Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

52 reviews

kat1105's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Gaslighting, Rape, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Death, Gore, Child abuse, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Racism, Toxic friendship, Torture, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Hate crime, Racial slurs, and Slavery

jess_sherlock's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

4.25

Very much appreciated the glossary and found myself flipping back to it almost every page in the beginning. It's not based in my own cultural background so I wasn't always sure who was who and what was happening. Sometimes I had no idea what was going on and the excessive world building didn't help. It was often so complex that it overshadowed the plot so I must admit that I sometimes skimmed over those long paragraphs to keep me hooked on the story.

Nonetheless I absolutely devoured this book and have recommended it to all my friends. I enjoyed it way more than I thought I would. I don't like fantasy, I don't have a particular interest in Muslim/Middle eastern stories, I don't really fancy magic so don't ask me why this was on TBR-pile to begin with... but god I'm glad it was. I'll definitely be picking up the Kingdom of Copper & the Empire of Gold.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Genocide, Torture, Slavery, Blood, Rape, and War

the_first_lines's review

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Blood, Genocide, and Gore

Minor: Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Racial slurs, Slavery, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Colonisation, and Rape

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

CW: violence and war and emotional anguish and things.

I tackled this book as part of a book club (Lighthouse Library thicc bois :) ). It wasn't something I had heard of before that. It starts off set in Cairo with a young woman of unknown origin who is a theif, swindler and survivor, and who has a mysterious healing talent and the ability to understand languages, which she hides to avoid people thinking her a dangerous witch.

Her world is upended when she utters some words of power while doing a faith healing scam, and unexpectedly summons something to her. This leads to her and a big scary soldier guy on the run from murderous ghouls and ifrits. She learns of the world of Daeva and Djinns and journeys to find sanctuary in a magical hidden city, all the while being hunted and tracked by mysterious forces and magical creatures.

Having read a children's translation of the Persian epic Shahnameh, some of the creatures and names were familiar to me.  I did keep wondering if Nahri's uncle had an epic warhorse called Rakhsh. I find that I clearly have a lot more grounding in the myths of the Pacific Islands, the Mediterranean, Europe and the British Isles, and need to read more mythic stories from other parts of the world. This story weaves together myth from many places in Eastern Europe, Northern Africa, South and East Asia. Thematically it pits Tradtions, family, individualism, duty, and survival together in a story that sets up a world that I feel is yet to be explored and played in. That's quite a big book for an intro!

The main character is antiheroic. She is a thief, a liar, and a con-artist. She is used to not having a lot and needing to swindle what she can, and so she is out of her depth when she is cast into a palace with opulence at all turns. She is under no illusions that everyone has their own agenda, and that appearances are often skin-deep. It can make for slippery footing as you try to come to grips with a story where there are centuries of history, of alliances and rivalry.

As far as the elemental magic goes, it's generally coherent. The story has some curiosities but non of the "surprises" are overly so. I'm interested to wade into the world and see a little more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Racism, Police brutality, War, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Sexism, Vomit, Blood, Classism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Infertility, Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, and Excrement

Minor: Dementia, Chronic illness, Classism, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Bullying, Cancer, and Abandonment

angiesbookmarks's review

adventurous 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Classism and Genocide

insidiousturtle's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Self harm, Blood, and Genocide

Moderate: War and Alcohol

Minor: Medical content, Addiction, Emotional abuse, and Pregnancy

nutmegnomegano's review

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious 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

This was a magic carpet ride for me. I love taking a dive into other cultures and legends and the little flavors of that throughout this book are fun!  I got to know a few characters and really want to know a few more. Therefore, I will be continuing on with the next book. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Genocide, Racism, Hate crime, and Racial slurs

geometricsun's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Gore, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Physical abuse, and Murder

cutiemuffin23's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, Colonisation, Slavery, War, Xenophobia, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Emotional abuse, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Antisemitism, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Infertility, Biphobia, Homophobia, Grief, Confinement, Child death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Incest, and Alcohol

saric7's review against another edition

adventurous slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

Great world building in a just ok plot.

Ali’s character kept this book from being terrible.  I would love to have seen him get his own book instead of being tertiary and part of a subpar love triangle.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Genocide, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, War, Slavery, Trafficking, and Racial slurs

Minor: Homophobia, Rape, and Abandonment