Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

9 reviews

reddeddy's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

Graphic: Violence, Death, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Trafficking, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Body horror, Gore, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Slavery, Xenophobia, Racism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Grief, Misogyny, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Animal death, Alcohol, Bullying, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Genocide, Animal cruelty, Dysphoria, Racial slurs, and Sexism

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Child death, Outing, Homophobia, Sexual harassment, Torture, Child abuse, Biphobia, Antisemitism, Chronic illness, Police brutality, Drug use, Sexual assault, Cultural appropriation, Body shaming, Islamophobia, Infertility, Physical abuse, and Rape

ash_lees_library's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Cursing, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Sexual content

hannah_and_her_stories's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, and Racism

Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Blood, Trafficking, Slavery, Sexual content, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Child death and Rape

halfbloodprincess_hogwarts's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious sad tense 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

Let me just say this audio is absolutely PERFECT to listen to as you drive.

City of Brass completely captivated my attention and I did not want it to end. Tbh, I have mixed feelings toward Dara and have no idea what to do with my emotions. 

Nahri is in the worst situation possible and basically left to defenseless. Yes, she is a healer and has the attention that should have backfired in her face. 

This series is a first for me where I basically got a "cheat code" after reading River of Silver. So I know who each character is and it actually helped me better get into the story. I tried listening to this audio first but got confused with many name mentions, but the novella helped me sort out who was who and I could envision them in my head better. (Yes, I did take thorough notes as where each novella story took place within the trilogy universe.)

So I am excited to delve into The Kingdom of Copper audio which LITERALLY became available today 2.20.23 form my libraries digital catalogue and I am so excited to start it!!! AAAAHHH!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Self harm, Violence, War, Gore, Slavery, and Vomit

booksofaim's review

adventurous dark tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual content and Child abuse

isleoflinds's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Genocide, Gore, Racism, Toxic relationship, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, War, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Rape, Xenophobia, Body horror, Gore, Genocide, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Animal death, Colonisation, Incest, Sexual content, Torture, Infertility, and Infidelity

macknificent's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

It's not a great book but there was some fun to be had.  Very much high fantasy with training wheels, especially entertaining if the reader is coming from a romance background. 

I was fine with only reading one of the books until I got to the very end, now I'll need to read the next entry in the trilogy. I'm not mad it's just a rather cliche trick to pull. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Xenophobia, War, Slavery, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Misogyny

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Grief, Infidelity, Islamophobia, Cancer, Confinement, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content

baknata's review

adventurous emotional funny 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

5.0

This book took me on such a journey. From the first moments of the book I was thoroughly invested, an uncommon occurrence for me. To begin, I found the world that was created absolutely fascinating. The main character, Nahri, is new to the fantasy world in the story, which allows us to learn about it as she does. This makes what we learn feel organic and not simply expository. The world is complex and well thought out, making it feel like a real place. It isn't just a complex world, it has an in-depth history with political and social issues that are rooted in that history. Every element of the world was considered, from clothing to language to special abilities and traditions, each race is complete and well rounded. The creatures are based on middle eastern stories, which I am not familiar with, but give the story a unique perspective. 
The characters are just as well thought out as the world. What I found most compelling about the story is that, save for Nahri who doesn't share the preexisting prejudices and political foreknowledge, there are no truly good characters. Nahri herself swindles people to get by, which shows she isn't fully good. But every other character believes strongly that their position is the correct one, so much so that it is hard to tell who is truly in the right. Each side of the political tension has committed atrocities, not only that, but they each have questionable parts to their position. One side wants equality between the races, meanwhile, they oppress the mixed-blooded people and make it impossible to survive. The other side wants to overthrow the oppressive monarchy, though they have a history of discrimination and segregation. Each character does questionable things in the name of their side. Unfortunately, the author also does a great job making them all very human. They have friends and family, they make jokes and connections and feel like real people, which makes it so hard to root against them.

When Ali and Jamshid and then Dara all were kinda fatally injured/died/turned to ash I was speechless. I didn't know whether to be upset that they died (which I was, deeply) or to be okay with it bc they all kinda were horrible (save for Jamshid he was an angel) and the same thing happened with every side character, each time I was heartbroken but also didn't know how to feel/react.

This is super evident with Nahri's relationships with the characters. As the reader, we feel similar to her where there is a lack of trust at first, then you get attached to certain characters cause "her they aren't so bad" then we learn they are so bad, but now we're attached so maybe we should forgive them? Overall hard to decide which characters to root for. 
In terms of plot, I was definitely on the edge of my seat. This was one of the few books where I genuinely could not guess a single element of what was going to happen.

save for that whole thing with Muntadir and Jamshid, I saw that one right away

Especially towards the end, I was being thrown left and right, each chapter had something new I wasn't at all expecting that totally shook me. What was cool though was that every twist and turn made sense. The characters made choices that were consistent throughout the book and with the growth that they had made. Nothing was thrown in just for the heck of it, it all had a purpose. The plot developed in a natural way and the character growth felt deserved and logical. 
Overall, this book was put together so beautifully and was a joy (though very emotional) to read. I would definitely recommend this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death

Minor: Sexual content

katrinarose's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I loved this book because it is a fantasy world with familiar magical themes but instead of basing it on medieval European cultures (as is typical for many traditional fantasy books), it's based on West Asian cultures. I had grown frustrated with the lack of originality in many traditional fantasy and for this alone, this book was a breath of fresh air. I thought the political intrigue was very well done. Often I feel fantasy politics are oversimplified - there's the "bad" guys who are the oppressors and love to starve and torture and enslave the poor outsider population and the "good" guys who just want to save the needy and restore justice. That's always a compelling story - who doesn't want to root for the underdogs? - but it lacks the nuance of real life. It took some time to become familiar with the politics and backstories of the different djinn (daeva) tribes and it was confusing at first, but it was so well done. There are no good or bad guys, everyone has done good and bad things in the name of the people's survival and freedom. Everyone is morally gray, and I love that. 

While plenty of exciting things happened in this book, it did still feel like an introduction to this world, as there was so much history and culture to get caught up on. I think I will enjoy the following books more, now that the exposition is over. One thing that annoyed me was

the budding romance between Nahri and Dara. He's over a thousand years old and she's twenty, he has no business even entertaining romantic thoughts about her! It just felt very YA-ish, and not in a good way. There is no need to force every opposite sex duo together, even if they are on some long difficult journey together where they have to sleep near each other by the firelight (eye roll). And hinting at a love triangle with Ali, which would create the dreaded good-boy vs. bad-boy dynamic, is also very much not appreciated. I'm hoping that this whole romance deal was a big red-herring and she actually develops complex relationships for Nahri without the romance.

I think overall Nahri could get some more character-development, I felt like she got a bit cheated in that area in favor of Ali's development (although I loved his character development too).

Overall I really enjoyed this, and I'm excited to read the next books!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, and Death

Minor: Child death, Grief, Rape, Sexual content, and Torture