Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

L'impero del vampiro by Jay Kristoff

38 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

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

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!

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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

nancy_sch's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

0.25

A messy mash-up of other stories told with other people’s song lyrics, an abundance of adjectives (some of which should be adverbs) and misogynistic, homophobe swear-phrases in every other line. 
For all that, the 700-odd pages are just the preamble to the actual story that’s still to come.
Hard to believe this passed a plagiarism test. 
Hard to believe they’re not being sued for copyright infringements. 
Hard to believe an editor checked this or publisher might think this worthy of publication. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, and Toxic friendship

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

kkuesters's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

1.5

DNF @25% I gave this book about 200 pages to make me dread picking it up less, but it just was not doing it for me. The constant mention of whores and objectification of women was honestly quite grating, and I didn't think the plot made up for that. The artwork is gorgeous though and I am sad it didn't work for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

faehistory's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A well-written take on vampires that walks the line between horror and fantasy. Gabriel manages to be a flawed character who never quite crosses over into being unlikeable and I found myself emphasising that even when he makes poor choices. The setting manages to be dark and bleak without crossing into so dark you find yourself apathetic. 

Some of the bigger twists you can perhaps see coming if you have read a lot of fantasy because they fit the narrative conventions of this kind of book but are still well executed and some do take you by surprise. 

There is a really interesting thorough line about the difference between faith and organised religion which ties into Gabriel's main arc. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Abandonment

Minor: Classism

amy14's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

booksalacarte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.75

Empire of the vampire- 4.75⭐️ 3🌶️

Epic Fantasy

Vampires

Catholic inspired religion

Storytelling style narration

Confinement

Secret society 

War

🏳️‍🌈 side characters

Tw: addiction, homofobia

To break it down to the bare minimal… this was an interview with the vampire styled story with dual timelines and a flawed MC. The story was slow, as journeying can be, but entertaining the whole time.

So often male authors, choose to sanitize the softer emotions in their books, to push the physical. Moving the plot forward for the glory and the heroism of their main character. As a woman, the more sterilized approach to emotion in men’s writing, tends to turn me away… 

This book is anything but emotionally sterile. I found myself enjoying the emotional and spiritual journey of the main character and the friendships and bonds created and broken.

There were so many plot twists. Character flaws were aplenty. 

I must have the humor of a 14 year old boy, because some of the insults and jokes had me chuckling.

The things that I didn’t enjoy include misogyny  standard to European medieval feudalism centered around religious orthodoxy. If you thought a book that was inspired by medieval Catholic Europe was going to be without it being present, I don’t know what to tell you. But it’s there, it’s never fun to have to read in excess. But it’s an adult fantasy, with cursing and I get it.

Bad guys as pedophiles. Yup. Tracks. But the other underage sexualization was not great. A lot of times this is used as a chance to show how disgusting the enemy is. And it’s just gross all around… even when the MC is underage. 

I am so looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail