Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

32 reviews

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Death, Blood, Violence, Xenophobia, Gore, Medical content, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Child death

Moderate: Colonisation, Genocide, War, Self harm, and Dysphoria

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Animal death, and Death of parent

bea__reads's review against another edition

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Blood, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Medical trauma, Body horror, and Medical content

Moderate: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, and Xenophobia

Minor: Dysphoria, Child death, and Torture

toopunkrockforshul's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

Really well executed book that engages both magic and empire in a way I haven't often seen done! I'm always excited for magic-as-science and this definitely fit the bill. Also really liked how gender and transition was handled with this, where it was relevant to the characters and the story but not necessarily the point. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Violence, Torture, and Vomit

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Racial slurs, Medical trauma, War, Police brutality, and Colonisation

shelvesofivy's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Xenophobia, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Violence, Vomit, Pandemic/Epidemic, Grief, and Colonisation

trips's review

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

A beautifully written novella about extremely current topics set in a very interesting magic world. I appreciate the inclusion of non-binary and trans character in a setting where others are fine with whatever you see yourself as but who/what you want to be perceived still very important to the identity of the characters themselves.
The other themes of the book, facing oppression as someone who's people were previously oppressor's, is not quite expanded as much as I wish it had been. Honestly I think this novella needed to be fully fleshed out into a full novel. The author has good ideas, just would have liked more of it to really understand the world and feel more invested in the character motivations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Blood, Medical content, Violence, and Body horror

Moderate: Racial slurs and Gore

quinnyquinnquinn's review

adventurous mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Medical content

Moderate: Violence, Dysphoria, and Xenophobia

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Vomit

prosenheim's review

adventurous inspiring mysterious reflective medium-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

Moderate: Genocide, Child abuse, Gore, Religious bigotry, Medical content, Violence, Blood, and Physical abuse

Minor: Self harm

twistmalchik's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, and Colonisation

Minor: War and Deadnaming

larbster90's review

adventurous hopeful sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Dysphoria, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Torture, Violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: Colonisation, Death of parent, Religious bigotry, Racism, and Terminal illness

trickphoenix's review

mysterious tense 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? Yes

2.5

I wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. All of the plot threads were conceptually very interesting to me, but I found the execution was lacking. 

There were way too many plots going on for a novella, and I felt they didn't get enough time individually to develop. The medical mystery itself I found compelling and it kept me going through the rest, but the interpersonal drama was tense and frustrating without feeling particularly cathartic, and there was never quite enough context given to drive home any of the points about imperialism and changing cultural identity as oppressor vs oppressed, which is a shame since the author seemed to be so thoughtful and knowledgeable on those topics! There just wasn't enough pages to really explore them. 

The writing itself was also sometimes confusing; I found myself going back to re-read a few lines to see if I missed some context connecting the thoughts, but didn't find any connection between the two lines at all.

I really liked the extremely diverse inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters, and the seamless inclusion of introductory pronouns and neo-pronouns. I also found the magic system very interesting, and I was excited for the setting. But ultimately I think the delivery wasn't quite there yet. I'd definitely be interested in reading more work from this author to see how they grow and improve though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Racism, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Hate crime, Murder, Child death, Violence, Gore, and Classism

Minor: Self harm, Physical abuse, and Torture