Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Monstress, Vol. 1: Awakening by Marjorie Liu

27 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

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

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

vr_alyssa's review

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

3.75

An intricate world with beautiful images. Very curious to see where this leads. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, Violence, War, Genocide, Grief, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, and Blood

nadiaherondale's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.0

I decided to pick this up because the vibes felt similar to Claymore and oh boy it didn't disappoint. The art is amazing and deserves all the awards in the world and I'm liking the story so far. Although I can't in good faith give it a perfect rating 'cause I'm feeling way too lost about the plot and I feel everything is going too quickly, this is still a respectable 4/5. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Death, Violence, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Genocide, War, Death of parent, and Body horror

Minor: Ableism and Vomit

miayukino's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, War, Torture, Murder, Cursing, Gore, Death of parent, Body horror, Violence, Genocide, and Death

Moderate: Blood

jetix's review against another edition

dark mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Slavery, Blood, Medical trauma, Violence, Body horror, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, and Murder

Moderate: Cannibalism and War

Minor: Death of parent and Suicidal thoughts

the_bookish_rose's review

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I’ve had this book waiting on my shelf for *a while*, so I’m glad I finally got around to it. I did not expect for it to be so dark, but the illustrations really make up for it! It isn’t a lighthearted tale, but I like the way it was handled for the main character to not be so much of a 100% good or bad guy.

My only wish is that I wish that some of the exposition would’ve happened sooner, since I didn’t fully understand the world building until I was almost done. I also wish I could’ve gotten to know the main character Maika more than what I got of her, but I think that leaves more suspense for the next volume 😅. I really like the magical system in the book, and I really look forward to continuing the series- I’ve been on a graphic novel kick lately and it’s really cool! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Child abuse, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Self harm, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Ableism, Death, and Confinement