Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Midnight Lie by Marie Rutkoski

16 reviews

hue's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

The backside text hardly does any justice to the story within. Marie Rutkoski has woven an intricate, fantastically drab world where injustice is hideously clear yet accepted. 

I adored the characters, the differences between High Kith and Half-Kith and Middlings, the writing was lucious and lurid, the telling captivatingly vivid. 

Nirrim was such a pleasure to follow as she wandered through her thoughts and actions, disassembling all that she had grown up believing, never realising how twisted and unfair it all had been. 

If you enjoyed this wonderful story, I recommend two other books that gave me the same feeling as this did.
1. The City of Woven Streets by Emmi Itäranta
2. Girl, Serpent, Thorn by Melissa Bashardoust 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, Sexism, Sexual content, Child abuse, Murder, Death, Emotional abuse, and Homophobia

huonekasvis's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, and Classism

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Body horror, Grief, and Violence

strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad fast-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? No

3.0

The beginning wasn’t very interesting but then the middle got better. I was getting excited to read the second one until the very last line. That last line made me so very angry, however I still need to read the second book to see what happens with said last line. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Torture, Abandonment, Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death, Deportation, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Lesbophobia, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content and Body horror

Minor: Child abuse

electrumempousa's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I really wanted to love this, it’s such an interesting premise and Nirrim as a character was so interesting to me, but there’s just something missing that I can’t quite put my finger on. I think it’s the easy acceptance Nirrim has of the High Kith. It’s also not very well paced, the ending seemed to come all in a deluge but the rest was sort of meandering. I bought the sequel just to see if that helps. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Gore, and Sexual assault

nicnevin'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

So this is the first book I've read from this author and its... Alright? I found the ending quite... Abrupt and the worldbuilding is a little slapdash however I realise that this is already set in a world from other books she wrote. 

Sid and Nirrim are a cute couple but I don't know how it ends. I guess leaving the book on such an abrupt ending ticked me off because it felt like a lot of build up for not much pay off bit I suppose that's why is more than one book. 

the magic blood reveal was pretty obvious so it annoyed me it took everyone so long to figure it out. Also shouldnt diluted blood be a yellowy orange colour? Maybe magic blood hits different idk

Don't get me wrong, the book is okay but just didn't gel with me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, Outing, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Ableism, Child death, Drug abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Drug use, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

uraveragelesbianreader's review

adventurous dark 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

I would give this book more stars if I could. Although I do not consider myself particularly vulnerable to tiktok marketing I will admit tiktok made me read this book and for once I would like to thank them for it. The writing of this book is wonderful and its prose keeps your interest and leaves you putting together the pieces at the same speed as our main character, leading to an engaging experience. On the note of the main character, Nirrim as a main character is a wonderful decision. Her development feels slow and steady but is not necessarily linear. She struggles, she progresses and she regresses as she finds her morals and values in a confusing world. Every element of the plot is wonderfully discovered and although not all the plotwists are gasp-inducing ones they all feel earned and powerful to the plot. I will not spoil anything but the ending is just wonderful and so so beautifully well earned. The ending felt like the final note of a wonderful song and if I do not get my hands on the second book as fast as possible I will not know what to do with myself. The main romance of this book was just spectacular. It didnt feel contrived or like it was forced into a plot that did not really need romance, this book NEEDED its romance subplot and it is used expertly to enhance the plot. I have to say Sid and Nirrim are most definitely in my top 3 sapphic book couples of all time. To give you an idea of just how good it is, I annotate my books with pink flags to denote romantic scenes, I went through at least 1/4 of my pink flags in this book alone. The way this book uses its fantasy setting to touch upon real issues in society was done expertly and although it is not technically a dystopia the parallels are quite clear. I would recommend this book to just about anyone but specifically; those who enjoy HEAVY romance subplots, those who enjoy mystery books and are looking to reach out and people who think reading about lesbians uncovering secrets of the past sounds fun.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Violence, and Classism

Moderate: War and Lesbophobia

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Child death, Classism, and Gaslighting

Minor: Lesbophobia, Sexual content, Alcohol, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Homophobia, Police brutality, and Violence

haylzno's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring tense slow-paced

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

2.75

This was almost a DNF for me. 
The plot really seemed to... stall, like a bunch of times. I found myself getting bored frequently. 
I did listen to this as an audiobook and narration is really a make it break thing for me and I wasn't a huge fan of the narration, so honestly that played a big part. 

I always love me so good queer rep. But the MC and her relationship with her "mother" made me irrationally frustrated. By the time I decided I wanted to DNF I was only about an hour from finishing it so I pushed through, and honestly I don't remember a whole lot because I just couldn't make myself care. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Classism, Death of parent, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Homophobia and Drug use

jurizprudence's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-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

it felt like the plot was so slow to pick up and the destination of the story seemed so vague in the first half, but i also enjoyed sid and nirrim's dynamic in that time. their banter! the romance! ahem. heart eyes only. it was wonderful and relieving to see nirrim break free from certain people's manipulation on her. we love to see it.

the ending, though. i'm not quite sure what i feel about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Slavery, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Blood and Violence

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, and Homophobia

k_aro's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

WHEW! I really didn't expect much from The Midnight Lie—be as it may, I'm a little bit of a snob over fantasy novels due to the fact that I read a large quantity as a kid, and I saw it recommended from BookTok, which, based on my previous BookTok books has been... a mixed bag. Admittedly I wasn't shocked by many of the reveals, but I don't think that's a critique of the book; I think it's smart about revealing just enough that it makes sense on re-reads.

That said, I did not expect the ending! It's not like, a cheap plot twist, but it's such a painful refusal of closure that it hurts me just thinking about it. I didn't cry over the ending, but sheesh, I'm really looking forward to reading the next book. I also think it's a super well-written villain ending—I've read some books *coughs* The Young Elites *coughs* that REALLY muck up the villain ending and essentially spoil the experience of having read the book at all.

I do have some things I don't love about this book: for one, that Nirrim is so blind to Raven's consistent emotional/domestic abuse, despite her ability to spot it in other people (i.e. Aden). Like, I get that Nirrim and Raven's relationship is different to that of her and Aden's, but it just feels kind of weird that up until the proper reveal of who Raven is, Nirrim's insistent on thinking of her as the same one-dimensional mother figure who sometimes makes mistakes and hurts her. I'm not saying Nirrim has to be on board to condemn Raven the first time she does something bad, but it's just... weird, I guess.

I also think that the first like... fourth? Of the book is a little slow. It's got a lot to set up, so I'm not, like, mad that it's slow, but it does make it a bit hard to get into.

Also, there's certainly NO commentary going on about how the Half Kith's body parts are literally being used for the pleasure of the High Kith. Nope. No commentary at all. Not even about how Raven extorts families to get them families to move up in the world. Nada. Zip. Nothing. (This is sarcasm—sometimes, fantasy caste systems can be a bit... overstated, which to a certain degree could be true here, it also I think treats it with a bit more real parallels that it feels more verisimilitudinous to me.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Abandonment, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Rape, Murder, and Drug use

Minor: Misogyny, Child death, Death of parent, Homophobia, and Lesbophobia

A note on the moderate content warning for rape:

The only reason I hesitate to put it under graphic is because, under all stops, the line between whether or not Aden rapes Nirrim is... concerningly thin, but still technically there. It's highly coercive and under most circumstances, would probably be considered rape—and this is not to downplay the real sexual trauma for whom coercive sex was the source of it—but Nirrim (until a certain moment) is technically never threatened verbally/coerced verbally. Is it highly coercive and at the very least dubious consent? Yes. But is it rape? I really can't tell, and given the purpose of trigger warnings as warnings that might *trigger* someone, I'm not 100% sure what to categorize it as.

Aside from that, the homophobia/lesbophobia is rarely actually acted out character-on-character; it's only as a facet of the fact that the lower Kiths are not permitted to have same-sex relationships. The actual brass tacks of characters being in same-sex relationships are not considered *morally* wrong.