Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons

21 reviews

gummiefox's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

this book is complicated, but i loved it! one of the few that i feel the need to go back and reread immediately after finishing it. i'll definitely have to reread it before i start the next in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Confinement, Death, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Murder, Domestic abuse, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Sexual content, and Alcohol

noshakira's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

5.0

Excellent world-building and intricate storyline. The dual perspectives of the story adds a unique element. I ordered the second book when I was about halfway done with this one because I knew I'd love the remaining story. 

The only difficulty is that some names can be hard to pronounce (as with most fantasy novels) and keep straight, as many are similar or characters go by multiple names for differing reasons, so it's easy to get confused and I'd have to continually remind myself who was who.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Physical abuse, Torture, Confinement, Murder, Death, Classism, Violence, and War

Moderate: Grief, Child abuse, Trafficking, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Confinement, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Incest, Infidelity, and Kidnapping

vigil's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.0

i can see why this book wouldn't work for everyone but it did for me. i absolutely devoured 500 pages in three days, in the time where i'm still slagging through an arduously obnoxious 291 pages of another book as of writing this review. i love storytelling that comes to you in puzzle pieces (though the author graciously gives you exactly what you need, if a plot point hinges on previously given vague information) and odd narrative structures. i love stories where the world feels truly lived in, where you are given so much worldbuilding and lore, especially stories that just have so much going on in them, whether its in the scope of the main plot or not. Because of this, i did enjoy the footnotes (not to mention here, the footnotes had a plot purpose and explanation that i found satisfying) despite generally being a footnotes hater in fiction. i'm very impressed with this being the authors debut novel, and i will definitely be continuing with the series. 

also, mild critique / wants for further installments

this book was very obviously interested in sex and sexual abuse in a way i found thoughtful, but somewhat wanting. i found the execution to be well done, but i would enjoy a deeper exploration of the topic, especially from one of the sex workers / slaves, since i think their perspective was sorely lacking in this book. however, i do hear that is something that is followed up on in later installments, so i'll withhold judgement on this front. i would also like more handling of khirin's trauma as well. i understand why it couldn't be lingered on for too long for practicalities, but as we enter territories regarding relationships for him in the coming books, i think it would be a good way to tackle it more. despite everything, it still seemed to haunt him over the novel, but wasn't addressed much. 

also shout out to jenn lyons for creating a male protag i actually enjoy. not very many cases! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Death, Kidnapping, Violence, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Torture

Moderate: Homophobia and Incest

adragoninspace's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Alcohol, Death, Grief, Gore, Homophobia, Incest, Murder, Trafficking, Body horror, Death of parent, Sexual content, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual violence, and Vomit

ruthlessreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

2.0

Lots of things I loved about this book, including the world building and the interesting magic system. However, I’m always filled with distaste when systems of slavery are present, regardless of whether or not the text condemns it (this one does condemn it). The plot of this book is largely dependent on these systems of slavery and it was hard to enjoy the book for that reason. I gave 2 stars purely for the talent of the writer, which shines through at every turn, and the quality of the actual syntax. That said, the content just didn’t do it for me and idk that I’d read another book by this author. Also, not nearly enough dragons for a book with a giant dragon on the front. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Torture, Violence, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Classism, Murder, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, and Cursing

Minor: Incest, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Slavery, Torture, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Murder, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gore, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Kidnapping, Blood, Body horror, Alcohol, and Incest

Minor: Rape

flowerpaladin's review against another edition

I really wanted to finish this book, as I've been DNFing a lot lately. But I checked it out as an ebook from the library, and it's due tomorrow, and I just... don't have that burning urge to check it out again. That's a sign that it's time to move on and try something else. Sigh.

This book's biggest problems (for me) were 1. the story structure and 2. the gruesome content. The story is told from multiple points-of-view from different time periods, but all about the same character. On top of that, the world-building is extremely confusing. I had to pause and re-read entire pages sometimes, which isn't something I ever really have to do. And so far as I can tell, this POV-shifting is completely unnecessary. I would've enjoyed the story a lot more if it had just stuck with Khirin's POV.

As for the second issue, slavery is a topic that is a personal squick for me, and I usually try to avoid it. It was pretty prominent right at the beginning of this book, but since the book is queer, I tried to persevere, thinking maybe it wouldn't be a major plot point. But it is. It doesn't seem like it ever really moves away from this concept of characters being owned, abused, raped, and murdered by other characters. That is just too dark and too horrific for me to stomach. 

It's my hope that we'll start to see more and more queer high fantasy stories that center hope and love instead of wading through dark topics like rape and murder and slavery. I'm not condemning books like that. I just really wish I could find the ones that were more like what I'm looking for... what I really need in my life right now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Slavery, Violence, Body horror, Death, Torture, and Gore

szuum's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Homophobia, Torture, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Infidelity, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Incest, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Murder, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Sexual content and Gore

anxiousnachos's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

5.0

Love love love love. The best of epic fantasy. It has such a huge, complex world that you really need the 800 page novel to dive into. It is so rich and detailed, you could never learn all there is to know about this world.

It has a fantastic, interesting structure. I am always one who loves a bit of a puzzle or weird structure to my novels and this definitely satisfied that urge. Told in two (and a half) POVs, to and from a jailer to their prisoner + footnotes from a third individual, this follows two different timelines as they slowly converge to explain how the jailer and prisoner ended up in their current position. The complexity of this structure is absolutely not for everyone. It is such a slow paced fantasy book, it weaves and wanders and you have to accept that you will not know what’s going on for the vast majority of this book. But I loved that about it!! I loved that each chapter ended on almost a mini cliffhanger. I loved getting to guess at what was happening and racing to read on. I found each POV section equally as interesting so even though the cliffhangers happened, I was still interested in the switching stories. It was just fabulously written. 

The characters are brilliant, as book 1 of a 5 part series I’m very excited to see how they develop. I believe the later books are poly? And the main character Kihrin is bisexual. Anyway I have the rest of the series on order, and I am horrific at reading sequels so that is truly a sign of how much I loved this! Please note, this did get very very dark though so note below content warnings. 

Content warnings: slavery (inc sexual slavery), death, violence, torture, rape, murder, blood, domestic abuse, physical abuse, child abuse, war, misogyny, incest

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Sexual violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, War, Blood, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Rape, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

andromeda_1998's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-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

4.0

This book took me a long time to read and the funny thing is that I didn’t mind. The book is written in a very cleaver way and I would really recommend it. But before you start reading it, beware! This is one of those books you need to finish before having an opinion. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Colonisation, Confinement, Trafficking, Rape, Genocide, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Cursing, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Death, War, Mental illness, Gore, Violence, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Incest, Grief, and Gaslighting