Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Black Tides of Heaven by Neon Yang

11 reviews

lonelylooper's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Medical content, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Animal death, and War

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

axteroid's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? N/A

5.0

Absolutely one of my most favorite books as soon as I finished reading it. Yang is a beautiful storyteller and crafts an amazing Silkpunk world with characters that I'm obsessed with. The transgender journeys of the twins is intertwined with their monastic and political upbringings, and how they perceive themselves as a single unit rather than two individual people. It is largely a coming-of-age story set within a world of political turmoil, human bloodshed, and still some deeply seeded love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, and Violence

magical world, East Asian culture, individuality

gardens_and_dragons's review

adventurous reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

I really enjoyed the unique way that gender is explored in this book: everyone is born genderless and confirms their gender later in life after exploring gender roles for themselves. 

I liked the way that the twins relationship with each other through their childhood is explored, and how it conflicts with their mother and her wishes for them. 

I feel like having this be a novella made this feel less complete, as there is not enough time to explore the world building that is always touched upon but not super explored beyond the surface level. Especially where the mother and politics are so intertwined in the plot, it feels like we are sometimes missing information about the world in which the twins live. 

Overall, a fun read though!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Animal death

jadziaaudrey's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Blood, Classism, and Death

originalsillyboy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

2.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Murder, Animal death, and Violence

pupbeat's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Child abuse and Child death

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

kylieqrada's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

4.5 ⭐️s. This one took a sec to get into, just because the writing is so next level. But once I got on a roll with it, it really shone. Gorgeous world-building, amazing characters, interesting gender dynamics. I felt like the pacing was spot on with this one as well. Will definitely be picking up the next one. 


Read for Beautifully Bookish Bethany's Tordotcomathon 2022

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Gore, and Murder

Minor: Pregnancy, Animal death, and Fire/Fire injury

orchidd's review

adventurous emotional sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Medical trauma, Violence, Murder, War, and Child death

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal death and Pregnancy

lucystolethesky's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Violence, Murder, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Death, Child death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Xenophobia

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Adult/minor relationship

foreverinastory's review

adventurous dark hopeful 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

 I LOVED THIS A LOT!!!

In this dystopian fantasy world, the Protector rules the land. When she makes a deal with the Grand Monastery, she ends up giving them her twins. At the age of 6, Mokoya and Akeha are sent to live and train with the monks. In the monastery the twins develop different gifts: Mokoya gets visions of the future and Akeha can see strings that move people to action. Years later they are sent back to their mother and the two become aware of unrest in the Protectorate.

This silkpunk world was so freaking cool. I loved the magic system, but my favorite thing was the way gender worked. All children are assigned gender neutral pronouns (they) at birth. As the kids age, once they're old enough they choose their gender. While our twins do eventually pick genders, i wondered if there were any characters who chose to stay nonbinary.

I loved the bond between Mokoya and Akeha, seeing them grow apart after they left the monastery made me so sad! The ending was pretty wild and I really am excited to see where this will go. Both twins have very clearly sided with the rebellion and I do love a good rebellion story. There is a bit of romance in this for each twin, and I enjoyed it while it also broke my heart a little! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic relationship