Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Wildblood by Lauren Blackwood

17 reviews

mels_reading_log's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

Victoria was kidnapped when she was a small child, and forced to work as a jungle guide for a tour company. As a wildblood, she can use her magic to keep herself and tourists safe in the deadly and haunted jungle. Even though she is the most powerful of the wildbloods,  she is forced to work under the leadership of her ex best friend who does not know what he is doing. As a strong woman, who is in touch with her surroundings she has to do what is necessary to protect those she loves as well as the jungle. I love how strong Victoria is and how she is so connected to the jungle.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Slavery, Death, Torture, Child abuse, Gun violence, Blood, Confinement, and Grief

Moderate: Murder, Physical abuse, Animal death, and Rape

Minor: Sexual content

jinmichae's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I loved a lot of things about this book, but the plot felt messy to me. Strong start, compelling main character, and a challenge that seems insurmountable all for me interested from the start.

Unfortunately, for me it got muddled up with the romance factor. I think it would have worked better with a longer "will they/won't they" phase, or if there were more stakes for them to have to consider their feelings. I hate misunderstandings that come from something the characters could just have talked about, but even that would have created more tension:

if Thorn thought that Victoria was actually committed to her other "lovers" and was more subtle with his desires.

I wanted to know more about the jungle and the dangers present there, but the feeling of constant present danger wasn't there as the got farther off the trail. They had no Wildbloods watching at night?

It was mere coincidence that Victoria noticed the soul eater: if she hadn't been awake, the whole camp could have been killed.

I think mostly this could have done with some tightening up. I felt there were too many scenes basically hashing out the same conversation between Thorn and Victoria, and it killed the tension and pacing. They, and the reader, forget they're in a dangerous jungle.

And I hate that Thorn doesn't really agree that the jungle and the gold belong to no one but the jungle. I feel that should have been a bigger sticking point for Victoria.

Finally, the scene in the orchard was quite anticlimactic. Victoria alludes to not knowing what's actually there, why there are "man eaters" if there's no men there. But it's just trees with gold sap? And we only really see it in a glance as she tries to help Thorn. I also didn't understand why she didn't just stay in the jungle: why return to the boss at all? Especially with how it ends?

In some ways this felt like a first draft, which is frustrating because I really enjoyed the writing, the glimpses we saw of the jungle's beauty and danger, and the different characters. I think the plot just got muddied up in the middle, and the tone became less consistent, which lost the danger and immediacy of the early chapters.

All that said, I loved Biggs. I think he was my favorite part of the book. I almost yelled with how happy I was that he loved Victoria just like the rest of the jungle.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Colonisation, Grief, Slavery, Trafficking, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Bullying, Murder, Racism, Torture, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Sexual harassment

remie's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Colonisation, Death, and Slavery

Moderate: Sexual content and Sexual violence

siriface's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Murder, Slavery, Kidnapping, Rape, and Blood

kefeshe's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Blood, Violence, Death, and Child death

Moderate: Kidnapping, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Sexual content

petab's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Blood, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Death

Minor: Kidnapping, Child death, and Slavery

bittersweetcritiques's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Death, Sexual violence, and Child abuse

patricktreads's review

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.0

Wild blood was broody, dark, aggressive and deep. However it was a struggle for me to get through. While it was a very good story, I am not saying it was bad, I think it was a lot more……descriptive in the situations than what I am normally comfortable with. This applies to the description of things such as an “SA”, an animal death, and some aggressive violence situations. I still think the story was good, but it was hard for me personally to get through.

The narrator did really well, but even on normal speed it was extremely fast. Just make sure to really pay attention if you are listening to the audio. 

Special thanks to netgalley and the publisher for letting me listen to the audio arc for this review. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Death, Grief, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Colonisation, Genocide, Gore, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Medical content, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Violence, Slavery, and Sexual violence

the_tea_collector22's review

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

2.5

The premise of this story was so interesting and I was hooked for the first third of it, but as the story went on it felt quite repetitive with dialogue or even internal thoughts in conflict with each other about what Victoria wanted or how she felt. I wanted so badly to love it, but the more I kept listening the more I just wanted it to end. I think the world building was so unique with Wildbloods that I really liked it, I just didn’t love the execution and how the story played out. Idk if it’s related to a craft piece or just personal preference but something just seemed to be missing for me to really enjoy it. I did like the narrator on the audiobook, they were really good and had a lovely voice for the different songs some characters sing- so I’d recommend the audio for that aspect. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Rape and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual harassment, Trafficking, and Death of parent

lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

4.25

This YA adventure story contains powerful themes of choosing forgiveness, overcoming horrific obstacles & traumas, and claiming your own destiny. The author has thoughtfully included a list of content warnings at the beginning of the book, with additional information on her website. Victoria’s character arc is a delight to read, the jungle terrors are chillingly intriguing, and the writing style is simultaneously lush and accessible.

My only hesitation in the rating is that I wasn’t convinced by the chemistry with Thorn. My distrust/suspicions were raised the entire time, so I found him an unconvincing love interest, despite how handsomely he was described. For some readers, this might not matter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Gore, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Sexual assault

Minor: Trafficking