Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

19 reviews

manaledi's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.5

An interesting magic theory with a good adventure. Might have needed a little more time in Qalia in the beginning to set up the class conflict between characters and why they hold onto beliefs so strongly. Sometimes hits you over the head with the moral questions of duty versus injustice versus family with a fairly brutal look at colonialism. Intrigued to see where we go from here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Colonisation, Violence, Xenophobia, Animal death, and War

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Death, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.0

I'm reviewing this about five months after I read it and unfortunately, not much memorable about this really stuck out, so I'm basing this off of notes that I took back then. The MC's search for her brother is what drew me in because I love a good sibling-related plot especially if there's danger involved or a case of finding the sibling and hoping they're not dead. The setting is very unique and I loved the Arabian inspiration. Qayn was an interesting character but besides that, nothing else appealed to me. The FMC and her love interest were severely lacking in chemistry and I was just not invested in their stories and development. A lot of parts in the book seemed to just drag and there was very little I can remember as far as scenes go that I thought were impactful. I will probably not be picking up the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Colonisation, and Animal death

Moderate: War and Grief

Minor: Sexual assault

honuzbubbles's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, War, Xenophobia, and Grief

Moderate: Gore, Bullying, Child abuse, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, and Classism

kirstenf's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Grief, Emotional abuse, Murder, Classism, Physical abuse, and Slavery

Minor: Bullying, Vomit, War, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Sexual assault, and Religious bigotry

ashli's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

The audiobook version was a delight. I was disappointed mid-read to realize this is part of a trilogy and, at this time, the only book that’s out. Other than that I can absolutely say that my beginning assumptions were only sometimes right. I did wish that the Djinn featured more heavily, but maybe in future books?

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Child death, Bullying, Colonisation, Abandonment, Grief, Animal death, and War

Minor: Torture, Domestic abuse, Suicide attempt, Police brutality, and Death

shannnne_reads_words's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Classism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and War

Minor: Death of parent, Vomit, Child death, Sexual assault, and Animal death

beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

Maiya Ibrahim's Spice Road - the first in a trilogy - is a novel that for me, worked best in its last 200 pages or so. 

I don't mean to say in this that the rest of it was bad, as it wasn't. Spice Road is a book that I am still trying to work out my feelings for. It took a long time for me to read it - over a month - and that may have had something to do with it.

I can appreciate Ibrahim's intent here, and for what I believe is a debut author, I think - objectively - that she has done some very accomplished work here. The worldbuilding and magic system was reasonably crafted and was well-communicated to the reader. The characters were well-drawn and developed, particularly Imani (our MC), Taha and Qayn. I puzzled over the motives of the latter two of these characters constantly, which I suspect was Ibrahim's intention. The action scenes were fast-paced and contrasted well with the quieter moments between.

Maybe the problem was despite the quality of the worldbuilding, fantasy elements, pacing and characters, I couldn't get into it enough, in a way that I'm really having trouble describing here. I did fly through the last 200 pages because it was compellingly written and really well-paced. But even then, I couldn't really warm up to it.

The ending of the book left me with enough potential to make me consider continuing the series when the next book is released, but I haven't decided yet.

Objectively, Spice Road is a good book. Emotionally, I'm not entirely sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Murder, Animal cruelty, Racism, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Torture, Xenophobia, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cultural appropriation and War

espressoreader's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Racism, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Bullying, Classism, Colonisation, Gaslighting, Grief, Slavery, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Addiction, Confinement, and Police brutality

marleywrites's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

5.0

Ibrahim blew me away with this book. I went in thinking it would be a book I enjoyed, but I didn’t expect to love it as much as I did. The prose was beautiful and unique, and I loooved the pacing of the story. Every fight and chase scene was well choreographed and epic. I felt like I was racing through the streets with Imani. I swear I could feel the wind on my face. 

I see reviews saying the love triangle is boring, but I find it interesting. It’s not crucial to the plot at this point, but I can tell it’s getting set up to be important. I like seeing the relationships fall into place. 

There were a few heartbreaking moments that really drove home the severity of the situation, and I felt my heart break with Imani’s. And at the same time, her joy was my joy. 

And every kiss with Taha was so emotional. I felt that!

If you are squeamish, there are a few gross scenes. There’s an animal death, human deaths, and description of dead bodies. They are impactful scenes, but definitely not for the faint of heart. 

I’m excited to get to know Atheer and Qayn more in the sequels. I think Amira will turn out to be incredibly important as well, as she was quite clever and helpful in this book. I’m also curious to learn more about Taha’s relationship with his father. I’m curious about their auntie as well. 

I’m wondering what the future of this series will be, but I have a feeling it will be awesome and epic. I look forward to the sequel of this trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, War, Death, Animal death, Violence, Colonisation, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Vomit, Torture, and Murder

Minor: Sexual harassment

Description of decomposing bodies

bookishbasma's review against another edition

5.0

What a FANTASTIC read!! Arab inspired fantasy with magic fueled by tea, I was all over this book! As y’all probably know by now, finding good Arab representation can be a struggle for me and this book DELIVERED!! I really loved the world building and how so much of my culture was found in these places and customs. 

The characters and their relationships are one of my favorite parts of this book! You have a super intense enemies to lovers, back and forth between Taha and Imani, as well as the family relationships that I live for with Imani and her siblings. Their developments during this adventure was amazing and I want the next book immediately (also because I want to fight one of them). Speaking of the adventure, this plot sat me down and didn’t let me leave until I finished the whole book- I was GLUED to these pages! 

Overall, a phenomenal debut of an Arabian inspired fantasy and I highly recommend! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Animal death, and Grief