Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Redemptor by Jordan Ifueko

57 reviews

angietheace's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring reflective 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Misogyny, Death of parent, and Sexual content

mandkips's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective 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

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Child abuse and Child death

Minor: Death of parent

aseel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

3.0

pretty disappointed in this one tbh. i liked the conclusion but the plot was so slow and we kept returning to the same issues for ages until we find made some plot progression but it was so slow. i think this one lacked the depth of plot that the first one had. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Bullying

Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Violence, Murder, Abandonment, Child abuse, Death of parent, Child death, Death, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

emily_mh's review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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

This book took everything I loved about Raybearer and made it better. It was once again SO original and so refreshing. I cold never tell where it was going next, but not in a directionless plot kind of way - in a subverting the YA fantasy genre kind of way. I loved Tarisai even more in this instalment: how deeply she loved others, and the way she struggled to make sense of the world yet still tried her utmost to do right by it. This book also improved on something I didn’t like in Raybearer: the time jumps. In this there were far less, so the narrative flowed cohesively. 

Redemptor as a book says so much, and I loved each and every theme it delved into. The narrative explores the evils of capitalism. It shows how justice is a marathon and not a sprint; that there must be self-care so that you can continue to contribute. It even illustrates that guilt is not an adequate motive for fighting for justice. This quote on this subject was my favourite from the book: 

“Don’t confuse guilt with conviction. Guilt is self-centred, and leads only to destructive obsession. But conviction brings balance - a sense of purpose beyond oneself.” 

Redemptor also examines the paradox of sacrificing your values to create a society BASED on your values. It questions what power should look like, and what must be done to achieve that. Overall, I loved that the book challenged the systems that are part-and-parcel of “traditional” (usually white and Western) YA fantasy world-building, namely monarchy and capitalism. 

I was initially going to give this book 4.5 stars, not 5. This was because I thought the love triangle was unnecessary and also that I wish Dayo had had more of an active role. But after reading that ending… I knew that nothing less than 5 stars would suffice. It was so satisfying and so well suited. It made me sob MULTIPLE times. It was perfect. Needless to say I can’t wait to see what Ifueko puts out next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Child abuse, Grief, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Blood

Minor: Body shaming, Suicide, Vomit, Ableism, Sexual content, Alcohol, Misogyny, Sexism, War, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, and Animal death

Moderate: capital punishment, loss of a loved one, neglect, volcano, Minor: flood, earthquake, mass death

ashlikes's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug use, Classism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and War

Moderate: Alcohol, Child death, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Minor: Trafficking, Vomit, Abandonment, Misogyny, Rape, Slavery, Torture, and Sexual content

mxkanteven's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Your honour, your honour she’s slaying. 

The perfect sequel to Raybearer and makes use of magic to tackle the realities of feudalism and power imbalance perfectly.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Child death, and Suicidal thoughts

thenovelmaura's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring 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

This is the sequel to Raybearer, an incredible book, and I'm happy to report that the end of this duology is as satisfying as the beginning. This reminded me of the Six of Crows duology because a great sequel picks up right where the first book left off and keeps the same energy level throughout. Ifueko's pacing is so excellent and she knows how to keep a reader the edge of their seat. Just like in Raybearer, I had no idea where the story was going but I loved where it ended up!

In my review of the first book, I talked about how I could tell that Ifueko put a ton of thought into world of Aritsar and that she had a solid foundation to expand on for the sequel. My wish came true and we were exposed to so many more of the customs, traditions, and differences between the realms. I'm keeping things vague to avoid spoilers, but there are valid critiques that certain characters needed more page time and others were introduced too quickly for the reader to truly connect with them. However, I really enjoyed the overall plot and the themes of mental health (specifically activist burnout) that were conveyed throughout this part of Tarisai's journey. All in all, fantasy duologies really hit the spot for me as a reader right now, and I wholeheartedly recommend adding this one your list.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Violence and Blood

Minor: Death of parent

kassidyreads's review against another edition

adventurous 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Death

Minor: Child death, Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail

hollyk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I can't help but feel a bit disappointed by this book. I wanted to love it--I loved Raybearer and thought it was so unique and loved all of the diversity.
But this book lacked some of the charm of the first book--namely, Dayo's council, who barely make an appearance before going back to their home realms. And in their place we have Tarisai creating a whole new council of people that to be frank, I had no real interest or investment in with the exception of Min Ja. 
It also seems like the empire still isn't really fair? Like sure,

Nyamba

underwent a revolution and became a more egalitarian state with no poverty, but Tarisai (and Dayo) didn't really keep that same energy when it came to Aritsar as a whole--sure,

the Ray can now be passed to anyone at any time, but that doesn't really change the fact that other realms have poverty and the capital has the majority of the resources, which aren't being redistributed like Nyamba did

. Nyamba also isn't a focal realm in the first book as far as I can remember, so it felt like this choice was less impactful than it could have been. 
The Redemptor arc was only the fifth section, and the previous book seemed to imply that it would be a major part of this book--but at the end of the day, it was barely a factor and could have been a much larger portion with more significance, especially in regards to

the Redemptor children and the abiku's army. That plot line felt too easily wrapped up when it was a major point of contention in the first book.

I still enjoyed this book, the writing is beautiful and the characters are great, but there were just some elements that left me wanting more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Mental illness, and Death

Moderate: Sexism, Child abuse, Blood, Violence, Alcohol, Classism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Bullying, Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, War, and Alcoholism

aharper's review against another edition

adventurous tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Violence

Moderate: Suicide