Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri

30 reviews

ferlefur's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: War, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Suicide, and Homophobia

Minor: Torture

sophie42's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Fire/Fire injury, Death, and Misogyny

Moderate: Body horror, Blood, Alcohol, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Suicide, Torture, Grief, and Sexual content

mar's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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? Yes

5.0

i have to wait HOW long until the third book??? 😭😭😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Misogyny, Murder, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide and Grief

Minor: Sexual content

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

Much more adventurous than the first book. The ending was full of twists and heartbreak. Amazingly devastating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, Murder, Confinement, Animal death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Torture, Toxic relationship, and Sexism

sayhar13's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Body horror, Murder, War, and Fire/Fire injury

delvainy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.75

This book was so fun, until it wasn’t and then it hurt in the best way. I found myself caring for almost all of the characters deeply. That’s  honestly not the smartest idea when you’re reading something that has a war going on in it, but I couldn’t help myself. The end of this kind of reminded me of the end of Crier’s War which is my favorite book, so I got a bit of a (sick) kick out of that. I’m very glad to own the book and cannot wait for the next one to come out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, and Suicide

scrubsandbooks'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

4.0

No Second Book Syndrome detected here! While the first book seemed to introduce us to the magic and the associated extensive world-building, this one seemed to focus more on the politics. Not only that but this one is more or less Malini's story while the first was Priya's. And these ladies absolutely gutted me. It was an incredible follow-up to The Jasmine Throne, and ends in a devastating cliffhanger.

Much like the first book, there were a number of different POVs but the quantity of different people were scaled down in comparison to the first. As a matter of fact, I think going back and rereading the first might make more sense now after reading this one and knowing who are or were the key players, either those who make it into this book or died in book one. I'm completely invested in seeing this through to the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, War, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, and Body horror

Moderate: Suicide and Child death

Minor: Confinement and Alcohol

jessiereads98's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I think partially I just wasn’t in the right headspace to read this book as I normally would. It took me longer to get through than books usually do. 

Overall, I enjoyed this. It’s a complex story with complex characters. I really enjoy the unique magic system with multiple gods coming into play and in conflict with each other. I also appreciate the feminist themes woven beautifully into the story. 

I did find the pacing in the first half of the book to be a bit slow and like it took a little long to get to things. It felt at times like the story was meandering and dragging its feet on getting where it was going. The pacing did pick up for a much more satisfying final half-third of the book.

I don’t fully enjoy Priya and Malini’s relationship. The power imbalance and Malini’s constant use of Priya and expecting Priya to always do what is best for her makes me somewhat uncomfortable. While I enjoy the relationship as one that is toxic and compelling and narratively interesting, I am not sure if that is the author’s intention or if I as a reader am meant to simply root for them as star crossed lovers. I understand the idea is for there to be a lot of moral greyness and none of these characters are perfect, nor would I want them to be. However, there are times where I find Malini’s treatment of Priya going past moral greyness to this is just an imbalanced power dynamic of a woman from a lower class being expected to serve one of a higher class and I don’t find it romantic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, War, Blood, Gore, Murder, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Colonisation, Drug use, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Suicide, Death of parent, Homophobia, Sexual content, Torture, Abandonment, Child death, Cursing, and Kidnapping

kylieqrada's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

It took me 57 years to read this for reasons but I stayed engaged the entire time. I loved it slightly less than the first one, but still with all the power of a thousand suns. My ships really took a hit, though. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Violence, Sexual content, and Misogyny

Minor: Animal death, Torture, and Suicide

mlovesbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Tasha Suri, you've done it again. When can I get my hands on the third book?!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Death, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Homophobia