Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Emperor and the Endless Palace by Justinian Huang

9 reviews

madscanread's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Three men who find each other throughout multiple lifetimes just to repeat the same mistakes in their love, lust, and violence over and over and over again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Violence, Mental illness, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Addiction, Toxic relationship, Rape, and Drug use

sarahb919's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

A wild ride from start to finish!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Sexual content, Death, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Violence, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Sexual violence, Animal death, Self harm, Bullying, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Ableism, Colonisation, Gore, and Stalking

Minor: Classism, Suicide, Eating disorder, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

julalbert56's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

2.0

That was pretty disappointing. I was very confused on who was who for most of the novel, and

extra confused when one of the guys falls in love with his rapist?? Like the guy sexually assaults him in the innkeeper storyline right?? Or was that a different guy? Idk

The ending was also anticlimactic. The erotica was not my cup of tea but that’s just a personal preference. I liked Garden at least lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Sexual violence

adalinemccormick's review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Infidelity, Sexual content, Cursing, Rape, Sexual violence, Drug use, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault

litoreads's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Rape, Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Gore, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Toxic relationship

sandreline's review against another edition

emotional mysterious 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

To temper expectations, I think this book was marketed poorly. If you want traditional romance beats, look elsewhere. This is not that. It is a fantasy story with a romance at its center, but I would not categorize this as "romance" or "romantasy."

That said, I adored every moment of the Emporer and the Endless Palace. If I were to pick two books to express the vibes I'd go with This Is How You Lose the Time War and... Wuthering Heights? Iykyk. 

Beautifully written and thoroughly engaging. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual content, and Blood

Moderate: Toxic relationship and Sexual violence

Minor: Death of parent

sarrie's review

dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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

 

TL;DR: No HEA - so perhaps not for everyone but I loved this fantastical romance through the ages. 

The Emperor and the Endless Palace is a unique and deeply magical story of two men, trapped in a loop of reincarnation. Over 2000 years they find and loose each other and over the course of this novel we watch them through three lifetimes to find out how and why. There is no HEA here, so for my more traditional romance readers, I don’t recommend going in for one. The ending is bittersweet but also holds promise - I would most definitely read a sequel but I’m also happy with where this ended. 

Current day we follow River as he goes out after a one night stand, to a club where he meets Joey. The two have a magnetic attraction, and seem unable to escape each others orbit. Meanwhile we follow two other timelines, two other lives of River and Joey. One is the story of a young man and the Emperor of the Endless Palace in Ancient China, the other is the story of a young fox spirit and an innkeeper in China during the 18th century. These stories always end similarly, with death or loss, but are also filled with love as River and Joey seek, loose, and find each other over the course of our present day story. 

I also have to warn that this one is not for the faint of heart. There is a lot of sexual content, very casually. Drug use is common in two timelines, and attempted sexual attempt happens at least once. In addition there is some very graphic infidelity on page which may make others uncomfortable. For all that, I loved this story. Nothing felt wasted or used poorly. Everything served a purpose and was needed for the story. I highly recommend it for my more adventurous romance reading friends, I loved it so much I can’t wait to have my hands on my pre-order. 

5 out of 5 peaches 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Infidelity, and Sexual violence

jellydrawwsreads's review

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Violence

ezwolf's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I love reincarnation stories and I went in to this with high hopes that weren’t quite met. 

It was a fun surprise to realize this was based on the origin of the term “cut sleeve”. It isn’t mentioned in the synopsis but a scene about halfway through made me realize and subsequently Google it. 

I loved how each incarnation of River and Joey were so different but also so similar. The whole idea of, I loved you (was betrayed by you) so much that we’re reborn over and over, repeating our story, trying to right a wrong. River's sister was a fantastic character and even though the focus of the story was on River and Joey, I would have loved to have seen more of her.

I think my biggest grievance was with the sex scenes. Sex scenes are not a problem on their own, but I felt like they were the worst written parts. Most of the scenes in the first half of the book seemed kind of unintentionally comical to me and continuously and abruptly brought me out of the story. There's a definite tone shift that happens about midway through and they lose the comical edge, but that only helped a little.

I highly recommend checking content warnings for this book. It just skirted the edge of what I am okay reading. 

Thank you to NetGalley for making this available in exchange for an honest review!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Sexual content, Classism, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, Body horror, Mental illness, and Animal death

Minor: Abandonment, Ableism, Medical content, Death of parent, Vomit, and Cancer