Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

L'impero del vampiro by Jay Kristoff

70 reviews

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

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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

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 :(

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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. 

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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

bohboh's review against another edition

Not great writing. Mishandling of French and generally uncomfortable sexism / misogyny plagues it. My eyes hurt from rolling them so much at the descriptors for the supposed macho-manly Silversaint knights. I do not understand the appeal, and reading about the dozens of controversies surrounding the author online, I'm quite comfortable leaving this one DNF.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

nesstayls's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

4.0

Even though this had quite a slow start, once the characters and world were established, the twists and turns really kept me on my toes. The slow reveal to the backstory of the main character was well done. The exploration of religious themes and faith really helped cement the motives of the characters and overarching plot. The action scenes kept me hooked and I will definitely be reading the next book to see how this all turns out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Religious bigotry, and War

Minor: Drug use and Homophobia

jesshart8's review against another edition

dark sad 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

marinevdm's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective 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: Addiction, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Homophobia and Religious bigotry

straybutterfly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

vilde_a's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

Absolutely devoured this book! Perfect for a holiday when you have time to get into it quickly. The visuals the author manages to tell is absolutely stunning. The world building is believable and felt deep enough. The occasional illustrations in the book is a very nice treat!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Grief, and War

Minor: Bullying, Drug use, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Outing, and Classism

sw33tkay's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War