Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

L'impero del vampiro by Jay Kristoff

37 reviews

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

bookbeetlebabe's review against another edition

Misogynistic and bro-tastic. Gabriel is annoying af. Repetitive, stupid humor, with an immense focus on sexual violence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Sexism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

sadspringroll's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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 this book. The world it built was akin to the Witcher, bloodborne, and/or castlevania. I loved the characters, the world building, aesthetic, lore, diversity, fight scenes and reveals. 

My only criticisms are the overuse of some French words/phrases. I liked most of them and thought it added depth and charm, but “ma famille”  and others did grate on me. The first half definitely had a few too many sexual innuendos in the dialogue for me. Sometimes it felt like forced humour (imo). I didn’t like the interview method as the storytelling mechanism at first, but got used to it fairly quickly and began to enjoy it. Finally, Locked like a secret was a phrase I’d never heard before yet read at least 3 times, but I know a lot of authors are guilty of this. 

So ultimately, if you hate French and aren’t keen on time jumps (or it’s the journey not the destination type stories) it may not be for you. But I can safely say this is a 10/10 book for me, even with its quirks.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Torture

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape and Pregnancy

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

leandrathetbrzero's review against another edition

- Inappropriate explicit sexual scene between minors
- Lazy world-building: A bunch of French people running around historical Europe (but instead Kristoff makes up a bunch of empire names rather than just placing them in our world); Christians vs Vampires
- Language is reminiscent of teenage boys who think crass dialogue and sexism is what masculinity is...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Sexual content

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

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

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

teri_b's review against another edition

I  tried, but this books is just not for me. Violence for violence's sake and mostly women on the receiving end of it, honestly? A book published in 2021? What a sadness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, and Murder

cambion's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Drug use, Sexism, Slavery, and War