Reviews tagging 'Blood'

A Psalm of Storms and Silence by Roseanne A. Brown

18 reviews

nicolewhopickedthisbook's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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

4.5

Ohhhhh, I love this duology sooooo much!! Karina was still getting on my nerves at times and Malik’s back and forth between his loyalty to Farid and his love for Karina was a bit annoying at times BUT I loved how they grew, and persevered, and overcame the odds.

Those last 60ish pages?!?! Whew!! What an emotional ride that made it hard to read through the tears in my eyes. 

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meluhnie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective tense fast-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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queenie_ofthe_void's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad 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

How is this book going to be this good, then go and have that ending. <Not even ending up together?! Hypothetically ending up together, over a decade later, in the epilogue, is not what we (me or Malik/Karina) deserve after EVERYTHING.> But yeah the rest was amazing and I loved it.

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense fast-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

5.0

A PSALM OF STORMS AND SILENCE is the fantastic conclusion to an excellent duology. One of many places where this shines is in its portrayal of trauma and aftermath, but especially in its portrayal of a kind of lingering pain from ongoing emotional abuse. The characters have room to make bad decisions in ways that are completely understandable. I was never frustrated by the choices they make in a narrative sense because the narrative itself made sure I knew whose manipulations, lies, and control of information were driving those bad decisions. It deftly uses a thousand years of self-interest and old grief, showing how they shape the characters' present, even if ways they hadn't realized were connected. It's about how accepting present power with a legacy of past power means both acting responsibly with the power in the present and accepting responsibility for the legacy of harm caused by that power in the past. How a chain of people accepting enormous power but eschewing responsibility for the harm caused by the power lead to even more harm. These layers of trauma, aftermath, resolution, acceptance, and restitution play out within their own lifetimes and on the scale of kingdoms as they try to stop the world from breaking with the grief of a goddess and the fruitless scheming of a dead king. 

Karina and Malik's relationship is complicated, with lies and misunderstandings from A SONG OF WRAITHS AND RUIN meddling in what ought to be a simple case of one hunting the other to try and stop the fall of the kingdom. Farid is a well-written manipulator, wrapped up in his own plans and unable to see the difference between someone agreeing with him and one who's just placating him to avert his anger and disappointment from falling on them. His frustrations make sense with his character and circumstances, his increasingly complicated plans hum along in the background of everything Malik and Karina try to accomplish.

This wraps up more than one major thing left hanging from the first book. The main storyline starts here and was only lightly present previously. There are several major things that are both introduced and resolved, and as part two of a duology it’s an immensely satisfying ending. The main characters are the same and they’re consistent with their portrayals in the first book. This might make sense if someone tried to start here and hadn’t read the previous book, it does a good job of referencing prior events without devolving into a full recap. It was definitely enough to pull me fully into the story even though it’s been a while since I read A SONG OF WRAITHS AND RUIN and my recall was initially fuzzy. I'd basically forgotten what happened before and it gently reminded me at gradual intervals as various previous events became relevant. The current stakes and past drama are clearly communicated, and the emotional context is vibrant.

The ending is excellent. There's still a lot of work to do and a lot of life for the survivors to live, and it's okay that this story stops here since it had to stop somewhere. I love the framing device, it satisfied my need to know what happens next.

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vaniavela's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

"The dead are the dead are the dead,"

A Psalm of Storms and Silence
is the sequel to the book "A Song of Wraiths & Ruin" written by Roseanne A. Brown.

I was quite excited about the publication of this book and today after a long time I was able to read it and have come to tell my experience.

Let's start with the cover. It is simply beautiful. The colors, the typography, everything is divine. 

This is not a gentle book, there are several topics that may be heavy for some and I appreciate that they have included a page with possible trigger warnings. Throughout the book, there was a deeper dive into the characters' traumas, abuses and mental illnesses.  I thought the way it was written, at least in the part about anxiety and how it affects day to day life, was appropriate and respectful. 

New characters were introduced and made the book more enjoyable. No names will be mentioned, to avoid spoilers, but I loved the way they were introduced into the plot and their sarcastic and funny contribution to the story. 

