Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem

16 reviews

kbairbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad 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

A huge thank you to the author, and publisher, for giving me an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

If you love N. Caceres and Chelsea Abdullah then you will LOVE Sara Hashem. This book was dark, cruel, and angry. But it was also a beautiful discovery that love is worthwhile, an incredible tale of friendship, and the most delicious slow burn I’ve come across in a while. The authors voice was so strong, the descriptions were so rich, and the world was so fleshed out. And Arin? UGH. YES. Everything about his, please and thank you. And that ending? PHEW!! I blew through it like my eyes were on fire and finishing the book was the fire extinguisher. SO GOOD. I can’t wait for book two!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Violence, Confinement, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, War, Blood, Genocide, Gore, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, Animal death, Body horror, Classism, Drug use, and Misogyny

martine3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Child abuse, Blood, Violence, Torture, and Slavery

Moderate: Racism and Vomit

Finally something worth reading and engaging for me and real enemies to lovers (I hope). The only minor complaint is that the tournament is so often used in fantasy (and very similar to a mix between the Hunger Games and the Goblet of Fire) that it felt repetitive even though it was actually engaging. But I hope there won't be a focus on politics and specifically on other kingdoms later on because I am interested mainly in the main characters. I also hope for once that surprise pregnancy or a babylogue won't be employed (I don't dare dream for a heroine who is childfree or doesn't mention and occupy herself with children but I am fed up with Maas' natalist propaganda).

n0elle's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Death of parent, Murder, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, War, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, and Pedophilia

soniajoy98's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Classism, Cursing, Torture, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, and Cultural appropriation

Moderate: Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Incest, Rape, Child death, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, and War

maaikereadsbooks_'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Many thanks to Little, Brown Books and Sara Hashem for the advanced copy of The Jasad Heir via NetGalley, in return for my honest and unbiased review. Quick note: I don’t recap plots in my reviews, as it’s easy enough to read the book’s synopsis and blurbs, I purely focus on my feelings & opinions of how the books makes me feel. 

A solid fantasy series beginning! 

Although slow to start, and perhaps following a slightly predictable format, Sara Hashem uses excellent world-building techniques to create an intriguing society with mysterious factions hiding in spooky forests, questionable spectres hiding in the protagonist’s mind, holding entire conversations, and power-hungry politicians stepping on the lower classes to get what they want (where have we seen that before?!). 

I did get lost at times with all the new words, deities, etc in the five languages featured in the books, it didn’t hamper the reading process. 

I am a character reader and there was plenty of character-building and development in this book, but not at the detriment of the development and pacing of the plot. 

It took a while to really get into the book, but once I did, I was hooked, and I found that, the more engaging the book became, the more the pace picked up. The pace varied from slow in the beginning to fast in the end, so I’ll even the overall pacing in my ratings to ‘medium’. 

There is a romantic element but it’s very slow burn and suitable for younger teens as the spice only goes up to kissing with no mention of anything beyond this. 

Overall I recommend this book, especially to those who enjoy a fantasy series with explained magic systems. 

Tropes: enemies/friends to lovers, forbidden love, forced proximity, lover(s) in denial, orphan, peril, secret royal 

Spice: 1/5 

Trigger warnings: Blood/Gore, Death, Death of a family member, Genocide, Grief, Poisoning, Violence, Weapons 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death, Blood, Death of parent, and Violence

Minor: Genocide

meltingpages's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

This did take a little bit for me to get into, there's a lot of world building thrown at you right away so it took a little bit of time for me to figure out what was going on. Once I got everything straight in my head though I really ended up enjoying this! I loved Sylvia as a character, she's so complex and how she feels about her culture is so fascinating. She also goes through a lot of growth and you can see her coming to terms with her past and what her future should and could be. The trials Sylvia competes in were a surprise, as they weren't really mentioned in the synopsis past mentioning a game, which I took to be a game of political intrigue, not a literal game. I'm all for Sylvia getting revenge for her people and taking her kingdom back and making it better than it was before. I'm all for morally gray characters, and Sylvia and Arin are the epitome of that. I also ended up really loving the Egyptian inspired world, with all the history and culture. I will say though one of the downsides to reading the arc is that you don't get the map, which I always use to help center myself and get an idea of what the world actually looks like and where all the locations are in reference to each other, especially in a book like this where they're travelling around from one kingdom to another. Overall though,  I'm so excited about this book, and I'm even more excited for the sequel!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Cultural appropriation