Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Battle Drum by Saara El-Arifi

17 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

abnerbee's review

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Colonisation, Miscarriage, Body horror, Murder, Slavery, Addiction, Child abuse, Classism, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Animal death, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexual assault, Blood, Drug abuse, Rape, Drug use, Death, and Grief

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

kathyreadsalot's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I just.. whew. This plot got thicker and more twisty in all the right ways! I need Book 3 to hurry up and come out. Took off half a star because Anoor’s character development I wish would have not been so painful at times.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Murder, Child death, Gore, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent

Moderate: Misogyny, Confinement, and Miscarriage

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

alilbitofeveryth1ng's review against another edition

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: Physical abuse, Murder, Slavery, Drug use, Child death, Toxic relationship, Addiction, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Sexual assault, Torture, Miscarriage, and Abandonment

rachaeltobindodd's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

5.0

This world is so rich! The story telling is beautiful. It by no means suffered from book 2 syndrome. In fact since I was already invested after book 1 I loved this book even more. I love the expansion of the word and mythology and the twists at the end. I can’t wait for book 3!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Death, Violence, and Blood

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