Reviews tagging 'Blood'

You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue

5 reviews

hamohero's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

I did quite enjoy the cheeky narration but I barely understood what was happening without the historical/literary knowledge along with the lack of punctuation, huge cast with multiple names, and the sudden shifts in setting/povs.

Also tw:

mention of rape p111 and reference to said rape p129

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Vomit, Drug use, Gore, Violence, War, Sexual violence, Blood, Murder, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Rape, Ableism, and Animal death

aleyajo's review against another edition

adventurous informative medium-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

Fascinating look at Tenochtitlán history and what could have been. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, Death, Gore, Violence, Drug use, Addiction, Colonisation, Blood, and Drug abuse

30something_reads's review

adventurous challenging dark funny fast-paced

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

4.75

Honestly, this was a fever-dream (in the best way possible.)

A hallucinogenic and fantastical rendering of Mexican colonial history.  

I found that I best enjoyed this as a tandem read with the audiobook. It was very interesting to see the exclusion of quotation marks throughout the entire book but the narrator provided such great differentiation between characters during the dialogue.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Drug use, Death, Colonisation, Blood, and Vomit

Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

ritual sacrifice

rheagoveas's review

challenging reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Sexual assault

tomesandtextiles's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny slow-paced

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

5.0

Is it too early to call my favorite book of the year? Full review to come but this exceeded all my expectations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Incest, Rape, and Torture