Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

A Song of Wraiths and Ruin by Roseanne A. Brown

86 reviews

_persephone_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

the world building was done beautifully, i loved karina and malik both, they had very well fleshed out personalities, opinions, and backstories. my only big complaint is that i felt like karina and maliks relationship was a little lacking, they didn't even meet until over 200 pages in, which i could easily forgive but even when they did there wasn't much going on there, they had a fair amount of chemistry but im a bit of a romantic so it just wasn't enough for me personally.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Death of parent

szuum's review

medium-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Animal death, Death of parent, Murder, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

ofbooksandechos's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Grief

Moderate: Violence, Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, and Physical abuse

Minor: Self harm and Animal death

additional cws: fictional racism, use of fictional racial slurs.

sarahbythebook's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

It took a lot for me to get into this book (hence the half star missing), but I don't know if that was just my headspace this month or the book itself. The last half, however, was INCREDIBLE. I also need the second book immediately, but I still haven't gotten a shipping update so we are impatiently waiting for now. 

The African mythology and lore was beautifully done, and all of the characters were sympathetic. As much as Karina drove me crazy, I get where her head is at throughout this book because I was also a combative teenager with a chip on my shoulder and a me-against-the-world mentality. I also connected with Malik's fragility and vulnerability but determination in spite of his struggles. All of the characters are just very well done, and I really really enjoyed this book!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Death of parent, Violence, Xenophobia, Animal death, and Colonisation

Minor: Self harm

beldaran1224's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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

4.5

If you're looking for the best of YA, this is it. The setting is very rich, heavily rooted in African mythology and history - I noticed heavy inspiration from Egypt and Morocco, while there are likely inspirations I'm not as familiar with that I missed!

The book follows two POVs. There's a lot of depth and development there, and the themes and tropes involve a number of heavy and important topics. Expect to think about mental health, colonialism and more.

The moment I finished this book, I immediately put the second book on hold at my library.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Self harm, Death of parent, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Racism, Mental illness, and Colonisation

Minor: Abandonment, Classism, and Cultural appropriation

socialpsysteph's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

This book sounded super intriguing, the cover is BEAUTIFUL, and I love the setting/world so I was excited to see if this could live up to my own hype. Unfortunately, it fell a little short. Most of the plot was super predictable, which made it a little boring at times. There were also scenes that just didn't make sense, characters were able to move or do things that just wouldn't be possible but it was needed for the story so it happened. I also noticed several grammatical/spelling errors throughout which really irked me. The redeeming feature of this book is that the magic system and culture are really interesting and that was what kept me from DNFing the thing. I most likely won't be continuing the series unless I see some stellar reviews for book two.

This book counts for r/Fantasy Bingo 2022 for a book set in Africa, for Popsugar 2022 for a book set in a nonpatriarchal society, and for the Magical Readathon 2022 Autumnal Equinox for an O (Foundations in Necromancy) for Conjuration for a book with necromancy themes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Racism, Kidnapping, and Violence

strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book was so good! There were wonderful tropes I love and also magic and mythology I hadn’t heard before. I love fantasy stories that include mythology based off of places on Earth. This was based of West and North African Folktales.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Colonisation, Death, Xenophobia, Vomit, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Racial slurs, Animal death, Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Slavery, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Sexual content

audreyloopy's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

This was a slow starter for me, it wasn’t until the Solstasia events really got going that I got hooked. But after that it was a real page-turner! It’s a wonderfully rich world and the characters are a fun swap to typical fantasy tropes. I won’t call it “diverse” necessarily, but it’s definitely badly-needed POC rep in fantasy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Kidnapping

internationalreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death of parent, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Racism, Murder, Alcohol, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Classism, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

mars4444's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Self harm and Panic attacks/disorders