Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

L'impero del vampiro by Jay Kristoff

5 reviews

elskede's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

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

susanatherly's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad fast-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Biphobia, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Homophobia, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Genocide, Slavery, and Vomit

t_scottreviews's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

Originally Read = 10 September 2021
Re-Read = 26 October 2022

5 Stars
CAWPILE = 9.43

In the sight of the Seven Martyrs I declare this book a masterpiece! I've taken a while to write this because it's impossible to go into too much about what I loved about it without spoiling anything but I'll give it a shot. It's a dark, snarky, multi-layered, gore-filled deep dive into what a world without sunlight and inhabited by vampires would be like. This has great, immersive world building, complex and flawed characters as well as a rollercoaster of a plot that will have you feeling ALL the emotions. Now just to wait on book 2 with bated breath and pine for yet another thing that Jay Kristoff has come up with that doesn't exist.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Vomit, and Gaslighting

Minor: Pregnancy

applejacksbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

4.5

 
I received a copy in exchange for an honest review from Netgalley.

From start to finish I was captured by the storytelling. I loved the prose and how it's a story within a story. I can see the inspiration from Name of the Wind and Interview with a Vampire and The Da Vinci Code, but this somehow takes all three and makes them better.

Pros: I loved all of the creative new ways to insult someone. The jumping from the past being told and back to the present was really well done as the character that's "interviewing" our main guy asks him to explain things that the reader might not have understood otherwise.

Cons: I don't really have a ton at the moment. The flipping between French and Scots when the characters speak was a little rough to get through in some places.

Overall, though I love the story and I really cannot wait to get both copies of it that I ordered 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Blood, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, and War