Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

L'impero del vampiro by Jay Kristoff

100 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

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

bluehourhs's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

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

rayne_styx48's review against another edition

Nearly killing a girl while eating her out on her period…. Why

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

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!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, and Murder

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

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

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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

kal517's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Homophobia, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy