Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

37 reviews

peachani's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Slavery, Body horror, Child death, Colonisation, Animal death, Death, and Murder

Minor: Alcohol, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Rape, Grief, Abandonment, Ableism, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Bullying, Confinement, and Racial slurs

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

jenn_amanda's review

adventurous emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Genocide, Classism, Racial slurs, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Trafficking, Violence, Kidnapping, Slavery, Torture, War, Hate crime, Murder, Racism, Blood, Child death, and Cursing

lesliehirgelt's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Death, Violence, Slavery, Racism, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child abuse, Alcohol, Police brutality, and Classism

Minor: Drug use and Rape

ka_ke's review

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Gaslighting, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Slavery, Body horror, Classism, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Colonisation, Gore, Racism, Torture, Alcohol, and Racial slurs

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Child abuse, Rape, and War

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

ienbdri's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Alcohol, Death, Child death, Medical content, Blood, Murder, Grief, and Violence

Minor: Slavery, Homophobia, and Rape

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

ericageorge91's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.5

I LOVED IT! I FUCKING LOVED IT! 

It’s been about two months since I’ve been this invested in a book’s characters and their world. City of Brass might not be for everyone, BUT IT SURE AS FUCK WAS FOR ME 😭

The world-building was lush and intricate. If I’m honest, it might have been a little too intricate at times 😅. I fought for my life trying to understand the different djinn tribes and their characteristics and politics. Did it pull me out of the world at times because of that? Yes, but once I got the hang of this world, I was sucked in. This was set in a Middle-Eastern/Muslim-inspired world, which might be tough for Western readers but, I think if you can read Game of Thrones, you can make it through this book. 

Part of me wishes that Nahri and Dara had gotten to the City of Brass sooner. Another part thinks that we needed time for that relationship to grow from reluctant allies to something more. Because they took so long on this arduous journey, their feelings for each other felt earned. I got so into it, I could almost forget the age gap.

Almost 🥴

This story is full of magic, morally grey characters, and political intrigue. There is so much history and bad blood between various characters and groups of people that I don’t even know who to root for. I ate this shit up. I can’t wait to see what’s next!

TW: Death, violence, slavery, human trafficking, torture, age/gap romance, discrimination, rape (mentions/off page),

Rep: BIPOC characters, Middle Eastern characters, queer SC characters 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Trafficking, Classism, Alcohol, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Rape and Child abuse

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