Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Blood Scion by Deborah Falaye

47 reviews

teifrank's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

4.5

This book here...what a ride! A lot of trigger warnings, so please read them! This story has such a strong hold on my heart and soul..I could not put it down. It will live in my mind, rent free, for a long time! And to think the author took this story from headlines and made it her own...no words. I hope people will not only enjoy this fictional story but take away the true story and injustice the was the driving factor behind the author creating this masterpiece. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Slavery, Gun violence, Rape, War, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

mer1554's review against another edition

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, War, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Torture, Slavery, Sexual assault, Racism, and Colonisation

abception's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Genocide, Blood, and Death of parent

bkwrm1317's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious 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? No

2.5

Really enjoyed the world built by Falaye, and its roots in the Orishas and West African religion. 

I think this one just wasn't quite for me. Perhaps for slightly younger readers (although I often enjoy YA, it tends to lean on the more mature side of YA), I found some of the writing repetitive and just not quite to my liking/preference/style. Glad to have experimented with this one - I think for younger readers who are looking for femme protagonists, SFF not rooted in Western mythos, and particularly those looking for SFF rooted in African religion, spirituality, etc. this might be a great pick! 

CWs for challenging content, depending on the reader. Minor CWs are for topics covered, but not explicit/directly covered and more indirectly mentioned/covered by the narrative. Moderate + graphic are more of a direct focus of the narrative/protagonist and things she experiences. The author provides a good warning at the front of the narrative as well, but I'm not sure it adequately prepared me for a couple of the CWs included in my review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and War

Minor: Torture

lindsloveslit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced

3.0

What a wild ride. This books is dark - if you're going to pick it up MAKE SURE TO LOOK AT THE CONTENT WARNINGS beforehand because there are a lot of triggers throughout. It is a fantasy book, with a good story that is very connected to the world and reality we live in. If I had to compare it to anything, I'd say it was Pocahontas meets the magic of Children of Blood and Bone

I know it's fiction, but what I realized while reading is that I love when fiction is believable and consistent. TBH, there were parts that didn't remain consistent and didn't make sense to me. I missed some detail, i wanted a lot more character development, and the last chapter confused the heck out of me. The ending was also crazy crazy abrupt - it didn't feel complete to me, which is why it dropped from four stars to three for me. 

That said, I still liked the author, and when she writes another book I will definitely be giving it a read!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, War, Genocide, Sexual assault, Torture, Child abuse, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Murder

lennie_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Blood, War, Violence, Gun violence, Grief, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Racism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, and Colonisation

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Self harm

bookishflower's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

I really wanted to like this, but I think it was just not my thing as I found it quite triggering. (This is my own fault for not knowing reading this book would not be good for me personally). 
However, this book has my total respect and there is no doubt that this is a rich world that will be so meaningful to other readers. You can tell the sheer amount of research that Falaye put into this book, how the topic of child soldiers was handled brutally beautifully. 
However, I was just not mentally prepared enough for the unrelenting and hard-hitting reality built into Blood Scion. I’d strongly advise checking the trigger warnings. I feel this book should be approached with the same discretion as The Poppy War which I have avoided but respected from a distance for this very reason. 
I’m glad I read Blood Scion because of Fairyloot and the read your own adventure read-a-thon, but I don’t think I will read this book again (at least not for a while).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Violence, Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Self harm, War, and Xenophobia

sknappy1's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

Some parts are very brutal. Contains gritty violence.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Sexual assault

Minor: Chronic illness, Death of parent, Genocide, and Vomit

ashleyrunswild's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

This book was excellently written. The story is really well done as well. However, this is also one of the most painful and gut wrenching books I have ever read, and I don’t mean that as a criticism of the book at all. But definitely read the content warnings, and know what you are going into. This book deals with a lot of triggers, including but not limited to: child soldiers, sexual abuse/rape, death of a parent, death of other friends and loved ones, being forced to kill, genocide, death of children, etc. You have been warned. That said, it was a very well written and engrossing story, and I definitely want to read the next one when it comes out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Child abuse, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Classism, Cultural appropriation, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Genocide, Gun violence, Murder, Violence, and War

kaseybereading's review against another edition

dark tense 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Classism, Physical abuse, Torture, War, Blood, Child death, Genocide, Murder, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault