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thirdeyeangel23's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
I have so many mixed emotions!!! The Blood Gift is book two in The Blood Gift Duology and boy was it an epic conclusion. Things pick up right where we left off at the end of The Blood Trials with Ikenna and her newly formed squad. Once you’re on the ride, you don’t get off until the very end. Grievances are sorted out, evils are slain, and justice is finally served, but for all the action you can feel that this was intended to be more than a duology. Davenport does an amazing job at tying up the story while keeping you on the edge of your seat, but we miss out on seeing a lot of character development. With there being a new team and budding romance there just wasn’t room for us to really see how deeply those relationships formed which is what I desperately craved for Ikenna. Overall I loved the story and appreciate how the author left hints for more to come from these characters.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War
raspberryvanguard's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.5
You earned your stripes w me Ms. Davenport!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment
alyanna_dm's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
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? It's complicated
4.0
I love this duology. Would've given it 5 stars except I feel like it was too fast-paced and would've been better off as a trilogy. It just didn't feel like a finale, I was hoping to see a third book was announced!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Blood, and War
Moderate: Sexual assault
nerdy_book_mom'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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, and Blood
onthesamepage'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? No
3.0
ARC provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
So, the good news is, compared to the first book, Ikenna frustrated me a lot less. The bad news is, this left space in my head to start noticing a lot of things about the writing, and none of it made me very happy.
Plot-wise, this is a complete departure from book one, which makes sense considering where we left off. There's no mystery left. Ikenna and her team are hellbent on getting rid of the corruption within Mareen. Before they can do that, they need to take care of the Blood Emperor, who is once more terrorizing the planet. It's a very straightforward plot of "how are we going to defeat the bad guys", but it's fairly fast-paced and overall entertaining enough. And I mostly liked the characters. But a lot of this doesn't feel like it's the end of a series. This is reinforced by the end of the book, which basically implies there's a whole new story waiting to happen. Things are set up by the author that never get any payoff. For example, the book starts off with Ikenna trying to broker an alliance with someone on the wrong side of the law. She demands soldiers and weapons, only she doesn't really do much with either of them afterwards, or with the alliance in general. There's maybe one or two off-hand mentions, and that's it, which makes me wonder why the author bothered to include it at all. It also leans a lot more fantasy than science fiction compared to The Blood Trials.
Other than all the major plot conveniences that riddle this story, I have two major criticisms.
The first has to do with Ikenna. Look, I get that she was always going to be special as our main character. She has the Blood Gift and all of that. But her level of special receives like three upgrades over the course of this book, and I guess it's not something I expect to see if we're talking about an adult fantasy. This much Chosen One-ness is something I see more often within YA, and it irked me. I also had trouble buying into her supposed development. One of my biggest issues with the first book was how little she thought things through, and how she kept deciding that people were murderers based on very flimsy "evidence". Only now I'm supposed to believe that she has become some sort of strategic mastermind.
But I could've ignored that, because I didn't have very high expectations for her anyway. However, I couldn't ignore all the issues I had with the writing.
The author relies very, very heavily on similes/comparisons, whether they're necessary or not. Ikenna can never just be angry, she has to be angry like a thousand raging suns. Something can't just hurt, it hurts like fifty daggers stabbing into her stomach one after the other, the last one dragging her intestines out of her, so a final blade can twist into them until twenty gallons of blood come pouring out. Here are a few examples so you can get a sense of what to expect:
So, the good news is, compared to the first book, Ikenna frustrated me a lot less. The bad news is, this left space in my head to start noticing a lot of things about the writing, and none of it made me very happy.
Plot-wise, this is a complete departure from book one, which makes sense considering where we left off. There's no mystery left. Ikenna and her team are hellbent on getting rid of the corruption within Mareen. Before they can do that, they need to take care of the Blood Emperor, who is once more terrorizing the planet. It's a very straightforward plot of "how are we going to defeat the bad guys", but it's fairly fast-paced and overall entertaining enough. And I mostly liked the characters. But a lot of this doesn't feel like it's the end of a series. This is reinforced by the end of the book, which basically implies there's a whole new story waiting to happen. Things are set up by the author that never get any payoff. For example, the book starts off with Ikenna trying to broker an alliance with someone on the wrong side of the law. She demands soldiers and weapons, only she doesn't really do much with either of them afterwards, or with the alliance in general. There's maybe one or two off-hand mentions, and that's it, which makes me wonder why the author bothered to include it at all. It also leans a lot more fantasy than science fiction compared to The Blood Trials.
Other than all the major plot conveniences that riddle this story, I have two major criticisms.
