Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Gilded Wolves by Roshani Chokshi

13 reviews

cailean_renard's review

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

0.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Xenophobia and Racism

Minor: Sexual content

barda's review

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

This book was a frustrating read.

It had all of the elements of a great read - a unique setting (19th Century alternative history Paris), cool magic system, intricate heists, and a likeable cast of characters. It was very much like Six of Crows, which I adore, in spirit. But in the end it just couldn't come together in a cohesive way.

The author clearly put a lot of thought into the puzzles and heist elements, as well as the world-building; however, much of it was written in a confusing way, such that I couldn't really picture in my head what was happening in a scene. The characters were broadly likeable and very diverse (Hypnos in particular was hilarious), but much of the characterisation was done by telling the audience what they were supposed to be like (such as it being banged over your head repeatedly that Severin and Laila slept together once and had residual feelings) rather than letting the backstories and personalities of their individual characters be revealed gradually through the text.

One element in particular knocked back my rating quite a bit, and that was the ending. Without spoilers, what I thought was the ending was a pretty good cliffhanger, and had huge emotional ramifications for the characters which could be explored in the next book. But then...there's more pages. And any emotional impact of the ending is completely wiped away as the characters deal with them over the space of a single chapter. This all leads up to a second cliffhanger, which in itself was fine and could have easily stood on its own, but it felt like the author had two ideas for how their book should end and just took the worst of both worlds and put them together in the same book.

I can appreciate what the author tried to do with this book, with the richly detailed setting and magic system, and I really liked the inclusion of neurodiversity among the main characters and the critiques of colonialism in the context of the setting. However, it was let down by confusing writing, the lack of "show not tell", and the ending.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Blood

Moderate: Grief, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Torture

friendly_neighborhood_grandma's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

The vibes. I loved reading it and wanted to come back every time. It isnt 5/5 just because I didnt understand where we were in the space sometimes and I did not understand their age. When I started the book i thout that they were adults but they're like 18. Overall love love highly reccomand will definitly be continuing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Violence, Antisemitism, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Racism, Gaslighting, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, and Xenophobia

Minor: Self harm and Suicide

silodear's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I didn’t hate this book (as many in my book club did), but to say it was well written would be a lie. That being said, if I sort of closed my eyes halfway and suspended my disbelief about the many many many elements of the story that didn’t make sense, I dare say I enjoyed the ride. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

Moderate: Sexual content and Death of parent

erins_bookshelf_'s review

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Oh my god this was so good 
I need the next one like now 

TRISTAN DIED??? I LOVED HIM NO :( 
That thing with the birds was a bit creepy but I’m assuming Tristan had some kind of mind issue because of that stupid Phobus Helmet so I can’t blame him :(

 
The action and story of this were incredible I’m really glad I finally picked this up 
I got it from my library so I need to buy it but I will be getting the next two from the library I need to know what happens next 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Ableism and Antisemitism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Sexual content, and Homophobia

quillify_'s review

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

0.5

Everything in this book is designed to appeal to a Western audience, make it easy for their comprehension: the barest exploration and impact of colonialism, easy to pronounce names, cookie cutter characters that fit your favorite tropes, a romance built purely on sexual attraction that an allosexual audience can consume without much critical thinking. And most of all, erasure of a significant chunk of history.
 In Ms. Chokshi's own hypocritical words: "When we revise the horror and sanitize the grotesque, we risk erasing the paths that led us here."
No offence, but that is what this community does every day by promoting and recommending this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Kidnapping, Grief, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Cursing, Misogyny, Colonisation, Classism, Racism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Sexism

Minor: Sexual content

discworldwitch's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Cultural appropriation, Racism, and Child abuse

Moderate: Hate crime, Antisemitism, Ableism, Racism, Colonisation, Sexual content, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

maryjames's review

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Grief, Sexual content, Antisemitism, and Racism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Cultural appropriation, Genocide, and Injury/Injury detail

mmefish's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

This is book… is not good.

First of all, it’s super messy. Roshani Chokshi attempted to include too many things in the narrative, but none of them were written well. Info dumping does not stop until very late in the book and I had to constantly re-read entire paragraphs to make sense of the erratic descriptions.

The characters: at first, I enjoyed reading about Enrique and Zofia (I did not care about the rest of them), thinking that their personality traits will lead to some character development. But no. We finish right where we started. 

THE JOKES. WERE. AWFUL. The banter got old very fast and pretty much everything Hypnos said was terrible.

The romance. In short: “we wanna fuck”. There was one good moment

between Enrique and Zofia but then it got lost in a love triangle with Hypnos (really?).

The plot. We’ve seen it million times. And it includes many accidents when someone’s foot/hand slipped. 

In conclusion: there is really nothing redeeming besides the diversity of the cast. Oh yeah, the book is also supposed to talk about the atrocities of 19th century France (according to Author’s note) but… it does not, not really.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Death

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Grief, and Sexual content

Minor: Self harm

hippocapybara's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.25

Beautiful descriptive language carries readers through the story like the unpredictable current of a flowing river.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Child abuse, Death, and Torture

Minor: Death of parent and Racism