Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu

52 reviews

growintogardens's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad 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? Yes

3.5

The art is so beautiful. The story is a little confusing at times and quite dark.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, Gore, Violence, and War

Moderate: Cannibalism, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Child death, Death of parent, Medical content, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Child abuse, Confinement, Torture, and Medical trauma

cthulhu_calamari's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Trafficking, Child abuse, Body horror, Torture, Sexual violence, Gore, Child death, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Physical abuse

Minor: Toxic friendship and Genocide

startjpw23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This book is a graphic novel. It is the first volume in a series. The story is set in an alternate earth. I can't really place the time it takes place in, but it is fairly modern. There are no mechanized vehicles. But there are guns and airships. The main character is Maika HalfWolf. She is an Arcanic. Arcanics are half human. Maika has a powerful creature inside of her. There is a simmering dispute between Arcanics and humans. There are other races in the book (one is a race of intelligent, speaking 3 tailed cats). The Arcanics and humans are matriarchal societies. The story is told from multiple POVs. There is impressive world building in this book. The story is dark. There are some brutal scenes. The art if beautiful. The characters are complex. This is one of the best graphic novels I ever read. I will definitely be continuing the series. I recommend it to anyone who wants to read a dark graphic novel about an alternate earth with complex characters, multiple races, matriarchal societies, and great world building. Possibly look at content warnings to make sure the brutal scenes wouldn't be too much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, and Physical abuse

proudtobeabookaholic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-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? Yes

3.0

Maika Halfwolf is a 17-year-old survivor in the war between humans and Arcnics. In search of her past she becomes both hunter and hunted. At the same time the monster within her starts to awaken. 

I've been wanting to read this series for a long time, but now that I've read the first book I'm not sure what I really think about it. It's an unusually complex world building for a graphic novel, so I sometimes had trouble understanding all connections. Maika is also a rather complex character, and I shift between feeling sorry for her and thinking she behaves poorly. I enjoy the steampunk inspired environment and the style of drawing, but I find it unnecessarily bloody and violent. The fact that it takes place in an alternative Asia is interesting, but the question is if it's enough for me to keep reading the series? I honestly don't know. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Cultural appropriation, Death of parent, Torture, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Medical trauma, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cannibalism, and Death

baibe's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Slavery, Torture, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Trafficking, Cannibalism, and Kidnapping

gabrielle_reads_a_lot's review against another edition

Too gratuatis and very complicated.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Xenophobia, Violence, Kidnapping, Body horror, Gore, Child death, Murder, Trafficking, Slavery, Child abuse, Torture, and War

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

Monstress Volume 1 by Marjorie M. Liu is an amazing introduction to a new comic book world. The world building was wonderful, intriguing, and just down right entertaining. The art has been done by Sana Takeda and it's so beautiful, the art style is very "steampunk" and it just brings so much life to the story. 

Monstress is the story of Makia, a 17 year old who has grown up around war and she has lost so much. She has a psychic link with an entity inside of her, one that she struggles to control. She sets out on a mission and she ends up traveling/escaping with some friends after she finishes said mission. 

This was really entertaining and I had so many questions after the first volume, I'm so excited to dig into the later volumes to see if my questions will be answered. I really enjoyed this comic so I'm giving it a 5 out of 5 stars! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Cursing, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Murder, Slavery, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Torture, and War

theuerma's review

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Child death, Trafficking, Violence, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Gore, Body horror, Murder, Slavery, and War

allie_fawn's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

This series is gorgeous. There is a lot of names and lore to consume and that can be overwhelming, but I still highly enjoy it and the artwork is beautiful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Death, Cursing, Child death, Violence, Trafficking, Torture, Slavery, Blood, War, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, and Mental illness

laurenvoice's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

3.75

 Monstress, volume one was fun but intense!

This was way more graphic than expected; nonetheless, it was the perfect read to start the spooky season. I am curious to know what happens next! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, and Torture

Minor: Cannibalism, Genocide, Child abuse, Slavery, Physical abuse, War, and Child death