Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

A Broken Blade by Melissa Blair

51 reviews

ninjatrombonist's review

dark 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm

Moderate: Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcoholism

moodreadererin's review

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

A Broken Blade follows Keera , the king's blade . She is given a mission to find the new enemy of the crown: the shadow . We go on this journal with her find the shadow and everything that precedes/follows . This is a story of addiction , loss , love , revenge , and violence . 

Things I liked :

-enemies to lovers execution was fantastic 

- one bed trope

-bipoc representation 

- exploration of loss , addiction, recovery in face of violence . 

-found family 

Things I didn't like :

- the pacing was slower than I liked . I didn't like it until the end /last part of the book.

With that said , I still recommend this book. I am looking forward to the sequel .

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Violence, Murder, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Vomit, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Stalking

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and War

lqvekanej's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Murder, Genocide, Death, Alcohol, Self harm, Sexual harassment, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Sexual content and Abandonment

jdeaver's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Alcoholism

missgarceau's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Alcoholism, Panic attacks/disorders, Trafficking, Gore, Slavery, Torture, War, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Vomit, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, Addiction, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Death, and Self harm

terezax's review

dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, War, Racism, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Self harm, Vomit, War, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts

kowhaiii's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

This was a great book! I loved Keera and her struggles throughout the story. I found her relationships alright, but somewhat stale at times. Wasn't a huge fan of the ending, but I'll have to wait for the sequel to really decide! Loved the diversity and queer representation in this book. I really couldn't fault the world, premise, or character concepts if I tried!

A Broken Blade was a brilliant debut novel with wonderful world building and memorable characters. I have many unanswered questions in the best and worst ways, and I can't wait for the series to continue! :D

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Colonisation, Addiction, Alcohol, and Self harm

Moderate: Death, Grief, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Blood, Murder, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, and Misogyny

Minor: Cursing, Genocide, Sexual assault, and Torture

dragonwriter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? No

4.0

“A Broken Blade” by Melissa Blair is a standard adult fantasy, with semi-slow pacing though it kept my attention pretty well.
Keera is a halfling, half elf, half human, and halflings belong to the king.  Males are sent to work hard labor, females are trained as assassins. Keera has been the King’s Blade, his chief assassin, for thirty years, using her position to protect other halflings or smuggle them to safety, but it isn’t enough. She’s still haunted by the lives she was ordered to snuff, forced to serve a king who doesn’t care about her people. Do when she’s ordered to eliminate the rebel Shade, she instead sees an opportunity to save all halflings by eliminating the royal line instead. But to do that, she has to win the trust of people who only see her as the King’s Blade.
A standard enemies to lovers story, my favorite part was when Keera yelled at Riven and made him see the importance of leadership and the consequences of poor leadership. It was a powerful section that shone bright in a paint-by-the-numbers fantasy.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Physical abuse

atthelibrarywithmegan's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This was such an incredible story. There is so much mystery in the  beginning and you think you’ve figured it out by the end. Then, BAM! I’m pretty sure my eyes almost popped out of my head with that cliffhanger. I love the slow burn, the enemies to lovers, secret underground network, and the bringing down the monarchy themes/tropes. I also really love that Keera isn’t a 16-20 year old FMC. She feels much more relatable. I cannot wait for book two!

TW: Alcoholism, self harm, murder, blood, colonization, racism.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Blood, Hate crime, Alcoholism, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Murder, and Racism

Minor: Sexual content

alilab14's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective 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

4.75

This is written by an Indigenous Women (Anishinaabe-kwe) and this fantasy world has some Indigenous influences into its story. So Keera reflects the damages from colonialism and intergenerational trauma that Indigenous people still face. The main character suffers from alcohol abuse and self harm and after reading others reviews, from assuming non-Indigenous reviewers, I will like to say an an Indigenous reader this is not written to be harmful or romanticized but actually very hopeful and I’m very glad Melissa gave Keera a very deeply human internal battle. But I will also say it is hard to read so if you may be sensitive to these topics, especially if you have been affected by colonialism, question  if you can read it, but Keeras journey is full of hope. There is a content warning in the front of book and on this website 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Alcohol, Addiction, Violence, Self harm, Murder, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Colonisation, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Genocide

Minor: Sexual violence