Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

The Jasmine Throne by Tasha Suri

75 reviews

dragonwriter's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

Priya barely escaped being burned on the pyre with her fellow temple children, escaping to the city with her temple brother to beg for survival. When her brother falls ill, he takes her to Bhumika, another surviving temple child, who takes her in to her household as a servant. Now, Priya has returned to the temple, to serve the imprisoned princess, Malini, who refused to walk into her own sacrificial pyre. Though loyal to Bhumika and trying to protect the people relying on them, Priya finds herself sympathetic toward and falling for the princess, who is being slowly poisoned by her vengeful caretaker. As Malini gets sicker and rebels seek to take the temple and steal the secrets of its magic waters, Priya must decide which of the three sides to give her loyalty: the rebels who want to retake her land, the princess who wants to escape her prison, or Bhumika, the temple sister desperate to keep what few people she can safe.

This book was much longer than the books I usually read, and was targeted for a older audience. That gave it the time to go deeper with the world building and character development, and there were several characters that benefited! I especially loved Rhuk, the little beggar boy Priya saves, and Bhumika. I did like Malini, and how she fought to keep herself through the poisoning and the manipulation and isolation. 
The religious misogyny was absolutely frightening! The emperor’s fetish of burning women alive to purify them was terrifying! Especially at the end, when he’s daydreaming about burning his sister 😱 it’s disturbing. 
I will say there were three different religions mentioned/explored in the book, and I thought that level of variety was pretty cool! My favorites were definitely the tree-spirits of Priya’s religion, though they were quite terrifying in their own way.

CW: blatant misogyny, religious trauma, childhood trauma, family trauma, horrific death, plague

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Colonisation, Misogyny, and Pandemic/Epidemic

maiahhtratchh's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Torture, Confinement, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, War, Colonisation, and Murder

aklovekorn's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Drug use, Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Drug abuse, Death, Violence, Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Suicide attempt

nekoshka's review against another edition

emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, Confinement, and Misogyny

Moderate: Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Child death, and Child abuse

Minor: Homophobia and Lesbophobia

raila_h's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, and Misogyny

riverferns's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, and Violence

piphux's review against another edition

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Confinement, Drug abuse, Violence, Child death, and Body horror

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Homophobia

Minor: Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Body shaming, and Vomit

mostlyvoidpartiallystars's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.75

My biggest complaint about this book is that it isn't longer!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death, Murder, Religious bigotry, Terminal illness, Racism, Xenophobia, Confinement, Child death, and Emotional abuse

kaziaroo's review

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Colonisation, Genocide, Religious bigotry, War, Death, Body horror, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Pregnancy, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Moderate: Gore, Homophobia, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Minor: Vomit and Alcohol

jessiereads98's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

Excellent high fantasy and excellent feminist storytelling. This is how you create a feminist story without monologues that seem out character or long bits of exposition that are discordant with the tone and atmosphere of the story. I loved the world, politics, and magic of this book. The characters are complex and I do find it difficult at times to fully understand some of them. I may not be picking up inferences I’m meant to. I do find the romance between the two main characters to be a bit underdeveloped. I found it difficult to follow the development of chemistry between the characters and progression of the relationship. It seemed as if we were told they were here in the relationship and had these feelings for each other without really seeing that develop. It wasn’t out of the realm of believability though and did not really take away from the overall story for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Murder, Violence, Addiction, Confinement, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Colonisation, Grief, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, and Terminal illness

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Bullying, Classism, Death of parent, War, Child death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, and Physical abuse