Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Blood Debts by Terry J. Benton-Walker

45 reviews

booksthatburn's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

5.0

Clement (Clem) and Cristina (Cris) are twins, Gen(erational) magic users living in New Orleans. Cris has recently pulled away from her magic because she thinks a spell she performed is responsible for their father's death. It's a secret so terrible that she hasn't shared it with anyone, leaving Clem adrift and frustrated, not understanding why his sister refuses to do this thing she's so good at and used to love. Their family has been displaced from their previous position in the Gen Magic Council, of which their grandmother was the queen before she was killed and blamed for someone else's death. BLOOD DEBTS deals with trauma from racism, cultural appropriation, and self-interested cruelty, and how connection and family ties can help the Trudeau family withstand everything hurled against them.

Clem and Cris are the two main narrators, but occasional sections follow other perspectives, such as the girl who used to be Cris's best friend. Echoing what played out between their grandmothers decades ago, she turned cruel and seems to have made it her mission to wreck Cris's life. Clem has his own problems, frustrated with how his sister has pulled away since their father died, he's trying to feel connected with her seemingly revolving cast of brief links. He doesn't understand Cris dating a white boy and she doesn't understand him dating so many boys. I love the way their dynamic is written, because it really feels like teenage siblings who want to connect to each other but don't have the experience to understand the way that their mutual teasing is alternately a barrier as much as it's a connection. They're also stressed out by their mother's illness, but almost as soon as the story begins they discover it was unnaturally caused and the only way to protect their family is to get all of their aunts to come home and help cast a protection. There's a wonderful mix of showing and specifically processing the way the ways that the discord and difficulty communicating between their mother and her sisters has then made it harder for Clem and Cris to navigate their relationship with each other.

Digging into the past unearths old wrongs and tangled threads, highlighting misery in the present. The twins are following their own paths of restitution, reconciliation, and resolution as they work, not quite at cross-purposes, but on parallel tracks of investigation as they each try to find out who was hurting their mother, and whether anyone is still trying to hurt them. Cris is navigating her relationship with her with her boyfriend, and Cris meets a new boy who sweeps him away.  

I love the ending, things are wrapped up in a way that feels immensely satisfying for 95% of the story, and then rather dramatically unresolved for a plot point so tantalizing that I'm eager for the planned sequel. The dangling threads make it feel real and alive, but the way in which it's unresolved sets it firmly back in the realm of drama and fantasy in a way that I find very pleasing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Forced institutionalization, and Confinement

Moderate: Sexual assault, Drug use, Death of parent, Rape, Alcohol, Bullying, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Car accident, Death, and Medical content

Minor: Pregnancy, War, Body shaming, Mental illness, Vomit, Fatphobia, Infertility, and Self harm

sarahsbookss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Gore, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Car accident, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Homophobia, Bullying, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, and Cursing

eliselerario's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gore, Child death, Confinement, Violence, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Drug use, and Racism

Minor: Car accident

takarakei's review

dark emotional mysterious 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

I didn't love this as much as I was hoping which is a shame. The magic in this book is really amazing, and there were some truly fascinating parts to read. Also a few 'gasp' moments that surprised me (in a good way). However, there were far too many background characters and their roles were not adequately described, so even though I took notes I was still confused. For example, there are these magical 'councils' that oversee the different types of magic and there are people on these councils who are mentioned ex: 'so-and-so is priestess of etc' but there's no explanation of what that means? So I felt the world-building could have been fleshed out more.

3/5 🌶️ -

there is one explicit sex scene 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Car accident, Gun violence, Homophobia, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Bullying, Sexual assault, Grief, and Hate crime

Minor: Slavery, Addiction, and Alcohol

SA/rape:

Main character Cris finds out her boyfriend used a love spell on her and their whole relationship is a farce - they had fooled around, but not 'gone all the way' yet...

karenreadsbooks's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Violence

jouan87's review

mysterious sad tense medium-paced

2.0

I received this book for review on netgalley. It is twin 16 year olds whose mom is dying but it turn out it's a hex and they have to figure out who is doing it. The book is okay, some things are clearly left for the next one. It is labeled as YA however, there is sex in this book between teenagers, and I'm not okay with that in a book that is supposed to be YA. That instantly made me want to dnf but I wanted to know the end

thank you netgalley for letting me review this book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Child abuse, Alcoholism, Car accident, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, Racism, and Racial slurs

patricktreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

Blood Debts I went into knowing nothing about it other than it was a YA story that had magic. I was BLOWN away by the intricacies of the story, the magic system and the magical factions that our characters come from. It is a very dark story, but in the best way. The writing was smooth and very easy to follow, but at the same time it was still complex with plenty of detailing to keep the story intriguing and moving. 

The arc I received (special thanks to the publisher and Netgalley) was an audio edition of the book. The narration was done amazingly, and I think the production was pretty spot on to how well it was also written. I really hope that in the next book, the same narration and production team are used to keep that same stellar performance going. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Body horror, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Death, Drug use, Racism, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Abandonment, Bullying, Classism, and Death of parent

amethystandherbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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: Racism, Death, Murder, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Infertility, Medical content, Alcohol, Sexual content, Classism, Chronic illness, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, and Gun violence

trippyotter's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

 Siblings, Clem and Chris, are still grieving their father's death when their mother becomes ill. No treatment - magical or otherwise - has been able to save their mother from her ailment.

After a grim medical check-up, they discovered their mother wasn't ill. She'd actually been cursed.

Left reeling the from the betrayal, they're determined to discover who could and would set out to destroy their family.

The level of deceit and hatred amongst the characters and community is twisted over the generations into a raw and tangible thing about to combust.

I really wanted to rate the book higher, but there's so many point of views and loose threads that are condensed into such a short timeframe, that it's a lot to unpack and doesn't necessarily flow smoothly. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, Sexual content, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Murder, Racism, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

chronicacademia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Mental illness, Colonisation, and Rape