Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

The Bruising of Qilwa by Naseem Jamnia

23 reviews

sophiesmallhands's review

challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Xenophobia, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Colonisation, and Death

Moderate: Violence, Hate crime, Body horror, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Vomit

caseythereader's review

dark emotional mysterious 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Colonisation, Death, Gore, Self harm, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, and Dysphoria

historic_wince's review against another edition

challenging reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Vomit, Torture, Pandemic/Epidemic, Self harm, Genocide, Religious bigotry, and Physical abuse

jenna_smuszkiewicz's review

emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

I really liked this book though there were a few things that did take down my rating. 

Things I loved:

1. The casual queerness in the book. The main character is a non-binary aroace person and I am also one so I loved seeing that representation! There are several other queer characters from the main character's trans brother and other side characters that had different pronouns and orientations. 
2. The characters. The characterization of the characters was easily my favorite part of the book. Especially for Firuz, they are explored really well. I want so much more of these characters. 

What I wanted more of:

1. I want a map of this world so bad. I know it can be expensive to hire an artist and everything but I would have loved a map for the city we are set in and the world at large. 
2. More exploration of the magic system. I mostly got the gist of the magic system but I'm still confused about the details. I wish it was explained more. 

What I didn't like:

1. The ending really confused me. Spoilers for the antagonist:
   I was confused by what happened with Kofi. How does his spell infect other people? Why was he not concerned with causing this new disease? How exactly does his spell work? Why did he suddenly turn so violent against Firuz?
   What happened with the antagonist really soiled the end for me and brought down my rating. 

Still, I am so glad I read this book. I want more from this world and I'm excited to see more from this author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Vomit, and Violence

mandkips's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Body horror, Xenophobia, Colonisation, and Dysphoria

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

skudiklier's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.5

I don't really know what to make of this book. I liked having a nonbinary character, and the queernorm world in general. The world building was really good and I was invested in the characters and the plot. But the ending felt a bit.....I'm not sure how to describe it. I didn't hate it or anything but I don't feel like a lot was particularly resolved. It felt sudden in some ways. I dunno. I liked the book for the most part and think it was well-written, but I also don't think I'd actively recommend it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Terminal illness, Child abuse, Medical content, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, and Body horror

Moderate: Genocide and War

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Vomit

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

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

displacedcactus's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

This was an interesting book but I think it tried to do/be too many things in too few pages, so that no particular element of the story felt as strong as it could have been. I'd definitely read another book by this author as I think they have a lot of promise and some great ideas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia

Minor: Child death, Vomit, and Death of parent

Specific gross stuff:

putrification, pus, bloated dead bodies, autopsy

This book is generally pretty gory and it's worth paying attention to the fact that it deals with a healer blood mage during a plague. I'm moderately squeamish and certain scenes were difficult for me to read! Also, this is a fictional world, so the racism and xenophobia are against fictional groups, but they closely mirror real-world opinions about immigrants and ethnic minorities.