Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

6 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

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

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

anitaforthewin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

2.75

The premise of the book was really interesting, but honestly the book failed in execution. Tea-based magic was the main descriptor of the books, but honesty it was barely used, and definitely not explored. The pacing was a mess, the characters were not well developed, and the writing was so irritating. The author tried to sound smarter than she was, and ended up writing prose that was unnecessarily punctuated by big thesaurus words and strange turns of phrase. There was an attempt to do an enemies to lovers but it felt like I was getting whiplash when the characters would go from caring about each other to hating each other -- in the space of a sentence, sometimes within the same sentence. I had very high hopes for this book, but I just don't think the author had the ability to execute her ideas into a book and it really shows. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

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

campisforever's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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

Ao3 Rating: T

5 word description: Lush. Gorgeous. Moving. Poignant. Inspiring.

This is such a lovely book with complex, dynamic characters. Ibrahim's skill with feelings, inspiring us to feel differently about different characters over the course of the story, is simply breathtaking! The story hits the major question at the heart of something like Black Panther--about isolation and solidarity. It marks the difference between an anti/decolonial narrative mediated by a white gaze versus one that isn't. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Colonisation, Death, Grief, Violence, Animal death, Xenophobia, Police brutality, and Slavery

Moderate: Blood, Trafficking, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Medical content, Murder, Sexual assault, and Cultural appropriation

Minor: Torture, War, and Child abuse

All content warnings are in the context of an anticolonial narrative about resistance. It is worth noting that the classism is itself not contained to a colonizer/colonized divide, but a complex discussion of class oppression *within* a colonized society.