Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan Ci Fu (Novel) Vol. 1 by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu

15 reviews

biscuitgale's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

This story focuses on a character named Xie Lian who was once a god, turned scrap collector, turned god again. We see him navigate the nuances of godhood and brilliantly solve Scooby Doo-ish mysteries that surface resentment, corruption and further questions. Along the way he meets a mysterious, but handsome character, San Lang. A loving relationship develops between them as they spend time together in a domestic setting and while on an adventure.

I truly enjoyed the slow-burn romance moments in this book, but want to caveat that this story includes dark themes and gore. Like many xianxia stories, there are characters with multiple names and titles. If you’re finding it tough to keep track of the names, I highly recommend keeping track of them and other confusing elements on the side on paper.

This volume does a lot of legwork to set up the world, but it can be a bit confusing if you haven’t read other stories of this genre. It introduces us to heaven, some cultivation and ghosts. The different realms mentioned are truly intriguing. The characters in this story are so fun and chaotic. Not all are fully developed, but they are definitely written with unique personalities and motivations. The pacing of this book can be challenging at times as there are scenes that go on for a bit longer than anticipated. But then there are moments where it picks up and it’s hard to put the book down because I just had to know what happens next. The story leaves us with a ton of loose threads going into the rest of the series!

Here are a few of the darker topics that came up in the story (behind a spoiler tag):

Moral Grayness, Genocide, Empires, Death, Body Horror, Desecrating Bodies, Casual Misogyny, Violence in General

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Torture, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Transphobia, Classism, Misogyny, Sexism, and Genocide

flovntic's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide attempt and Torture

Moderate: Gaslighting

Minor: Death of parent and Sexual harassment

lenakathryn's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

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

4.5

A little slow and confusing at first, but picks up about 80 pages in and gets really good. Very unique and fun writing style.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture

graceskate's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Body horror

Moderate: War, Xenophobia, Torture, Racism, Grief, Mental illness, and Abandonment

Minor: Ableism, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Homophobia, and Infidelity

saltycoffee's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Bullying, Animal death, Torture, War, Blood, Child abuse, Genocide, Murder, Body horror, Classism, and Death

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

sb0112358's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Gore, Torture, Body horror, and Genocide

Minor: War and Kidnapping

Snakes

atsuanna's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring medium-paced

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

5.0

One of the first books I fell absolutely in love with and got me back into reading !! It’s so romantic, funny, the found family makes me sob but it’s also so emotional. I ADORE all the characters and love how fleshed out and lovable they are. The missions are so fun to read and it checks off so many of my favorite tropes! It’s a book I think about so often. It’s not without its fault as it’s MXTX but it’s one of MXTX’s only good works in my opinion. If you really wanna read it though please check the content warnings. In other words I love hualian so much I never stop thinking about them </3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gore, Self harm, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Death of parent, Genocide, Misogyny, Torture, and Panic attacks/disorders

mxpringle's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Blood, Classism, Gore, Grief, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, Cursing, Racism, Colonisation, Body horror, Death, and War

Moderate: Kidnapping, Misogyny, Suicide, Homophobia, Murder, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Cannibalism and Alcohol

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

The beginning was a little on the slow side but it picked up and quickly became engaging and I didn't want to put it down.

I think the main deterrent I have might be with the style of translation.  I am used to translated works using footnotes for quick reference so having one chunk at the end describing all the nuance that is otherwise lost in translation interrupts the flow.  I chose to discern by context and then read through the glossary and such after so I think it will improve the experience for reading the next book in the series.  I admit that this is a personal preference.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Bullying, Confinement, Violence, Death, Murder, Body horror, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Medical content, War, Gore, and Torture

drtx_bwt's review

adventurous informative lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail and Violence

Minor: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Torture