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teaforghosts's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Outing, and Alcohol
karin_h_p_d's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, and War
exteenawreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
(3-4 ⭐? can't decide) I have two wolves within me: one finger-gunning and saying "Niiice, hot slutty vampires" and the other screaming "The Bechdel Test! Misogyny! Fridging!! Gross obsession with sexualizing underage kids!"
So ya, I dunno.
I think the writing was excellent, the world was immersive and thrilling, and the story compelling. The battle scenes are expertly written and many moments are truly exhilarating. The prose is beautiful and poetic, the characters are memorable and unique. I really enjoyed what was basically a randomly generated DND party of diverse folks, forced together and fighting against all odds on a quest to save the broken world. It seems to heavily take inspiration from other media I love like The Witcher and The Last of Us, though that meant I wasn't too surprised by the direction. It was just so painfully obviously written by a man the feminist in me couldn't help but cringe often. And don't get me wrong, I get that the point of showing all of this violence and hatred of women is to highlight it as toxic and wrong. But the way it's written also glorifies it, and the story isn't about fighting the patriarchy - it's about a man out for revenge and glory, his enemy just happens to also be thinly veiled patriarchy and religious zealotry.
Ex: A vampire obsessed with teenage girls and turning them to be his unwilling slaves, literally pulling his carriage all half naked? = Evil, this is a villain, we don't root for him. But the writing itself directs the reader to see these things moreso as acts of great power and strength, and the simple truth of what a man would do if they were infinite and unkillable. This vampire is described very positively as beautiful, strong, something to be respected and feared. Yes he's a villain, but I'm also not convinced the author doesn't sort of revere men like him or at least see this as the average man's ideal. And the many examples of this throughout are hard to ignore.
Overall I did really like it, I just feel a little icky about it. And I truly could have done without the underage kid sexualizing. And the animal deaths :(
So ya, I dunno.
I think the writing was excellent, the world was immersive and thrilling, and the story compelling. The battle scenes are expertly written and many moments are truly exhilarating. The prose is beautiful and poetic, the characters are memorable and unique. I really enjoyed what was basically a randomly generated DND party of diverse folks, forced together and fighting against all odds on a quest to save the broken world. It seems to heavily take inspiration from other media I love like The Witcher and The Last of Us, though that meant I wasn't too surprised by the direction. It was just so painfully obviously written by a man the feminist in me couldn't help but cringe often. And don't get me wrong, I get that the point of showing all of this violence and hatred of women is to highlight it as toxic and wrong. But the way it's written also glorifies it, and the story isn't about fighting the patriarchy - it's about a man out for revenge and glory, his enemy just happens to also be thinly veiled patriarchy and religious zealotry.
Ex: A vampire obsessed with teenage girls and turning them to be his unwilling slaves, literally pulling his carriage all half naked? = Evil, this is a villain, we don't root for him. But the writing itself directs the reader to see these things moreso as acts of great power and strength, and the simple truth of what a man would do if they were infinite and unkillable. This vampire is described very positively as beautiful, strong, something to be respected and feared. Yes he's a villain, but I'm also not convinced the author doesn't sort of revere men like him or at least see this as the average man's ideal. And the many examples of this throughout are hard to ignore.
Overall I did really like it, I just feel a little icky about it. And I truly could have done without the underage kid sexualizing. And the animal deaths :(
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and War
jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
An ambitious start to a series this book is a monster at over 700 pages. I found its format to be quite unique in its format of our tale being dictated as a story to the enemy of our protagonist. You see two sides of Gabriel , the darkened drunk who’s lost his faith, family and friends and the silver saint, national hero who still had hope and may have been the key to our problems.
With days death, the light is nearly gone making it perfect for the vampires to rise and walk in the day when they previously couldn’t. This story definitely focuses on worldbuilding to set the scene for the rest of the series, but also sets a tone of revenge between Gabriel and the Voss ruler. I enjoyed how intricate the world is, with nations broken down into main and indigenous areas as well as establishing a ruling religious system as well as opposing pagan beliefs.
