Reviews with content warning for Blood - The Sword of Kaigen

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Sword of Kaigen by M.L. Wang

86 reviews

santaniello's review against another edition

Long technical battle scenes are not for me. I want to know more about Misaki and her past and the family dynamics… but the fighting was boring.

Content Warnings

redroobs's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark 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

beautiful, engaging, heart wrenching, deeply moving, sad, lovely, hopeful, inspiring, epic, incredibly written. brb never…sobbing.

Content Warnings

madlyreading's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

Content Warnings

thecriticalreader's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional 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

4.75

Context:

I used my free Kindle Unlimited trial to finally get around to reading The Sword of Kaigen, which has been on my TBR for a couple of years now. In case you were confused like I was, this book is a STANDALONE—I confused Wang’s recent standalone Blood Over Bright Haven for a sequel.

Review:

Whew! I did not know what I was getting into with this book. I’m someone who enjoys my fantasy on the lighter side with moments of darkness rather than books that feature a lot of violence and trauma. Needless to say, I was not prepared for the sheer amount of violence and emotional devastation that lay in store for me in The Sword of Kaigen. Despite not being exactly my cup of tea in this regard, this book is one of the best fantasy novels I’ve ever read. I have so many good things to say about it, so I’m going to make a bulleted list to make sure I touch on everything.

· The writing is incredibly cinematic. I could easily visualize everything that happens in this book, to the point where making it into a movie out would be redundant. I felt this to be true even for the action scenes, which I normally struggle to visualize in fantasy stories. Typically, I find them boring and confusing. However, Wang is a master of writing exciting, comprehensible, high-stakes action, which is a good thing because this book is chock full of action scenes!

· Holy cow, this book is full of some of the best-written characters I’ve read in a fantasy book. All of the characters—from the side characters to the protagonists—are complex, interesting, and believable. Every story beat with these characters is earned, making for a phenomenally emotional story.

· The pacing and organization of The Sword of Kaigen is flawless. Every story beat occurs exactly when it is most effective. Wang seems to have an intuitive grasp for how long each scene should last; nothing feels rushed or glossed over, but at no point does the story drag.

· The worldbuilding takes a familiar structure of elemental magic (very similar to that found in Avatar: The Last Airbender) but adapts it in a unique and original way that combines traditional elements of Japanese culture with modern technology.

· The Sword of Kaigen provides an emotionally cathartic exploration into themes of family, loyalty, honor, and grief. It damn near emotionally destroyed me in the process, but if that’s something you like in a book, you should definitely pick this one up.

· This book manages to explore feminist themes and create strong female characters without falling into traps of preachiness, shallowness, or stereotypes. It shows rather than tells, something so many modern books with feminist themes fail to do.

If I had one criticism of The Sword of Kaigen, it’s that it rather clumsily handles elements the racial dynamics in its world. For example, the substitution of white people for positions of subjugation that BIPOC people often face is insensitive at best. At other points, the book has its characters spout rhetoric of racial/blood supremacy without fully pushing back against these inherently racist concepts. (The same can be said for the characters’ problematic ideas about pregnancy/miscarriage). I was able to overlook these missteps for the most part because they do not seem malicious and play a minor role in the plot. That being said, I hope Wang learned from this book and does better in the future.

In sum, The Sword of Kaigen is a masterpiece of fantasy and storytelling. I would recommend it to anyone who feels prepared to handle the book’s immense amount of violence and pain.

The Run-Down:

You will probably like The Sword of Kaigen if . . .

· You want an incredible character-driven story led by an immensely strong—yet complex— female protagonist

· You find family dynamics and motherhood to be interesting themes in fantasy novels

· You like well-written, creative, and exciting action scenes

· You love elemental magic systems

· You want a fantasy book that combines ancient customs and beliefs with modern technology

· You want a book that will emotionally destroy you and then build you back up

You might not like The Sword of Kaigen if . . .

