Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

142 reviews

cptnstphy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

Such a mastery of crafting the characters and plot to thicken and grow in complexity over time. The reader is trusted with increasingly complex, interesting, unbelievably imaginative worlds of magic and oregeny, and it's such a delicious reading experience.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child abuse, Violence, Child death, Gore, and War

Moderate: Grief, Animal death, Cannibalism, and Suicide

Minor: Alcohol, Genocide, Blood, Pregnancy, Confinement, Slavery, and Sexual content

cryosphinx's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-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

Kind of slumpy compared to the first book. The first one follows three characters and this one cuts that down to two (it does have a third, briefly) and it slows down the plot but makes up with it with character growth and world building. A lot of things get answered about the world and how the magic works and all the Guardians, Stone Eaters and orogenes exist. Since the plot doesn't move quite as much as Book 1, there is a lot more dialogue and I found it quite slow in the first half so be prepared for that.

Hoa definitely becomes the most interesting character aside from the main two. I do love the found family, depictions of grief and trauma and Jemisin's prose is still so beautifully written, there were times where I just read a passage over and over to fully observe how lovely it was written. You also get more informed of Essun's time in with her family, though it's told from the perspective of Nassun.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Murder, Child abuse, Cursing, and Child death

Minor: Bullying, Cannibalism, and Sexual content

mahitdzmare's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Grief, Child abuse, and Gore

Minor: Cannibalism

proceduralbob's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Body horror

Moderate: Child death and Cannibalism

readingelli's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Blood, Death, Grief, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Child death

abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense 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

4.75

Excellent second instalment to this series! Didn’t have me quite as captured as The Fifth Season (I think having the 3 intersecting storylines made it feel faster, in comparison to 2 main stories in TOG) but I loved all of the developments and complexities of these characters. Absolutely masterful work. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Grief, War, and Murder

Minor: Cannibalism

jessthanthree's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Child death, War, Toxic relationship, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Grief, Blood, Death of parent, Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Xenophobia, and Body horror

Minor: Animal death, Racial slurs, and Alcohol

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

The Obelisk Gate is the sequel to N. K. Jemisin's "The Fifth Season" and it definitely does not suffer from "bad sequel syndrome "as one goodreads user put it. This was an amazing follow up, with so much wonderful and vast world building and character growth.

I loved this and I see why it also won the Hugo award (and many other awards).
I was drawn in to the story and my interest or excitement never faltered. This book reminds me of how enamored I was while reading Octavia E. Butler's Patternist series, I see some elements of OEB's stories come through in The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate. Mainly a dystopian setting, found family, and found community to help survive the recent disasters.

I read this in 5 days only because I was buddy reading with my boyfriend and we had to read around his schedule. If I had read this on my own I probably would have finished it within a day or two. It was that good.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Physical abuse, Violence, Child death, Blood, Child abuse, and Death of parent

mandkips's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Gore, and Death

Minor: Cannibalism

leanne_miron's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Body horror, and Child abuse

Moderate: Cannibalism, Kidnapping, Violence, and Xenophobia