From grief to religious trauma, death to homophobia, murder to betrayal, and more this book covers a lot of tropes and topics and can certainly be a hard read with its length and depth. For some it may be confusing to follow at points as we jump from the story back to a scene of our MC being made to tell the story for documentation so it isn’t linear in its timeline but it was a unique choice to format which certainly had me intrigued.
It’s a shame that kristoff is the author as honestly i enjoyed this and would continue the series but with his fetishisation of wlw minors and appropriating and criticising Māori culture in nevernight i morally can’t support him as an author and wouldn’t have purchased had i know this beforehand.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail
jessinova's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
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
5.0
This book was incredible. I never got bored, I laughed, I cried. It’s a journey you take with, Gabe…a hell of a journey is what you get. The way this book was written really made me feel like I knew Gabe inside and out. You felt what he felt, the misery, happiness, excitement, pain. The relationships with characters were well fleshed out. This book was awesome. I am going straight into the second.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Blood
Moderate: Child death
dragonheartbookworm's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
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
4.5
A quick note that the main reason this isn't a five star read is because there's a few times in which Kristoff alternates between character's names and an alternative title for them and it takes a bit to figure out who is who; there are also other places where the pacing moves almost too fast but that also could've been my eyes skipping lines lol
It took me forever to decide to read this book, partly because after my in-depth analysis of Interview the Vampire in college and my dislike of Twilight, I've not been the biggest fan of vampire stories. However, a few books are quickly changing my mind in that not all vampire books are the same (duh)
Kristoff takes you on quite the journey as Gabriel de Leon recounts the story of how he got to where he is. There is a lot of intense fighting, a lot of crude banter, and so much character growth.
What I found most fascinating in this book was the integration of religion into how the Silversaints were supposed to live their lives in addition to the fact that the Silversaints themselves are known as palebloods, or half-vampires.
Honestly, it's hard to explain more without spoiling a lot of the story but if you enjoy dense worldbuilding with a main character whose primary life motto is that it's better to be a bastard than a hero, then give this book a try.
Will I read book two? Yes, because I have questions. So many questions!
It took me forever to decide to read this book, partly because after my in-depth analysis of Interview the Vampire in college and my dislike of Twilight, I've not been the biggest fan of vampire stories. However, a few books are quickly changing my mind in that not all vampire books are the same (duh)
Kristoff takes you on quite the journey as Gabriel de Leon recounts the story of how he got to where he is. There is a lot of intense fighting, a lot of crude banter, and so much character growth.
What I found most fascinating in this book was the integration of religion into how the Silversaints were supposed to live their lives in addition to the fact that the Silversaints themselves are known as palebloods, or half-vampires.
Honestly, it's hard to explain more without spoiling a lot of the story but if you enjoy dense worldbuilding with a main character whose primary life motto is that it's better to be a bastard than a hero, then give this book a try.
Will I read book two? Yes, because I have questions. So many questions!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
theroguereader's review against another edition
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
5.0
Jay Kristoff never ceases to amaze me with his writing. The stories pull you in and hold you close. Diverse characters from poc to lgbtq+. He makes you love and hate characters in his stories. The plot twists are ones I wouldn't have even thought about. The world building is spectacular. Nothing but praise for Empire of the Vampire and Jay Kristoff!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Murder
mathcatscats's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
4.0
Dang. That was rough (complimentary)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent
rouyuriko's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
Wow. Fantastic book. If you find yourself not loving the main character at first, hang in there. The way everything comes together at the end is wonderful. While covering a very dark world with a lot of hatred stemming from religious zealotry, the themes are well handled and there is a beautiful light in the ending message.
I borrowed this from the library but love it so much I want to buy a copy. The illustrations are also gorgeous! I don't even like vampire stories normally.
I borrowed this from the library but love it so much I want to buy a copy. The illustrations are also gorgeous! I don't even like vampire stories normally.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death and Child death
Minor: Homophobia
breezer'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
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Gore, Torture, Blood, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual content