Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - Hunted by the Sky

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Hunted by the Sky by Tanaz Bhathena

14 reviews

ivegotyourpaperback's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring mysterious tense slow-paced

4.0

Oooooh this was extraordinarily enjoyable. The authors note lets us know that she has Indian and Persian heritage, of which she drew on to create the fantastical world of Ambar. The world and setting were so rich, and the writing created vibrant images in my mind.

I started off listening to the audiobook while stitching or working, but found that due to the descriptive nature of the text I couldn’t fully take in the story if I wasn’t focused solely on it - so I ended up switching to the ebook.

I loved both of our MC’s, Gul and Cavas. Each time I read a chapter in one POV, I couldn’t wait to get to the next. Gul’s character particularly impressed me. She actually feels like a teenager (she’s 16). She’s quick to anger and impulsive at times. She makes mistakes and says things she regrets. This all made her feel very real rather than a typical idealised fantasy heroine.

Cavas too was very likeable, and I’m enjoying the slow burn nature of his relationship with Gul.

The narrators were both emotive and got into their respective characters. Though, the guy sounded like Matthew Broderick 😆

Extra content warning:

⚠️implied child SA

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courtnoodles's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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caitlink's review against another edition

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medium-paced

4.5

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booksthatburn's review against another edition

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I like the narrator for Gul's portion. This isn't the first audiobook performance I've listened to by her and I like her style. What kills it for me is the male narrator. The performer for Cavas has a voice which sounds like he came straight from working on a Trump impression to do this audiobook. It's annoying during the main narration when he's portraying Cavas's thoughts and speech. Then, it becomes even worse when any female characters speak, as he gives them grating falsettos which are only barely differentiated. Luckily, Gul narrates much more of the book than Cavas does, and if I had access to a printed edition of the book I would have switched to that as soon as he first spoke.

Setting aside the audio for a moment, I can't stand Gul. She was fine but a bit annoying, then midway through she shamed a girl for what she thought was a history of sex work but turned to actually have been rape and other abuses while a small child. Gul ended up apologizing and the only thing I liked about it is that the other person didn't accept the apology. Even if she'd been correct that it was sex work and consensual, that still would have been awful to try and shame her for it. In terms of the writing for the other girl, she was wielding that history of sexual abuse to try and say Gul wasn't ready or tough enough because she hadn't suffered enough as someone who'd "only" had her parents murdered in front of her.

The oppression olympics are noxious, I have zero emotional investment in Cavas (supposedly the love interest but at over halfway through I'm not seeing that yet, he's just a boy who's there), and I don't like Gul.

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