and an unreliable one, as I read it I had a steadily growing feeling that the world in the book was deeply wrong, that either the MC would double down on her cognitive dissonance, or else she must try to make things right. Either way, something had to give. I'm very pleased with how that was handled, I had enough hints of what was wrong in order to not feel lied to when the underpinnings were revealed and the MC was forced to reassess her goals and make a new path for herself. 

I like the balance between secondary and minor characters, given that the MC becomes canonically close with a rather large group of people I think the choices made in who was fleshed out and who is more in the background worked well. It felt like a large group without overwhelming me with names and motivations to keep track of. I love the beginning and the middle, and I think the ending is good given that there's a planned sequel. A few components of the ending felt a bit rushed, but the finale feels suitably grand for the scale of the problems being addressed. It's also trying to balance competing story interests and I think it works overall. It had to have an appropriate resolution within the timeframe of the novel while still leaving room for the sequel to have something to pick up. It makes it very clear that the problems began before the MC entered the story, and that solving what she can will take time and effort, some important pieces of which happen in this volume.

This book is filled with care, choosing carefully which deep wounds and dark backstories require description and which are left to the reader's discretion and imagination. There are many plot elements which are built on adults having decided at some point that it was okay for children to suffer, but this is an ultimately and joyful and empowering book about reclaiming agency and making things better for the ones who come after. I eagerly await the sequel.

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