Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer

30 reviews

middle_name_joy's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.75

Though the main themes are beaten to a pulp by the end, this is a decent adventure story with characters you come to be invested in. There are slow sections, but there is also action and shifting loyalties and castle intrigue. Lots of gore, too. I'm going to need a romance cleanser before reading the second book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Torture, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Child death, Grief, Pandemic/Epidemic, Violence, and Vomit

thumbeleia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Death, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Violence, Abandonment, Blood, Chronic illness, Gore, Body horror, Child death, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Police brutality, War, Classism, and Torture

annelihghh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Grief, Medical content, Child death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Blood, Death of parent, Classism, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Minor: Alcohol, Pregnancy, Vomit, and Sexual content

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

3 ⭐ CW: violence, torture, blood, death, murder, death of a child, death of a parent, illness 

Defy the Night by Brigid Kemmerer is book one in the Defy the Night series. This one was disappointing after reading and loving the Cursebreakers series. This one just felt boring and a bit long and slow. 

We follow the povs of Tessa, a common girl who has apothecary skills and outlaw by night; and Corrick, the cruel King's Justice. Tessa has been working with a masked man to steal precious Moonflower petals, the only thing that can help cure the sickness ravaging Kandala, and make them into medicine for those too poor to supply their own. One night, when Tessa's partner Wes is captured as a smuggler, it throws her into a world she never meant to have a part in. We find out that Prince Corrick isn't all that he seems.

We get an enemies to lovers thing between Tessa and Corrick. That is mostly what the book focuses on, between all the political intrigue. I thought this book was too long for just having these two main characters. We don't really get to know anyone else. I really liked Quint, but we don't get much of him, though the little we do tells me he's definitely a sass master. I thought Tessa was a little too earnest and perfect? She really had no flaws, and it was all on her to emotionally fix Corrick, and get the kingdom back in order. It all just seemed too easy to me. Corrick and his brother King Harriston were secret softies. 

The one thing I did like about this story was the morally gray theme. Tessa discovers that things are not all black and white. The king isn't a monster who wants all his peasants dead, and the rebels aren't perfect saints and can go too far. Other than that, it felt like something was missing. I just don't care enough about the characters or the plot to continue to the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Terminal illness, Torture, Blood, and Death

Minor: Death of parent and Child death

raineedayreader's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Pandemic/Epidemic, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Body horror, Classism, and Torture

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, and Excrement

takarakei's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

• Robin Hood inspired
• court politics 
• herbal medicine
• angsty romance
• revolution rumblings
• brotherhood

Protect my poor baby Corrick! I love him so much. I was just getting back into my YA Fantasy era when I first read this a year ago, and coming back to it made me love it even more! 

1/5 🌶️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

Minor: Rape

Very brief mention of rape (off page no details)

praaliine's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

i turned to this book because i was in a reading slump and i needed something quick and fun to read, and this book was both. i’m unsure if i’ll continue with the series but i think it helped with the slump. i will say it’s best to go into the story blind, it’ll be much more fun to read that way (i didn’t, so it may have influenced my experience with the book, i would have enjoyed it a lot more if i had).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, and Blood

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Child death

legalplanner's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

If you liked the Prison Healer you will love this one. I was really surprised to fall in love with Tessa's journey as she tried to use her education in healing (learned from her parents) to help her community with the sickness that has overtaken them. 

I found that at first I was ready to DNF this because it just felt like a lot to set it up for the "good stuff" and it felt like we were getting absolutely no where. As we started to move closer to Tessa I began to get entranced with what she was doing and the problems in the City.

There were a ton of characters introduced and I was very thankful for the character list and the map. I will say that even though a lot of this is setting up the world for the remainder of the series this was a very well paced book and made me want to keep reading even after it was over.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Child death

forgettingtofly's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

This was a good time.  It kept my attention and definitely had an engaging storyline.  I was drawn in by the characters and their relationships.  The moral dilemmas were well done. The story was somewhat predictable in some moments.  I’m interested to see where it goes in future books.  I thought the audiobook performances were also pretty good.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Child death, Death of parent, and Terminal illness

zozo_reads's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Great world building did sort of expect the ending though. There was a plot twist in the beginning that I would have never expected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Gore, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse and Child death