Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang

61 reviews

meat_muffin's review against another edition

adventurous emotional slow-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Grief, and War

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Domestic abuse and Rape

valjeanval's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad slow-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

4.0

I ended up liking this book a lot more than I expected to at the beginning. It's pretty rough and traumatic, mind you, but for the most part, it's well written with complicated characters and a very mature understanding of grief and motherhood. 

That said, I think it suffers from two aspects of being a self-published book that might have gotten caught be a professional publisher. One is it's really long, and some parts do drag a bit. The other is the mixing of English/Japanese/made up language. The Japanglish made me feel like I was reading fanfiction, and it just didn't make sense given that other words (like the units of time) are completely made up. It feels a bit like fantasizing an actual culture, which was grating. I don't know much about the author's background, but the author blurb says she's from Wisconsin, so that gives me a bit of pause. And the made up words were really annoying when the work is supposed to be translated anyway. 

That sounds rather negative, and all in all, I really did find myself coming back to this story to see what happened next. It's brutal though, and particularly hard to read in light of the horrific events in Gaza, so really check the content warnings before you start if that is something you need.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

grnat's review against another edition

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

There are no words to describe the the wealth of emotion this book conjured within me
Undeniable tears of both joy and happiness
Please do yourself a favor and take the time to read this book

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

keepsleep's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Murder, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Cursing, Domestic abuse, Torture, Medical content, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Classism

beesofblu's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-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

This book contained one of the most heart wrenching scene to have ever graced my eyeballs. Nagi and Nami have mercy. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

kbowles24's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and War

malinhalia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes

3.5

150 pages of confusion / 150 pages of battle scenes / 350 pages of misery

Jokes aside, I can see why this is a highly rated book for many people. The writing style is mostly well done, and the characters are complex. However, I struggled with the pacing and plot structure. I know this was meant as a book in a series that is now indefinitely postponed (/cancelled), but the plot set up at the end feels like a bizarre choice. The world building can be slightly confusing at times, like the feudal Japan bait and switch. I found the fight segments same-y and tedious to read and I was skimming them towards the end of that book segment. There were times when picking this book back up didn't feel very enticing because of these things. 
It has some very emotional moments though, and it's definitely a book dealing with many sad, hard topics. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse

keishbby's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad 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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Colonisation, and Classism

beckahh_i's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

I am so glad I finally picked this up! M.L. Wang's writing is incredible, and I would happily read more in this world (after I recover from all the emotional trauma of the SoK...). I knew this was going to be a brutal book, but I don't think I could have really predicted how brutal it would be. The journey these characters go on both personally and as a group is written so well. Reading this with a book club made me stop and think about what the characters were going through more than I would have if I was reading it by myself, and it was so interesting to see the similarities to both my own life/experiences, and to the world and political climate around me. The trauma the characters go through and the subsequent healing and growth was written in a way that didn't seemed forced or hurried, but felt very realistic and true to the characters nature. Overall would definitely recommend if you're prepared for some trauma and pain 😅

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, and War

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

fairynanook's review against another edition

challenging dark sad 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

3.75

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience of reading this book. I'll go into more specifics of what I did and didn't like below, but that will have spoilers. If you like the fantasy genre in general, I do think you should give the book a read.


What I liked: The book is well written. The world building is fantastic. The genre is not one I am super familiar with, but I did not feel confused while reading it. I liked the diversity and complexity of the characters, even the ones I didn't really "like". 

[This book is from the POV of a woman living in a very traditional society...one where she isn't allowed to question her husband or men, isn't allowed to do some of the things she greatly enjoyed doing, is in an unloving arranged marriage, is only valued for the male children she gives birth to, etc. Wang writes about it in a complex, respectful way that I believe is meant to help readers understand it in some ways. It was challenging to read it, but again, still something I appreciated.

]

What I didn't like: The pacing of this novel struggled quite a bit, especially at the beginning. I stuck with it because I knew this going in.

[Plot wise, I really, really didn't like the way the author killed off a main character. We open the book with Momoru and his POV. We spend a good part of the first half of the book with him. Then he just dies and we're expected to spend the rest of the book with his mom and one chapter with his dad. It didn't work for me. Child death and main character death is always going to be a hard sell for me and Wang 100% didn't sell me on the necessity of it. I almost DNFd the book because of this choice. And I would never pick up a book knowing the author made this sort of choice...killing off the voice of a main POV character mid-book. It was incredibly jarring as a reader. If he needed to die, then the book should not have been written from his brain. Likewise, it felt like Wang was trying to sell to people who are not from the tradition, the idea that the extreme patriarchal ideals of the society of our main character, are not actually oppressive to women. But I don't think she achieved it. I felt oppressed for half the book, on behalf of the main character, as she watched tragedy after tragedy befall her without having a voice. Yes, she got one in the end, but I still just had trouble with it. And then the whole plot with Robin at the end felt forced and weird.

]

Overall, I think this is a very worthwhile and at times, challenging read despite some of my issues with it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia