Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Oleander Sword by Tasha Suri

55 reviews

mar's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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

5.0

i have to wait HOW long until the third book??? 😭😭😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Misogyny, Murder, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide and Grief

Minor: Sexual content

alkemistimole6's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Xenophobia and Fire/Fire injury

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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? No

4.5

Much more adventurous than the first book. The ending was full of twists and heartbreak. Amazingly devastating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, Murder, Confinement, Animal death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Torture, Toxic relationship, and Sexism

lady_valhella's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad tense fast-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

5.0

I am always rooting for love. This is kinda what this book keeps repeating. Love of family, love of a life partner, love of a bestie, love of a mother, love of a child. And the things we do for love. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, and War

Minor: Torture

hailstorm3812's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

4.5

A great second book that doesn't fall into the second book sag a lot of series do. It builds on the first book with both plot and relationships while introducing new elements to carry us forward. I got really attached to Bhlumika in this book. She's just so tragic and I love her. Also the ending was phenomenal and I can't wait for the next one.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, War, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Sexism, Lesbophobia, and Torture

sayhar13's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Body horror, Murder, War, and Fire/Fire injury

scrubsandbooks's review against another edition

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

4.0

No Second Book Syndrome detected here! While the first book seemed to introduce us to the magic and the associated extensive world-building, this one seemed to focus more on the politics. Not only that but this one is more or less Malini's story while the first was Priya's. And these ladies absolutely gutted me. It was an incredible follow-up to The Jasmine Throne, and ends in a devastating cliffhanger.

Much like the first book, there were a number of different POVs but the quantity of different people were scaled down in comparison to the first. As a matter of fact, I think going back and rereading the first might make more sense now after reading this one and knowing who are or were the key players, either those who make it into this book or died in book one. I'm completely invested in seeing this through to the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, War, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, and Body horror

Moderate: Suicide and Child death

Minor: Confinement and Alcohol

cowboykid's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, and War

Moderate: Body horror

jessiereads98's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

I think partially I just wasn’t in the right headspace to read this book as I normally would. It took me longer to get through than books usually do. 

Overall, I enjoyed this. It’s a complex story with complex characters. I really enjoy the unique magic system with multiple gods coming into play and in conflict with each other. I also appreciate the feminist themes woven beautifully into the story. 

I did find the pacing in the first half of the book to be a bit slow and like it took a little long to get to things. It felt at times like the story was meandering and dragging its feet on getting where it was going. The pacing did pick up for a much more satisfying final half-third of the book.

I don’t fully enjoy Priya and Malini’s relationship. The power imbalance and Malini’s constant use of Priya and expecting Priya to always do what is best for her makes me somewhat uncomfortable. While I enjoy the relationship as one that is toxic and compelling and narratively interesting, I am not sure if that is the author’s intention or if I as a reader am meant to simply root for them as star crossed lovers. I understand the idea is for there to be a lot of moral greyness and none of these characters are perfect, nor would I want them to be. However, there are times where I find Malini’s treatment of Priya going past moral greyness to this is just an imbalanced power dynamic of a woman from a lower class being expected to serve one of a higher class and I don’t find it romantic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, War, Blood, Gore, Murder, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Alcohol, Classism, Colonisation, Drug use, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Suicide, Death of parent, Homophobia, Sexual content, Torture, Abandonment, Child death, Cursing, and Kidnapping

reading_for_pluto's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

Moderate: War

Minor: Xenophobia, Homophobia, Suicide attempt, Murder, Sexual content, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Misogyny