Reviews with content warning for Injury/Injury detail - Thirst

Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

batbaby's review against another edition

dark reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I devoured the first half of this book in one sitting with thunderstorm sounds and gothic classical music in the background and it really matched the vibe.We follow a vampire for a few decades and watch how the city of Buenos Ares grows and changes in that time. I loved how dark the story felt and anytime you might be foolish enough to think the vampire had changed and maybe had a bit of humanity she’d prove to you the monster she was. There’s a point where the vampire doesn’t know how much time has passed and the chapter doesn’t have a number, I thought that was really clever.

The second half was a little harder for me to get into at first but I still really enjoyed it. We follow a main character who is continually grieving as her mother slowly succumbs to a degenerative disease. She becomes obsessed with things and ideas maybe in a way to distract herself from what’s really going on. She spends a long time considering and worrying about a Pandora’s box that her mother tells her not to open and her need to rebel against that. My only complaint is I that I wish the ending wasn’t so opened ended and we got a tiny bit more maybe even a page.

I just don’t understand how she could abandon Santiago like that when the majority of the book we see how infatuated she is with him.

This book looks at the complexities of identity and humanity when facing death and grief.

#ad I received this book for free as an arc but the opinions are entirely my own.

Content Warnings

readingpicnic's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.75

Erotic, but also deeply sad. The dreary, crumbling cemetery setting of most of the novel works so well towards creating a bleak atmosphere. This book wasn't the sapphic romance I initially thought it would be. It centers more on persecution and murder in an ever-changing and unfamiliar world in the vampire's case, and being a single mom and drifting away from everyone while grieving her ever-ailing elderly mother in Alma's case. I do think I preferred the vampire's chapters over the latter half of the book and found them more interesting; Alma's chapters dragged for me at times and it didn't feel like much was happening.

Content Warnings

kaiyakaiyo's review

Go to review page

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

the split pov is pretty disjointed, and the first half felt like it could have been its own book. hundreds of years covered in 100 or so pages was… a choice. Alma’s(?) half is simultaneously more rushed feeling and more of a drag in comparison; we read about her cleaning her floor and going to vividly described bars for nearly half of her story, then she just ups and leaves her son for a sapphic vampire existence… the blood drinking scenes were wonderful, and the writing is nice on the eyes, but the narrative itself was so sparse it bordered on incomplete

this is also the first time I’ve been bored by vampire women, I honestly didn’t know that was possible for me

Content Warnings

dfrancis's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

I was excited by the concept of this book. And I did enjoy it. But it left me wanting more, and not in a good way. I feel like there needed to be more of a build up to the ending and a bit more mingling of the two POVs. It’s a translated book, and I feel like at moments it felt a little stilted and I can’t tell if that’s the author’s writing or the translation. Overall, enjoyed but expected/hoped for more.

Content Warnings

bookishvicky's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.5

“We’re all standing at death’s door; someone has to be next in line”

THIRST was a beautiful novel about death and wanting, about mourning and identity versus an ever changing world. This unique take on the vampire genre was refreshing and wonderfully melancholic, yet animalistic to its core. Even as a vampire, she remains flawed, scared, lonely, emotions we see reflected in Alma, a human mother watching her own mother slowly fade from life.

I adored this book; while I did think the plot slowed down toward the end, the overall story was more than enough to keep me interested. Definitely recommend if you’re looking for a new take on vampires!

Content Warnings