As for the relationship between our main characters, honestly the tension could be felt through the words. Likewise there was a certain character, whose name I won't mention because he doesn't deserve the honor, had me completely annoyed and furious. How could anyone be so hateful?

The ending left a lot to be desired for me. What was that ending Roseanne? My heart was left half beating and I didn't know whether to cry or laugh for believing there would be another one. 

Anyway, I really enjoyed this book, and although I would have liked another ending, I loved having the opportunity to read it.  4.75⭐️

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theespressoedition's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

5.0

Sometimes, I'm wonderfully consistent with my reviews and therefore, they are concise and accurate because they portray the thoughts I had immediately following reading.

Sometimes, I'm terribly inconsistent with my reviews and therefore, they are a jumbled up mess of random delayed emotions and pretty much just overall confusion.

I did not want the second example to be the case with my review for this book because I absolutely adored every moment of it. In fact, it took me approximately 6x longer to finish than I had originally anticipated because I wound up just wanting to take my time with it and really immerse myself in the story.

When I'm reading a book, I like to take pictures of the quotes or write them down somewhere so I don't forget them later. Most of the time, 1-3 quotes will stand out during the course of my reading. With A Psalm of Storms and Silence, I wound up writing down 10 quotes. I'm going to include them here, because I never ever want to lose them and forget the way they impacted me. If you don't like quotes, then skip ahead.

"Sometimes people get so unnerved by their own fear, they don't realize that their response to it is worse than what they feared in the first place."

"Love shouldn't look like control"

"If you ever find someone who feels as natural to you as breathing, don't leave them. Because if you do, you'll feel as if you're gasping for air every moment after."

"Life isn't given to be deserved. It's given to be lived. If you can find one thing that makes it worth seeing another day, then you've done all you're meant to do."

"There are choices you make in life that cannot be undone and that cannot be buried. They can only be carried, and you either buckle beneath the weight of them or grow strong enough not to. And growing is always worth it if it helps you get to that next thing that makes life worth living."

"...love was more like a pebble sinking into a pond, soft as the turn of one page in a story to the next, yet the ripples of it extending outward into everything about the way he saw the world and himself."

"...a person could never truly steal something that already belonged to them."

"You call me your salvation, but I can't save you from yourself."


(There were a few that just made me laugh and I'm including those as well because I think they're just as important as the ones that impacted my heart and soul):

"'Three times I've saved your ass now, princess!' Dedele barked as they hauled themselves over the sand barge's railing. 'Luckily for you, it's quite the ass to save!' Karina screamed back."

"'There you go again with your talk of achetypes. I'm pretty sure if we were in a story, we would know.' 'Of course we aren't. No characters in any good story would know they were in one.'"

Friends, if you have the ability to read this book, please do. Some people might cringe away from the trigger warnings and that's completely understandable. But if you can tolerate them, I highly recommend this book. I didn't think anything could pass A Song of Wraiths and Ruin, but this blew it out of the water.

One of the things that stood out to me the very most was the conversation surrounding Malik's struggle with self-harm and depression. Towards the end, he basically told someone that it was something he dealt with but that it might never go away. I appreciated that so much because often, in works of fiction, these are looked at as things that can "just be conquered and forgotten" in a sense, but that's not what happened here. It was an acknowledgement that those who trudge through depression and fight themselves in regards to self-harm might have lifelong battles and that is 100% normal and valid.

Then, of course, there's Farid and his horrible, toxic gaslighting nonsense that made me want to literally scream with fury and throw the book sometimes (but I was reading it on my phone and I didn't wanna break my phone - you know how it is). Watching both Karina and Hanane work through that - recognizing it and then individually sorting through it in different ways - was phenomenally done.

I absolutely loved the ending. Some people might get mad at it, but I think it was written perfectly. I love that it gave me a chance to run wild with my imagination.

I just can't praise this book any higher. In fact, this might be my longest review of all time. But I just... have more emotions about it than I even know what to do with right now. This one is gonna stick with me. I just know it.

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yvonne_cl's review against another edition

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

3.5


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betweentheshelves's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-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

Loved what Brown did with this story and how she ended it. She expanded the world from the first book really well, and there was such great character development. More to come in a review later this week!

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