Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

24 reviews

bookswithkoda's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child abuse, Body horror, Classism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Torture

Moderate: Abandonment

kkenna7's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.75

Good enough to make me wanna read book two, especially in the last third of it. Helene is an absolute nightmare of a character but I suppose that's on purpose so who can be mad, really. Curious to see how the rest of the series turns out!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Classism, Murder, Physical abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Sexual harassment, and Slavery

angstifies's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.5

i apparently did not like this as much as many people did but oh well. the world building was terrible, i was exited to read about a fantasy world inspired by the Roman Empire and except from the somewhat latin names we get none of that.

the narrators and characters were so annoying, the main characters are 17 and 21 but i felt like i was being told a story by a fucking child.

but the absolute worst thing about this book was the <b>overuse of misogyny and sexual violence against women.</b> i get it, some books’ worlds and settings are sexist but it was so overused. there are so many mentions of rape/threats of rape when it’s not even needed, and it was absolutely pointless. and the sexism was absolutely disgusting, even the male main character himself is so fucking misogynistic and constantly objectifies the “love interests”, i could not believe this was written by a woman. 

i’m gonna make examples that infuriate me about <b>Elias specifically and his misogyny:</b> using “don’t act like a girl” as a degrading insult to Helene (a woman) SO MANY TIMES, even in his internal monologue + saying things like “oh they’re women! that’s how they are!”, shut the fuck up. sexualising both Laia and Helene basically always. feeling bad for a literal abusive RAPIST. letting marcus win knowing that now he can do whatever he wants with Helene and she can’t say no to him, all for a girl with no personality he met less than 2 months ago.

the characters were almost always insufferable and the romance was shit, i at least enjoyed the overall plot and the last 80 pages were great.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Murder, Torture, Physical abuse, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Minor: Death of parent

alyssasaurus'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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Child abuse, Violence, Rape, Suicide, Murder, and Body horror

trazimmariju's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

caregorman's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.5

Wait I really enjoyed this so much - just when i thought I was in my fantasy flop era! Very much here for the slow burn enemies to lovers??? Maybe???? Didn’t love some of the fighting scenes but wow 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, and War

Minor: Abortion

sg124's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.75

this was an amazing story but god i hate love triangles

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Slavery, Death, Physical abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment, Body horror, Child death, Colonisation, and Grief

sydapel's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

I am into every a single element of this book. Every. One. Best book I've read so far this year hands down. From incredible world building to characters with complex motives to the intricate layers of every relationship to the perfect pacing, the book is exquisite.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, Emotional abuse, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Colonisation, Child death, Body horror, and Abortion

madison_tovey's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

This book slapped me in the face and called me friendless. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, and Child death

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

swaggynikki's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

I read this book in middle school and loved it. I just reread it and liked it a lot less. Honestly, that really disapoints me, because I remembered it as this incredible example of the good side of the YA genre, but parts of it just really do not appeal to me anymore. The main couple already had the whole slave-soldier dynamic keeping them appart, so the fact that they were both individually in boring love triangles was just. Fully unnecessary. I did love the worldbuilding and action of the series, but as someone who prefers character>plot it just didn't quite hold up for me. Also it's INCREDIBLY dark/gruesome, I can handle a lot but there were some parts that made me go "was that /really/ necessary for anything other that Maximum Shock Value". I feel like I'm trashing this book too much. I like it, and I think it's one of the better fantasy YAs out there, but it just isn't what I think it could have been.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Torture, and Slavery

Moderate: Child abuse, Genocide, Rape, and Abandonment

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Pregnancy