Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Elias & Laia - In den Fängen der Finsternis by Sabaa Tahir

41 reviews

mj1588's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad 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: Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Torture, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Body horror, Death of parent, Slavery, War, Violence, Blood, Child death, Death, and Colonisation

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

I wish I could put my finger on the issues I have with this series. Part of it is that I don't like wars and fighting much, but it's more than that. I really love a lot of the plot points, but I run out of patience waiting for them to happen. I like the characters, but not enough to invest heavily in the plot.
I guess with this one I was hoping that it might have a bit of resolution. Although there are some major reveals that are highly rewarding, it's also obvious as we get to the final parts of the book that we are far from the end of this epic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, War, Domestic abuse, Violence, Torture, and Xenophobia

risten's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Torture, Gore, Slavery, Genocide, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, Death, Classism, Medical content, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Blood

kfoster's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.25

I enjoyed this book/series a lot - so much that I plan to reread it next year.  This book was easier with not so much torture as was in #1 and #2, and that was a relief to me.  I would encourage others to listen to the audiobook while reading along - as you can more easily visualize what you would see if this ever became a movie series (which would be amazing!!!! But that’s my dream).  This series is great for older teenagers and adults, as long as they understand that this can be a disturbing series.

But disturbing or not, I’m so glad I read this series and will read more by this author soon!!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Torture

Moderate: Blood, Violence, and Gore

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, War, Violence, Child death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Torture, Pregnancy, Police brutality, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical content, Confinement, Body horror, Grief, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, and Cursing

Minor: Rape, Sexual violence, Genocide, Slavery, Vomit, Sexual harassment, and Emotional abuse

bzliz's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Every time I finish one of her books, I am blown away by Sabaa Tahir’s storytelling. She is a master at weaving together seriously intricate plots all involving different complex characters with varying degrees of overlap. Her twists don’t feel cheap and many truly caught me by surprise. A warning: this series has seriously intense world building and at times it can be a struggle to keep up with names and places. 

In this book, Laia is on a quest to stop the Nightbringer and saving those most at risk of destruction along the way. Elias is melding into his role as Soul Catcher, helping Laia when he can but finding it harder and harder to ignore the pull of his duties. Helene is still duty bound to do the Emperor’s bidding and combating the ambitions of Keris Veturia. Every time I think I’ve seen all the layers of these characters and their motivations, Tahir drops another bomb and I realize she’d been laying hints to it all along. 

The only reason I’m not giving this five stars is because the complexity of the story makes my dumb brain work too hard to try to keep straight characters and places since we’re bouncing around so much. 

Content warnings:
Most are self explanatory and make sense if you’ve already read the previous two books. 
Pregnancy (on page):

The Empress Livia becomes pregnant after marrying Marcus. She is an even bigger target for assassination while carrying the heir and Keri’s Veturia manages to poison her. She survives and goes on to successfully deliver the baby (on page) but there are some complications and Helene must use her healing power to keep her sister alive.

Domestic abuse (on & off page):

Marcus really sucks and constantly abuses Livia even as she is pregnant. He does this to keep Helene compliant with his orders.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Death, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and War

Moderate: Slavery

esconce's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

4.5

Not my favorite book of the whole series, and sometimes felt like the pacing was off.. BUT I loved the characters so much that it really doesn’t matter that much. It’s definitely a good book and makes the series feel a lot closer to being completed. I love that Helene and Harpers relationship is growing and just over all good book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Cursing, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Genocide, Classism, Murder, and Stalking

Moderate: Sexism, Abandonment, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Religious bigotry, Hate crime, and Mental illness

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Trafficking

redhothabanero's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

This book wasn't as heart pounding as the first two were. Although it's still enthralling and a fantastic read. I really love all of Helene's chapters. I did not see the Cook twist coming. Can't wait to find out how this all ends. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Slavery, and Confinement

Minor: Torture

leaflit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Slavery, War, Blood, Murder, Torture, Violence, Classism, Colonisation, Toxic relationship, Child death, Grief, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Physical abuse

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Child death, Vomit, Torture, Racism, Grief, Genocide, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Misogyny, Medical trauma, War, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Death of parent, Death, Physical abuse, Body horror, Classism, Blood, Xenophobia, Sexual violence, Murder, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Rape, Violence, Domestic abuse, Cursing, and Confinement