Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Sistersong by Lucy Holland

30 reviews

khazlettwrites's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense 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

Moderate: Blood, Deadnaming, Fire/Fire injury, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Gore, Murder, Transphobia, and Injury/Injury detail

catherinedsharp's review

adventurous inspiring sad 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

3.75

Beautiful text that wasn’t what I expected! With twists at every corner, characters you can’t decide whether to love or hate and a beautiful plot with magic, religion, war and a well written trans story.

Would recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Death, War, Blood, Deadnaming, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Fire/Fire injury

becksusername's review

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Colonisation, Deadnaming, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Sexism, Transphobia, and War

nadjareads56's review

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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Transphobia

laurajeangrace's review against another edition

emotional sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, War, Death of parent, Blood, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Confinement, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Xenophobia

Minor: Vomit

mooshake's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

listen there were problems with how much plot importance keyne was given in comparison to riva and sinne but it's 1 a.m. and i’ve been lying in bed for the past 20 minutes silently crying over the ending so.... ..¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Ableism, Deadnaming, Gore, Transphobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Medical content, Blood, Colonisation, Death, and Dysphoria

Minor: Pregnancy

thealienamongus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Blood, Grief, Body horror, War, and Transphobia

Moderate: Deadnaming, Terminal illness, and Death of parent

simon_toast's review

adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, War, Blood, Body horror, Violence, and Sexual content

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Death, and Death of parent

Minor: Deadnaming

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

I. Loved. It.

Some of the very first fantasy books I've read as a child were the Albion/Avalon books by Marion Zimmer Bradley. And especially the beginning of this book reminded me SO much of them, it has the same vibes. 

The story takes place in Ancient Britain between the departure of the Romans and the Saxons attacks. It's about 3 siblings, the children of a British king, about their life endangered by the Saxons, about their personal struggles, about magic (vs Christianity), about love and jealousy and betrayal and war and family and identity. Also, there is amazing LGBTQIA+ and disability representation. 

The further I got into the story, the harder it was to put the book down. I loved the atmosphere, the (very flawed) characters, the plotting of the story as a whole. There was one plot that was painfully predictable. Like it made everything more cruel because you knew it was coming. But then there were parts of the story that totally took me by surprise. 

So, if you don't want to ruin this surprise for you, don't research the ballad (The Twa Sisters), which the story is based on. I did after reading the book, and now I'm even more in awe by how well this retelling was done. Also, a modern version of the ballad is one of my favorite songs by Loreena Mckennitt... and I realized I had never paid enough attention to the lyrics before. Ooops. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Deadnaming, Misogyny, Outing, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and War

Minor: Sexual content

hannahbailey's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

Whilst this is a stand-out novel for me (my first 5 star read of 2022 too), the relationship between the siblings and the magical elements reminded me of The Once and Future Witches, so those who loved this book I think would also like this!

From beginning to end, I truly loved this book! There were many elements of it I didn't expect, from the trans and bigender characters to the paganism and magic system which I think enhanced my reading experience. It's a retelling of a ballad I'm unfamiliar with, yet whilst it brings modern ideas (which aren't as modern as people think) the narrative and setting still felt very authentic and real.

Despite the focus on the three siblings, the side characters also had a lot of depth to them and I found myself enjoying each POV equally (which is very unusual for me!). I was also captivated by the plot as well as the tenuous relationships between the siblings. I wasn't sure if the ending could do the rest of the book justice, but Lucy Holland certainly pulled it out of the bag! That said, there were some subplots I could see coming from a mile-off, but because the novel is rich in its descriptive atmosphere and characterisation, this didn't affect my enjoyment of the story. Seeing these themes in an ancient/historical setting was really refreshing and different too, so I hope to see more historical-fiction or retelling authors weave this into their stories.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Transphobia, Violence, War, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Deadnaming, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Pregnancy, Vomit, and Religious bigotry