Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

A Reaper at the Gates by Sabaa Tahir

32 reviews

moserstopheles's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

love love love

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, War, Slavery, Violence, Rape, Sexual violence, and Torture

redhothabanero'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

4.5

This book wasn't as heart pounding as the first two were. Although it's still enthralling and a fantastic read. I really love all of Helene's chapters. I did not see the Cook twist coming. Can't wait to find out how this all ends. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Slavery, and Confinement

Minor: Torture

leaflit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Slavery, War, Blood, Murder, Torture, Violence, Classism, Colonisation, Toxic relationship, Child death, Grief, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Physical abuse

rinku's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

 Because of some small critiques here and there, I gave A Reaper at the Gates 4.5 stars and not full five stars. Still, it’s an amazing book with an interesting plot and great characters. 

We again follow Elias, Laia and Helene in this book. Elias became the soul catcher and now has to balance this new hard task with his want to protect Laia. Laia herself tries to find allies in the battle against the empire and especially Keris. I was again most interested in Helene’s story who has to stop Keris from taking over the empire but also protect her sister from Marcus; Livia’s need for protection increases in the course of the story since

she becomes pregnant with the new imperator

. 

This book was a bit slower than its predecessor, even with the constant time pressure, because Laia’s and Elias’ plot felt a bit aimless at some points. I had also had two other small problems with the story: Firstly, it was a bit hard to keep track of the different nations/tribes and their interests introduced here. Secondly, some aspects of the story were not clearly enough explained, like

the reason why Elias suddenly was able to control the magic

. 

The ending of this book though shows how amazingly the series was plotted from the beginning. We get to know that

the cook is Laia’s mom and that she was forced to kill her daughter and her husband which was such a dramatic reveal

. Then, all three characters are at the same place since

the capital of the empire is attacked: Helene is defending the city, Laia is trying to get the ring from her, and Elias wants to collect the escaped ghosts. The way Laia gets Helene’s ring was so creative, but the ring is sadly fake. It’s so disturbing as well how Keris perfectly planned everything and how she was able to kill Marcus

. The most powerful moment of the story though was when

Laia left her mother behind to save Helene; this moment gave me goosebumps

. 

I still like most of the cast since many of them have so much depth. Helene became maybe one of my favorite characters of all time. At the beginning, it was so sad how heartless she became because of all the terrible things happening to her but it’s only understandable, just like her hatred towards Laia. But also, she became so strong which can be seen especially when

she survived the attempted assassination

. I ship her so much with Harper, but I somehow doubt that they’ll get a happy ending together. What I appreciate as well is the fact that romance is not the focus of the story. 

After the ending of A Reaper at the Gates, I can’t wait to find out how this series will end and how our characters will be able to win against the demons of the outside world – and the ones inside of them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, War, and Violence

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Slavery

angstifies's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.25

this would’ve been probably an objectively better book than the previous one and i would’ve preferred it to the previous books because of the politics, the fact that Elias and Laia aren’t near each other and i liked Musa and his city, but i just don’t fucking care. at one point i realized i just wanted to be done with this and i stopped paying too much attention. 

the characters have zero development and are so flat, the romance is fucking terrible and the narration is annoying as fuck. ugh. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Slavery, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

kinsportch's review against another edition

dark 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, War, Violence, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Slavery

Minor: Rape, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

urlocalvocaloidstan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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

  Just like the other books in this series, this book was such a page turner and there were plot twists at every corner. All the characters had really good writing and Laia’s trauma from being betrayed by the Nightbringer still haunts her even in this book. Both the internal and external conflicts felt very real and you could easily sympathize with even evil people like Marcus. All three of the main characters go through so much and they have to make super tough decisions that could bring the end of the world, especially The Blood Shrike, so it would make sense if they were unlikable characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death of parent, Animal death, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and Genocide

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Child death, Confinement, Medical content, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Toxic relationship

lee_6398's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, War, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Slavery

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Genocide, Islamophobia, Murder, and Physical abuse

Minor: Suicide

jackiepreston's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Rape, and Pregnancy

alyssasaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, and War