Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi

14 reviews

fairyollie's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

oh, Battle Drum; oh, Saara, you did not hesitate to fill my heart and crush it now, did you? what a poignant, heart-wrenching, tumultuous, devastating story; what an honest and raw tale that has been woven here. it is painful and stressful in the most glorious ways. it feels so raw and real that at times it felt more like I was reading a hidden book of world history: climate crises, fights for power, classism, inequity, all wrapped up with stunning world-building and complex characters.

I know people complain that Sylah and Anoor have regressed without one another, but long-distance relationships without means of communication would be HARD! can you even imagine? 

all goes to say that I fear I will be empty until The Ending Fire is released (thankfully I have pre-ordered!) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Genocide, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Blood, Colonisation, Gore, Murder, Violence, Self harm, Slavery, Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Alcohol, Trafficking, Alcoholism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Stalking

porcupine_girl's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Ableism, Genocide, Alcohol, Gore, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, Miscarriage, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Trafficking, Classism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, War, Body horror, Cursing, Alcoholism, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Medical content, Torture, Blood, Colonisation, Confinement, Abandonment, Medical trauma, Murder, and Police brutality

Moderate: Addiction, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence

Minor: Sexual content, Infidelity, and Animal death

kendal_reads's review

adventurous emotional medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, and Blood

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, and Sexual content

lisacanteven's review

adventurous challenging emotional informative 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'm a pretty visual person, so seeing stories play out in my head as I read isn't a new thing. However, this book was probably the clearest I could ever see a story in my mind. I still gave the first book, The Final Strife, 5 stars but somehow the sequel was leagues above even that book. You learn so much about the politics of this world in the first book, but the second is such an exciting and thrilling adventure. If it wasn't for my Lexapro I would have bawled in several places in this story. Alas, my Lexapro has a lockdown on my tears. 

The last line of the book?!? I read an ebook from the library, so my last line was italic. However, my partner read a Kindle version and the final line was in quotes. I checked a US hardback and it's in quotes too. This makes a huge difference in the ending, so I need to know why my copy was wrong!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Body horror, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Classism, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, War, and Colonisation

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, and Drug abuse

malinhalia's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

0.5

I will admit I wasn't going into this book unbiased as I disliked book 1. So why read the second one? I really wanted to review it, and I was intrigued about where the plot was going after the reveal at the end of the first book. I also hoped that maybe the writing would be better than the first, but boy, was I wrong.

The characters are extremely one-dimensional and most are straight up unlikeable (unable to conjure the slightest bit of empathy, emotion, critical thinking, or even a consistent plan of action). The writing style itself is very heavy-handed and every plot point is carefully and patronisingly explained to you in detail (you really don't need conclusion-drawing skills to read this book). In addition to this, the author in multiple instances unnecessarily spoils the plot in advance by having chapter openers (for example, notes to or from certain characters). This works well in some books but not in this one. They detract from rather than add to the story, as they make - in some places - several chapters unnecessary as the plot point is glaringly clear from just this short text.  The writing is choppy and doesn't feel suitable for a book marketed to an adult audience.

Whilst I found the background of

the Zaalam, the Kabut religion and how it came to spread to the Warden's empire

, I thought this was the only redeeming thing of the book. The magic system, which is a very interesting concept in itself, is very underused throughout the book. The plot is shallow and so much of the book feels superfluous - I think it would have worked better as a shorter, more carefully edited book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Torture

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Child death, and Slavery

caseythereader's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, Miscarriage, Classism, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Colonisation, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Addiction, Cursing, Murder, Torture, Blood, Gore, Child death, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content

barda's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

I'm very frustrated by having to rate this book so low, but I definitely didn't enjoy it as much as the first book.

The first book had some flaws, but I still broadly enjoyed the characters, the setting, and the worldbuilding. While this second book fixed my biggest pet peeve of rapidly switching POV's (this one had the more standard format of a chapter only having one character's POV), it felt like this one was actually more confusing than the first one, and that the author lost plot momentum from the first book.

The characters just weren't as likeable in this book. I still really enjoyed Hassa and she's easily a stand-out character, but Jond was just boring and Sylah was not in the book enough for me to judge her characterisation. Anoor, however, I was the most disappointed in. Like Sylah, it feels like she barely has any screen-time in this book, but most egregiously she seems to regress in all of her character development that she gained in the first book. I hate to criticise characters who make seemingly stupid mistakes, as oftentimes they'll be realistic mistakes that you might expect one to make, but Anoor keeps making mistakes over and over and doesn't seem to learn from the negative impacts of these. She's incompetent and seemingly regains her naivety that she grew out of in the first book. This makes the twist

of her being the Child of Fire also come out of left-field, as she goes from being exceedingly naive and sad to suddenly angry and wanting revenge over the space of a chapter

.

The plot certainly had some interesting bits, particularly with the Academy and how the cultures of the mainland work. I did also broadly enjoy the plot reveals towards the end of the book; however, they were all suddenly shoved into the end of the book leaving little room for the characters to breathe, and many of the plot twists could have been revealed and solved earlier if characters simply communicated with each other (

for instance, with Jond not telling Sylah that the other disciples were Sandstorm - what was his reasoning for not telling this to Sylah in the first place? It's not really explained in the text

). 

Broadly, this book's usually interesting plot was dragged down by its characters and overall characterisation. I still might pick up the next one when it comes out as I think the mysteries that have been set up are worth reading, but I do hope that the author can figure out where they want their characters to go. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Blood, Self harm, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Rape, Religious bigotry, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Child death, Drug use, Violence, Classism, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, Colonisation, and Death

Minor: Cursing

purplesoccer126's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Torture, Death, Medical trauma, Murder, Blood, Classism, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Violence, and Miscarriage

Moderate: Addiction, Sexual violence, and Drug abuse

hailstorm3812's review

4.25

I think this was an interesting second installment in the series. The twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat. I audibly gasped at the end. The development of 3 of the POV characters was so good.

I hate to admit it, but especially Jond. Anoor on the otherhand is being manuevered to have interesting developments in the next book so made a lot of not good choices now.

Excited for the next book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage, Blood, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Death of parent

Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Death, Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, War, Sexism, Xenophobia, Ableism, Colonisation, and Rape

Minor: Child abuse, Suicide, Abandonment, Child death, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

nefariousbee'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

how does it keep getting better. this is genuinely my favourite fantasy series, maybe ever. so excited for the final book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Rape, Self harm, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Confinement, Grief, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Genocide, Infidelity, and Kidnapping