The first has to do with Ikenna. Look, I get that she was always going to be special as our main character. She has the Blood Gift and all of that. But her level of special receives like three upgrades over the course of this book, and I guess it's not something I expect to see if we're talking about an adult fantasy. This much Chosen One-ness is something I see more often within YA, and it irked me. I also had trouble buying into her supposed development. One of my biggest issues with the first book was how little she thought things through, and how she kept deciding that people were murderers based on very flimsy "evidence". Only now I'm supposed to believe that she has become some sort of strategic mastermind.
But I could've ignored that, because I didn't have very high expectations for her anyway. However, I couldn't ignore all the issues I had with the writing.
The author relies very, very heavily on similes/comparisons, whether they're necessary or not. Ikenna can never just be angry, she has to be angry like a thousand raging suns. Something can't just hurt, it hurts like fifty daggers stabbing into her stomach one after the other, the last one dragging her intestines out of her, so a final blade can twist into them until twenty gallons of blood come pouring out. Here are a few examples so you can get a sense of what to expect:
Conversely, the Blood Emperor allows his savagery, the utter barbarism that comprises him, to ooze from his skin like an open sore he doesn’t bother to bandage. It washes over him and coats him like an exoskeleton he clings to and dons as an additional weapon to spread fear and terrorize all who have the misfortune of stumbling into his orbit.
His cheekbones and jawline are pronounced, sharp as the Khanaian blade pressed against my hip and concealed beneath the black tactical pants and shirt Ajani first captured me in.
It’s so glacial it feels like icicles punch through my insides while my heart and blood and muscle and tissue and sinew freeze over.
I can't confirm this, but I wouldn't be surprised if every page had at least one sentence similar to these.
The author also really likes to use sentences with extra full stops/periods:
I grip the edge of the seat. “Be. More. Succinct. Immediately.”
Seriously, nobody talks like that.
Then there are sentences that are weird/nonsensical:
“What do you have for us?” Reed asks, his low, steady tone exuding all I could want from a voice.
This may sound like nitpicking, but I wouldn't have noticed all of this if it wasn't all over the book. I just don't think the writing is very good in general, and if you're someone who tends to see patterns and stylistic choices within the writing, you might be bothered.
(All quotes are from an ARC of the book and may not match with the published version. They are only included as an indication of the writing style.)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder
bookishmikay's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
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? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore and Blood
Moderate: Cursing, Genocide, Sexual assault, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
rbz39's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Sadly, I found the second book of the duology underwhelming and a frustrating anticlimax after being wowed by the first book. Everything zips along to an unsatisfying end and the characters all behave like cardboard cutouts. Ikenna is childish and homicidal and constantly sporting a “savage smile” while she gets proven wrong until the universe decides that she should win. The villains are mustache twirling and flat. The ending left me wanting so much more. The first big letdown of the year for me!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and War
Moderate: Death of parent
shannnne_reads_words's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual assault, Grief, Death of parent, and Classism
Minor: Child death, Genocide, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexism
ebook_em's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
3.5
The Blood Gift picks up where The Blood Trials left off and I was so excited to read more of Ikenna’s adventures.
Ikenna is such a compelling protagonist to begin with and I thought her character development was even better in this book than in The Blood Trials. Her anger and arrogance took on new, fascinating dimensions as she became more strategic and learned how to harness her gift. I was skeptical of the romance subplot in the first book but I came around to it in The Blood Gift. I also loved the found family elements within Ikenna’s squad and thought her encounters with the gods were really interesting. Similar to the Blood Trials, this book offers great commentary on colonialism, racism, sexism, patriotism, militarism, tyranny, and so much more.
Despite how much there was to love about this book, a few things frustrated me and ultimately lowered my rating. Without the trials in book one, the plot of the Blood Gift was variously driven by political intrigue, character relationships, and supernatural elements — but none felt fully developed. The world building usually happened through info dumps in dialogue, making it a bit clunky and hard to follow. A petty gripe is that the word “suffused” appeared so often that I was taken out of the story every time it appeared (all authors have overused words, so the fact that this particular one grated on me might just be a “me” problem). Finally, though this isn’t a complaint about the series itself, I wish I had known ahead of time that the books read like young adult novels; I have no problem with YA-ish writing but I was thrown off by incorrect expectations.
My favorite part of The Blood Gift was the last 20% or so — if more of the book had resembled the last quarter, I might have rated it 5 stars. Overall, this was a satisfying end to the duology and even though it didn’t meet all my hopes and dreams for the sequel, it was an enjoyable read.
My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for an ARC of this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Violence, and War
Moderate: Genocide, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Death of parent