Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

32 reviews

fareehareads's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Originally intended to be a short story exercise of medical fiction, the story of Fairuz and company transformed into something more. We follow a small family of Sassanian refugees fleeing the city of Dilmun where Sassanian blood magic practitioners are being persecuted (the queendom of Dilmun was an allegory for the Muslim conquest in Iran). Fairuz, their trans younger brother Parvaiz, mother, and recently adopted orphan named Afsoneh, try to find peace in the city of Qilwa which notoriously hates Sassanians. Fairuz meets a healer named Kofi who runs a clinic that helps people despite their refugee status or financial situation, and just when things seem to be going well, they discover a magical ailment infecting Qilwa called blood-bruising. Corpses begin to come in the local mortuary in odd states and Fairuz uses all of their medical and magical knowledge to figure out the cause & find a cure. 
For such a short piece of fiction, the world building in this book was immediately easy to pick up and felt quite grounded. The idea of environmental magic, blood magic, and structuralists had basic rules to function and limitations that wouldn't make any magic user all powerful.
The mentor and student relationship between Afsoneh, an untrained blood adept (magic user) and Fairuz an inexperienced teacher was so heartwarming. The difficulties Fairuz faced simply through lack of access and fear of something going terribly wrong were frustrating and so real. I felt for each of these characters so heavily. This book is heartwarming, raw, emotional, and at some points downright gruesome. If you don't like medical procedures or tons of blood, skip this one! But if you want to explore an extremely unique magic system and learn a bit about the refugee experience through fiction, this is the one for you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Blood, and Self harm

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Violence

theirgracegrace's review

dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.25

A powerful and heart-wrenching debut from Naseem Jamnia. Firuz is trying to raise their family of refugees from a nearby country under military occupation in the free city of Qilwa. However, to make ends meet, they have to hide their blood magic abilities while working in the one free hospital in the city. As they do, they discover a mysterious plot is rising, and only blood magic could be to blame. An incredible story from a queer-normative world that really speaks to the southwest Asian immigrant experience. The twist is one I did not see coming in the slightest, and the ending gave me hope for the characters' broken world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Genocide, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Self harm, Torture, Body horror, Gaslighting, Medical trauma, Racism, Blood, Child abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Murder, Cultural appropriation, Medical content, War, Bullying, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Police brutality, Classism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Vomit and Transphobia

pvbobrien's review

dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Medical content

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

Minor: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Colonisation, and Grief

opossumble's review

emotional hopeful mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Colonisation, Racism, Violence, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Hate crime, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Physical abuse

jjjreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious sad slow-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cultural appropriation, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Vomit, Dysphoria, Genocide, Hate crime, Bullying, Child death, Grief, War, Xenophobia, Gore, Death, Blood, Body horror, Self harm, Violence, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Outing, Police brutality, and Racism

thenymphsvoice's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

4.5

A quick introduction to a style of story telling I am not used to. 

Which led me to enjoyably never knowing what to expect next in the story.

A very interesting story, that really makes you think about the world as it has been, as it is, and as it might be.

Please take the time to read the post script as well. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Gore, Medical content, Violence, Xenophobia, Grief, Deportation, Blood, and Racism

The book displays while not endorsing several isms. Finding the delicate line between oppression and oppressor and how easily the sides switch. As well as dealing with some hard feelings that’s trans people experience. All respectfully.

therainbowshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

Refugee and blood magic user Firuz convinces a small clinic to take them on as an assistant during a pandemic, and they find themself in the midst of an unexpected underlying crisis. I really enjoyed this read, which I picked up because of #RainbowCrateBookBox. I liked the characters, and always enjoy finding queer-normative settings. The ending got intense but it was really good. Also loved the giant mushrooms.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Child death, Xenophobia, Blood, Racism, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Death, Dysphoria, Violence, Medical content, and Confinement

unsuccessfulbookclub's review

dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious 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

It feels like an NK Jemisin book - deeply social, intellectual, exciting, unclear morality of al characters, extremely queer. 

In it, the main character tries to exist in a world that does not want them because of their heritage and ability to perform a specific type of magic. I loved the world in this and the reflection on being an oppressed group who has also oppressed others. If you read this, make sure to read the authors note!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Body horror, Dysphoria, Death, Colonisation, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Genocide, Abandonment, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Xenophobia

ryanlee's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Death and Physical abuse

Minor: Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Dysphoria, Murder, Xenophobia, and Genocide

thereadingskeleton's review

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? Yes

Rep: all-QBIPOC cast, nonbinary aroace MC, trans m SC, tons of other queer SCs (including sapphic, achillean, and nonbinary characters)

The Bruising of Qilwa introduces a queernormative Persian-inspired fantasy world with the story of Firuz-e Jafari, a nonbinary (and aroace!) refugee and practitioner of misunderstood blood magic. Having fled their homeland to escape the attempted genocide of blood magic users, Firuz and their family settle in the Free Democratic City-State of Qilwa. Firuz obtains a job at a free healing clinic and begins mentoring an orphaned refugee with powerful but untrained blood magic. With the city barely recovered from its last plague, Firuz is horrified to discover a deadly new disease sweeping through Qilwa—a disease with clear ties to blood magic. To protect themself, their family, and their new home, Firuz must both discover the source of the disease AND navigate the city’s complicated sociopolitical landscape.

Look, I know my own taste by now. I know that novellas rarely do it for me. But I keep picking them up in the hopes that the next one will be an exception. And you know what? I did actually enjoy this one!

Although it does fall victim to my usual complaints about novellas (primarily that I would rather have a fully fleshed-out novel so that the plot, pacing, and characters get the time and attention they deserve), I enjoyed spending time with the characters, learning about the world, and trailing along after Firuz while they gathered clues and figured out the mystery of the new disease.

The mystery part of the story seemed fairly obvious to me (for context, though, I don’t think I’ve been surprised by a twist in fifteen years), but I like what the author was going for in terms of spurring discussions about morality and cycles of prejudice. The author has mentioned plans for more stories set in this world, and I’m excited for that. I’d love to learn more about the magic system and spend some time in the areas surrounding Qilwa.

As a final note, I saw this compared to The Four Profound Weaves by R.B. Lemberg, and I agree that they have similar vibes. If you enjoyed that one, this one is worth giving a shot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Body horror, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death

Moderate: Self harm, Colonisation, and Dysphoria

Minor: Genocide