Reviews with content warning for War - The Name-Bearer

Reviews tagging 'War'

The Name-Bearer by Natalia Hernandez

26 reviews

mandareads222's review against another edition

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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

3.75

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ladymickbeth's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

Plot: 4.5/5
World building: 4/5
Characters: 4.5/5
Writing: 3.75/5
Grammar/editing: 2/5

In general, I enjoyed this book and the unique premise. Unfortunately, I don’t think this book was edited at all. There was some expositional elements repeated when they didn’t need to be, and there were a ridiculous amount of typos and missing or incorrect punctuation marks. There were also quite a few run-on sentences. The obvious lack of editing took me out of the story often.

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avacadosocks's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

2.75

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ourxstorybegins's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring 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

Okay okay so the only reason that this didn’t get 5 stars from me is because it had a really slow start and was hard to get into. But once I was in, I was IN. This is book one in a series about a girl who was chosen to be the royal Name-Bearer but when it’s time for her to do said bearing, things do not go well and she ends up having to run away, change her identity, etc. etc. for a variety of reasons. From there, this book really focuses on the friendships she makes (and after 10 years of living in basically seclusion where she isn’t allowed to HAVE an identity of any sort, that’s huge) and her starting to figure out who she is when she can’t be the Name Bearer. I finished this and IMMEDIATELY started book 2 because I simply must know more.

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chrisb913's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

Please read trigger warnings.

I absolutely adored this book. As the debut novel for Natalia Hernandez, she sold me as a must buy author. The characters had so much personality, the world building and magic system were interconnected and intriguing, and the plot has me craving to find out what happens next. I will say, based on the blurb on the back of the book, the story I thought I would be reading about was not the story I was told in this book, but I still loved it.

We start out with The Name Bearer getting ready for The Naming Ceremony after the current Queen has had her child. She must appease the Flowers of Prophecy for them to name the new born child and future ruler of the kingdom. They unfortunately refuse to name the new born claiming another child has been born that will usher in a time of peace from the never ending war the kingdom has been fighting with their neighbors to the north. Confused and dismayed The Name Bearer is then thrust into an adventure that she was neither wanting nor adequately prepared for. What follows is a tale of a young girl being forced out of the palace and future she so desperately wanted, into a world of monsters, wars, and vile human beings. Along the way she makes enemies, friends, and even possibly love.

The story ends in the middle of an adventure. If you do not like a sprawling tale that spans a trilogy and leaves you with the "to be continued" at the end of the first two books, this may not be a story for you. If this does not deter you and you enjoy stories about strong warriors women, found families, the normalcy of lgbtq in stories, and a rich world steeped in both indigenous and latinx culture and mythology, then definitely give this book a shot.

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naomiysl's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

At once fresh and new as well as like a warm hug from an old friend to those of us who grew up on Tamora Pierce and the like. This story reads as if an unhinged tumbler post writing prompt was taken in several different directions at once, and then stirred with lovely badass warrior woman vibes.

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gossamer_lens's review against another edition

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hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.25

This book has an odd writing style. It is written like a prologue. With the amount of summary and covering a span of 10 years, it feels like a reader should have both gotten more detail and less detail in the reading process. I feel like I should know the characters infinitely better but also I feel like I have a quite solid understanding of our main character. A very odd thing to feel. But with that said, it isn't a bad feeling.

Throughout the book, I was very easily pulled along to see what was going to happen next. I enjoyed the world-building and clear inclusion of Latin-American culture and the seamless inclusion of LGBTQ+ people into the world. I am excited to see where things go in the sequel and I already placed the book on hold at my library. I hit about halfway through this book and knew I just needed to keep going with these characters. Hernandez did a very solid job of keeping me invested and waiting to see where we would go. Very fun!

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searobin's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful 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? No

4.0

I absolutely LOVED this book, but it does have its issues, so rating it is a bit hard. The two main things are that it ends up feeling like one long prologue, and that the writing feels like YA but some of the violence are detailed to a degree that doesn't suit YA. I really loved the characters, I liked getting to know the friends and some and the travelling companions so well, but it's a bit weird for an adventure book; it felt much more "slices of life" than adventure. I'm also curious about how our MC got so much education, but had so little awareness of how her situation was developing on the outside. It felt like she just ignored/didn't learn anything it for those 10 years.

All in all, I loved how immersed we were in the story, but it is unusual for the genre.

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mj_86's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

4.0

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sopajoh's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

Very few books I have read span as much time as this one does. I loved watching the characters grow up from children to young women coming into their own.

While not an egregious cliffhanger, there's a lot unresolved by the end. So glad the sequel is already out!

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