Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

75 reviews

lizdon's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Racism, Grief, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Body horror, Slavery, Murder, Child abuse, and Violence

tilo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

This was my first book by Brandon Sanderson and I understand the praise. The magic system is fascinating and I love that you do not only learn along with the protagonist(s) but discover that there are many mysteries revolving around it that even the characters have not figured out yet. Every storyline is intriguing and by the end, when all of them came together, the plottwists - some of them excruciatingly casually dropped (in a good way) - had me audibly gasping. The plot unfolds in such a clever and seamless way - truly inspiring for my own creative writing! 
I enjoyed the characters. For a good first part of the novel, I found them not very likeable (which is not something I need in a novel, anyway) but that made them seem more real and complex. From the first page, I wanted to learn more about them and became very attached to their plans and hopes.
The ending finished the main story line of the book but kept so many mysteries open and introduced new problems that I cannot wait to read more about in the second novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Torture, Violence, Child death, Murder, Genocide, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Racism, War, Slavery, Abandonment, and Blood

Moderate: Grief, Infertility, Body horror, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexism and Rape

myrini's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Violence, War, Blood, Death, Slavery, Torture, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Classism, Sexism, Vomit, Child death, Sexual violence, Rape, and Racism

midnacine's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Okay so I really enjoyed this book, however there were a few things that prevented me from giving the full five stars, primarily the fact that the beginning was on the slow side and the magic system was very confusing to understand until about 100 pages in when it was finally explained to the MC. It was also a little tough to keep track of all of the characters and perspective changes until about halfway through. Once I got past all of that though, really a fun fantasy adventure with a unique magic system, compelling plot, and some great characters! Though I could do without the 5 year age gap between Vin and Elend, and I wish it passed the Bechdel test. Definitely gonna read the rest of the main trilogy!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, Slavery, and Classism

Moderate: Blood, Abandonment, Grief, Body horror, Misogyny, and Gore

Minor: Rape, Child death, and Sexual harassment

kouran94's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: War

caskraft's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Grief, Body horror, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Classism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Murder, and Torture

Minor: Infidelity, Death of parent, Child death, Abandonment, Alcohol, and War

puttingwingsonwords's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

Unique and interesting magic system, but all in all the story was... fine?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Colonisation, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Death of parent, Genocide, Racial slurs, and Rape

fox_at_the_circus's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring mysterious reflective 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? No

4.75

I loved this book and the world it was set in. The premise of it is so good and so is the magic system. And the characters are all just so good and well-written. 
Vin and Kelsier as the main characters, a newby and a master, are a great way to give exposure and explain things to the readers, too, without it seeming out of place. And having them both as the POV characters is also a great way to show their relationship developing. And I loved their (father-daughter) relationship and also the other relationships in this book. The heist crew as found family planning a revolution, but also just joking around with each other was so fun to read. And the ball scenes with Vin and Elend were adorable and gave me YA-vibes.
I liked that, with the heist crew and rebellion leader working togethere, there were interesting discussions about what is needed and ethical for a rebellion. And even the crew having varying opinions on it, like Kelsier and Vin treating the skaa guards differently. Also Sazed and his mission to find a fitting belief for everyone and his thoughts on religion as something that suits you rather than fitting yourself into one was really interesting. Both very cool ideas and a fantasy book is such a good place to explore different ideas and views.
Also, the writing was so good! There were scenes in the beginning, that made me wonder about certain truths the world/setting, that later got resolved so perfectly. And also some plot twists where kinda pretictable, but the the real plot twist would be so much more than I could have predicted. Which really made me feel respected as a reader, because the puzzle pieces where all there and it didn't just ocme out of nowhere. And there's questions left open for me to definitely read the other books in the series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Violence, Slavery, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Death, Gore, Torture, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Body horror

risaleel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Slavery, War, Violence, Classism, Physical abuse, Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Torture, and Trafficking

Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Abandonment, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Medical content, and Murder

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, and Sexual harassment

louisallama's review

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.5

While I did enjoy this book, and I feel like the ending elevated it from three stars to three and a half stars, I think that it really would have benefited from losing about a hundred pages. 640 pages was just too long and while there was stuff happening the whole time, the book still felt slow paced. Not a specific hundred pages, I just don't think that we needed to see everything in such detail.
I did enjoy the ending, I thought it was a rather satisfying conclusion. I'm not sure Brandon Sanderson is the author for me though, because I personally find his writing very 'telling rather than showing' and while I don't always need a lot of flowery descriptions and deep character introspection, again, 640 pages is a lot to just be told what is happening. If you like books where you just turn your brain off and have the story happen at you, then you'll like this book.
And while I definitely didn't predict all of the plot twists, the one about

the Lord Ruler not being the one who wrote the logbook

was kind of obvious by the time it was revealed.
Also the extreme amount of parallels between

this book and Brandon Sanderson's own Steelheart

just made me kind of mad.

At the end it felt like I'd just read the same book in a different font.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Hate crime, Abandonment, Classism, Genocide, and Slavery

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Rape, Child death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Blood, Murder, War, and Death of parent

The 16 year old main character gets into a relationship with

a man who is 4-5 years older than her and is a member of the class that oppresses her