Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi

7 reviews

booksqworm's review

adventurous 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? No

4.25

This book is trying to do a LOT. A lot happens in it and the pacing is a bit confusing. Sometimes it feels super fast and sometimes dragged out, but it is worth it reading all 516 pages. The plot twists and turns which keeps it interesting. There a few horny scenes that felt like they came out of no where and didn’t fit the rest of the book because there is a lot less romance than the first book. I think the book could have been condensed, and Anoors conflict wasn’t my favorite. Her character didn’t really get to shine this book even though she in on the cover. Overall I really enjoy the themes in the book, and the world building is fantastic. There are some amazing quotes, mostly from Hassa. She’s my favorite. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Sexual violence

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

hutchmusic14's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, War, Sexual violence, Self harm, Miscarriage, Xenophobia, and Domestic 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

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

nightworldlove's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

Absolutely incredible sequel! There is so much intrigue and I was holding my breath a lot of the time, which is incredibly exciting! The twists and turns kept on coming, and then the cliffhanger was just incredible. Loved it from start to finish and can't wait for the last book! <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, and Murder

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Alcohol, Miscarriage, Torture, Child death, and Sexual violence

Minor: Rape, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Acephobia/Arophobia, Misogyny, and Pregnancy