Reviews tagging 'Death'

Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi

66 reviews

robinks's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

Compared to the first volume, this one felt a little less intense and more about internal struggles, and I found myself super frustrated at different points. The epilogue had really powerful imagery.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Violence, Blood, Emotional abuse, Child death, Racial slurs, Racism, Genocide, and Police brutality

Moderate: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Gore

Minor: Alcohol, Trafficking, Vomit, Physical abuse, and Torture

debthebookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

Before I learned there is a third book coming, I was fully prepared to throw this book across the room.

Ending with what I can only assume are the Europeans coming to enslave the Orïshans instead of giving us the victory Zélie deserves would have been a compete let-down.

But Children of Anguish and Anarchy is coming! So I can focus on how I feel about the pages leading up to the end.

I was not prepared for Amari's arc. Seeing her turn exactly into what her parents raised her to be and sacrificing Ibadan was frustrating, and I wished she had been sacrificed for the other elders to join their hearts. I expected Mama Agba to go, but not like that. All in all, it was a beautiful send-off.

Zélie and Inan hurt. I was excited to learn that Inan was alive, even though he was so aggravating and the reason Baba died. He and Zélie, though, were just something I wanted to work, and watching him fight himself again but this time also having to fight against his mother, I rooted for him to break free so he could do the right thing. It took the whole book, but I'm glad it happened. 

Also, so much pain. Having to watch Zélie get broken down to the point where she didn't want to fight anymore was so painful. Mâzeli did not deserve to die, and it was her fault!

There were so many instances of everyone not listening or trusting each other, I didn't know who was going to prevail.

Overall, story-wise, I loved seeing more maji, watching Zélie blossom with her own little clan, discovering cênters, and seeing the maji sanctuary. The twists were really good. I was shocked every time. The last few chapters, jumping from character to character every 3 pages, was jarring, but I pushed through. Also  unless this is addressed in Book 3, we never learned what happened to Ramaya.

I debated on how many stars to give this, but those issues stop me from giving it 5.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, War, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Blood, Classism, and Genocide

Minor: Vomit, Animal death, and Child death

puggreader's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

i’m really glad that this had a message that ultimately leads to monarchy being defeated (or attempted to). i’m actually so mad that we don’t get a payoff of this ACTUALLY being over and the revolution being successful. excellent job upending our expectations and assumptions about the characters from the first book, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Murder, War, Body horror, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

cecinamo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

I really liked this book. It was really good, but very very sad and there was also quite a lot of violence. 
There is also a lesbian background couple <3 I am definitely looking forward to the third book. Hopefully their story ends well! >~< 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Colonisation, Torture, Violence, Blood, Body horror, and Murder

chlo_po's review

adventurous dark emotional sad 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? Yes

3.5

These characters are experiencing so much trauma goodness gracious. Excited to see how the third installment brings it all together based on this second book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Xenophobia, and Violence

angievansprang's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

I am loving this series. The magic system is so intricate and I appreciate the attention to detail in crafting this world. The plot twists in the second book of this series kept me on the edge of my seat and made this a fast read. I felt as though Adeyemi did well at increasing the pacing and decreasing the page count in this book compared to Children of Blood and Bone. You better bet I’m eagerly awaiting the release of the third book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Classism, Death, Violence, Colonisation, and Blood

Moderate: Gore and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Grief

abby_can_read's review

adventurous medium-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

3.0

📱
After finishing the first book, I had high exceptions and I don't think this book lived up to them. This was a decent book and there were parts that I enjoyed reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, War, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Gore, Racial slurs, Racism, Blood, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Colonisation and Gaslighting

grets_reads's review

adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Xenophobia, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Death, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death of parent, and Confinement

Minor: Torture and Fire/Fire injury

ci_eden's review

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring sad 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? It's complicated

4.0

This took me a year to read due to my ADHD but definitely a great sequel! I could definitely feel how the characters matured throughout the book. The smaller chapters spur me on and I feel like the POV is evenly spread between each character. I honestly can't wait for this to get picked up for a TV show, it'll be absolutely stunning. The way Adeyemi described things, I can truly visualise it in my head.

The fact that the war technically hasn't ended and that they're on a boat in the sea?! Who is this new player Tomi, I need to read the next one right now!!

Also I love how flawed Zelie is. I love a strong woman going through shit, and she doesn't want to run away anymore, she found her purpose, fuck yeah! Although she has horrible taste in men. Also did NOT expect Amari to kill innocent people. Trauma and abuse really twists you.

These are tortured characters that just keep getting battered and abused. Children fighting wars, as the title says. I feel for them, I really do. I feel like their deaths are inevitable but I can't look away... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Xenophobia, Blood, Colonisation, Violence, War, Racism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Classism, Religious bigotry, and Hate crime

Minor: Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Medical content, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

ravenwolf_waf's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

3.5

My thoughts are all over the place with this one. I thought this was it, there wasn't going to be a third book. So wtf was that ending? And what happened to my characters? Relationships are destroyed all because everyone checked reason and trust at the door and went straight for hot-headed emotion. The story was decent but half of it felt wholly unnecessary. It was as if the author was trying to keep the plot going past when it should've ended by throwing random hurdles throughout. I'll keep an eye out for the third, I guess, but at this point it's feeling more like a skip. :/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Classism, Death, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and War