· You don’t have a strong stomach for violence or the host of other heavy topics present in this book

· You want a book that will take you across many different locations in its world

· You don’t like morally gray protaganists

Content Warnings

ddnreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

How am I going to continue my reading challenge without dreading the downhill experience bcs how am I going to TOP THIS BOOK HOWWWWW

It's always a high fantasy with the most intense family drama and romance. Gut-wrenching beautifully written plot. It's a story of valuing tradition and power, a griefing mother, and undoubtedly angst romance. Women empowerment and community care.

I love it so much. I cried with it. I healed with it. This is awesome end of the story.

Content Warnings

cwallace1005's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense

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

3.0

This was a tough one to rate. The pacing of this book was... interesting. The first third was a little boring, to be honest. The middle third was exciting, but a little long and repetitive. The last third was emotionally interesting, but a definite drop in action. Definitely a unique structure for a book. This is also considered a standalone book, and while I agree that it does stand on its own, there are a lot of things set up that didn't feel complete by the end of the book. I believe this is sort of a prequel to another series from the author that she's stated she isn't going to continue. But the writing is mostly very good and the characterization is beautiful. I nearly rated this book 4 stars for Misaki alone, I love her story.

Content Warnings

sofiadanielle's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging 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

4.5

An incredible read. And also very moving/emotional, having found myself crying at least three times because of it.

Sort of Avatar: The Last Airbender-esque, with characters who had powers relating to the elements. Though it didn’t strike me as fantasy in the sense of what I’ve grown to think of in the genre (magic, fae, with creatures of legends, etc.), I was still quite taken with the whole universe of it.

I do think the book focuses more on the topics of war, emotional processing, death, loss (of many things), and in that sense, was quite heavy, but Misaki’s character arc was so pushing in completing the story.

.5 stars taken away only for what I believe was slightly messy world building; as I was reading on a Kindle, I couldn’t easily traverse from where I was in the story to the glossary; and the world outside of Takayubi was.. Muddled. Additionally, I also have questions about the conflict added to the end that wasn’t resolved..

Still, both points don’t detract from the story all too badly, in my opinion, and I still so very much got involved in this story and the characters involved.

Content Warnings

kylek's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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

Her body was angled slightly to hide the sword at her hip, giving the appearance of a diminutive housewife. In it's own way, that was better cover than any shadow.

I had been expecting the first half of this to be very boring and just not good because of how people talk about it, but I did not find it boring at all, nor was it bad. Was it slow? I guess. It's the type of slow that you'll find in any epic fantasy/sci-fi. It took like 35% to set up the world and characters, which to me was pretty standard for epics.

With that said this is a very tough one to read in one go because it's so heavy. It was just a lot and for a long time. I think I continuously cried for a solid 30-35% of this book. It just broke my heart over and over again. This book deals with very heavy themes, like TRIGGER WARNINGS

marital rape, rape, suicide, PPD, miscarriage, death, multiple types of abuse. I'm probably missing more. Some of these were on page and graphic, like the deaths

and in my opinion, I thought they were handled well.

I don't want to say much more than this, just that after this and Blood Over Bright Haven, ML Wang is now an autobuy author.

Content Warnings

anastasiamakes's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad slow-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

4.0

I can be nervy about self-published books, but I'm so glad my book club chose to read this. Such amazing scope, fantastic worldbuilding and remarkable characters.

The start was a little slow for me, and I didn't feel all of the side-backstory stuff (or their resolutions) blended in super well with the rest of the book; but a great read overall. I felt *so many feelings* reading this.

Content Warnings

lejones1785's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

I am conflicted about this book. We all want books that make you feel things. Well this one really hit the spot. I have been so angry at these characters, but I have also shed tears. It was a beautifully written book, but I just can't love it. After years of abuse and being held back from being an amazing warrior, a duel makes everything ok? The love that never was just appeared? And now it's back to house wife and opening a restaurant? There was so much potential in the story that I'm a bit disappointed in the end. Maybe it's setting up for future stories? It's a good book, just not on my top list.

Content Warnings

More...