Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Serpent and the Wings of Night by Carissa Broadbent

58 reviews

chasie_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, War, Body horror, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Rape, and Sexual violence

Minor: Slavery, Torture, Self harm, and Vomit

justinekorson's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was such a good novel! I couldn't put it down. I was genuinely very enamored with this vampiric world and how Oraya fit into it as a human/not human (since she doesn't really consider herself human). I was glad that her father, Vincent (honestly a very weirdly normal name), clearly loved her. I was worried that by the end of the book I'd hate him when I found out he'd been manipulating her. In a way, he was, but in other books when this is true, the person doing the manipulating doesn't usually care for the MC or regret what they did. You could tell in the story that Vincent truly loved Oraya and wanted the best for her, even though he didn't tell her who she was to him. I also really enjoyed Rhaine as a character. He was very sincere and was clearly so in love with her. I'm glad that even though he lied to her he clearly would die for her, and was very sincerely apologetic about what happened. I'm excited to see how their stories end. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Colonisation, Rape, Child death, Grief, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Violence, Classism, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, War, and Murder

thedigsy's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Toxic relationship, Death, Confinement, Blood, Sexual violence, Murder, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, and Stalking

ladydeathnesta's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

4.75

I absolutely love this book! It’s near perfection and it’s beautifully devastating 🖤

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, War, Ableism, Death, Sexual violence, Cursing, Police brutality, Self harm, Sexism, Hate crime, Stalking, Gore, Medical trauma, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Cannibalism, Classism, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Medical content, Confinement, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Blood, Bullying, Racial slurs, and Sexual harassment

echoechoecho's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Cursing, Confinement, Torture, Genocide, Body shaming, Blood, Death of parent, Sexual content, War, Violence, Grief, Emotional abuse, Death, Body horror, and Murder

onthesamepage's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Tropes:

enemies to lovers

Steam level: 🌶🌶

There has been a lot of hype surrounding this book. I'm not a huge romantasy reader in the sense that I don't seek it out, but I can appreciate a book that blends romance and fantasy in equal measure. One important part, though, is that the fantasy elements have to be heavy enough to mean more than a shell for the romance, and I do think Broadbent delivered on that.

The worldbuilding and the non-romance plot were both interesting and engaging. I liked how there were different types of vampires with different kinds of powers, although I did tend to mix up the houses a lot. The world is pretty brutal, and there's an ongoing conflict between the different vampire houses to hold onto the throne. In the midst of this, we have Oraya, a human who was taken from the ruins of her family home by Vincent, the current vampire king, and raised as his daughter. She grew up constantly on guard against the vampires living in her immediate vicinity, and is now joining the Kejari with one goal in mind: to become strong.

Oraya has a lot of hatred against humans, even though she is one. She sees them as weak and inferior compared to vampires. It takes meeting Raihn for her to begin to see that there is something beautiful in humanity.

The romance had a steady pacing, and I liked Raihn as a character and as a love interest. I do think there was actually more focus on the plot than the romance, which I didn't mind, but might be disappointing if you are looking for something that's more romance than fantasy. 

I predicted some of the twists, but definitely not all of them, especially towards the end, and I'm curious enough that I'll pick up the second book to see what happens.

There were a couple of moments that were so over the top that they'd drag me out of the story (I'm not one for melodrama). At one point, Raihn says this:

"I've lived through some injustices in the last couple of centuries. Seen some fucking travesties. But one of the biggest, Oraya, is that anyone taught you that you should become anything other than exactly what you are."

Yeah, no. Considering how the politics is built upon genocide, people regularly murder their entire families to seize power, and humans are used as slaves, I think it's safe to say that Oraya not having any self-confidence or self-love is not that big of a crisis.

The next bit is a spoiler:

after a lot of character work, Oraya finally comes to the conclusion that being human isn't bad and vampires are the problem, and then...she's suddenly a half vampire, making the entire journey of self-reflection kind of a waste of time.

The other part that made this a good read, but not a great one, is that I wasn't very invested in the characters. I did enjoy the romance, and I liked Oraya, Raihn, and Mische, but I never got to the point where I was anxious about what was going to happen to them, or worried about their fate, or anything that signals true attachment to me. Still, I had a fun time reading, which is the most important thing.

One last note:

Raihn's voice was cold and hard. "Five hundred thousand people. Half a million lives. I don't give a fuck what reason he might have. What explanation could make that acceptable?"
None. There was none.
"We don't know what happened."
"I know enough," he snapped. "I saw the ruins. I could smell the bones in that dust. That's enough, Oraya. That is enough."

Interesting that the author wrote this, but couldn't unequivocally say the same about the very real genocide happening right now, without trying to find a middle way.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Emotional abuse, Slavery, and Gore

Moderate: Self harm and Rape

Minor: Sexual assault and Torture

erinkellyreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I think I'm torn on this one. I'd like to give it a 3.5, I think. I enjoyed reading it, and the tournament system was fun to read. I also don't know if I ever really came to love the characters? Except maybe poor Ibrahim. I'd like to learn more about the gods and how all that works. I'm going to read the second one. But I think I'm a little surprised after how much I've read people gush about this series.

((Also - and this is petty because I have read way too many vampire books and also all of Maas' work - I'm not a huge fan of winged vampires. Shapeshifting to have wings? Sure. Turning into animals a 'la the old myths? Of course. But... feather wings and bat wings? I dunno.))

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Body horror, Colonisation, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Murder, Death, