Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

20 reviews

kornwaiisms's review

adventurous tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

i am devastated (this book is fantastic) here's a few thoughts!

- so strong in its writing and story from start to finish, when i tell you it got me hooked,, (if you say it's boring even in the slightest did we read the same book?)
- the characters are SO intricately written i want to see more of all of them (yes even the ones that pissed me off

*guh guh dara guh guh*

)
- i must admit i need a history book to understand and study the history of this world completely but IT'S OKAY WE'RE VIBING
- ..what WAS that last part. WHAT WAS IT. i'm on the floor sobbing i just want my little darling characters to be ok
 
special notes to the characters:

1. NAHRI SHOW THEM WHAT YOU GOOOOOT
2. ali pls survive
3. jamshid pls survive
4. muntahdir pls don't do anything stupid

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Slavery and Death

Minor: Sexual violence

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

juliana_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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 loved this. It does start slow, but once Dara and Nahri were on their way I was hooked. So much fantasy is just repackaged medieval Europe, so this held my attention for nearly six hundred pages. I read it on my Kobo to look up words and also had a hard copy to easily reference the map and glossary. It was worth the effort to fully understand this world. 

My only issues:

I don’t mind a romantic subplot, but the one between Dara and Nahri seemed abrupt and just based on lust. I would have liked to see it unfurl slowly. He’s also…a millennium older than her. In addition, I felt that dropping pieces of Daeva lore through both Ali and Nahri’s perspectives made it difficult to follow or figure out what was true and what was manipulation. I needed like a blurb or a “once upon a time” at the beginning.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Racism, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Blood

Minor: Sexual violence and Rape

mousmoulo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense

5.0

FIRST FIVE STAR OF THE YEAR!!!!!!! i'm going insane.

my brain has been rewired and i'm ready for the sequel

(if anything else happens to

ali or jamshid

i'm committing prosecutable crimes this is a warning)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Gore, Death, and Slavery

Minor: Sexual violence and Kidnapping

brookesinfinitebooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism and Classism

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, 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

mack's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? Yes

4.75

I had a wonderful time reading city of brass, it was truly a magical character. All of the characters are so complex and just very real in the way of I very much worried and cared for the most part about all the of them. Nahri is truly an interesting main character because she get swept up into the strange new magical world and is brought into this overwhelming political conflict between different tribes of being she didn’t even believe existed, but despite that this place offers her an opportunity to pursue a life long passion.  Also this books plot is very focused on the political conflict between the djinn tribe and does talk somewhat frequently about war and the harsh and horrifying reality of what happens during war, nothing too graphic but something to be aware of (hence the warning I added).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War and Violence

Minor: Self harm and Sexual violence

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

The world building is rich and the characters are complex. Hard to put down! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Hate crime, Gore, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, War, Child death, Torture, Medical content, Violence, Racism, Abandonment, Blood, Alcohol, Slavery, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Alcoholism, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Child death and Rape

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

imds's review

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Confinement, Death of parent, Police brutality, Grief, Death, Child death, Trafficking, Terminal illness, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Blood, War, Violence, Sexual violence, Self harm, Homophobia, Outing, Kidnapping, and Genocide