Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

L'impero del vampiro by Jay Kristoff

13 reviews

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

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

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

anapaula's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Murder

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content

cluelessjr's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Drug use

chazleyk's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Gore, and Mental illness

beasbookburrowxo's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense slow-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: Animal cruelty and Animal death

el_pender's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Outing

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, and Child death

Minor: Addiction and Alcoholism

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

I made it to book 2 chapter 4 and the main character is is incredibly unlikeable and honestly kinda whiny that i had to just give up. Also there is hardly any action as well. Like 3 cool parts up till this point. The rest is like lore and politics 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

sandrae04's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Drug use, Torture, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, and War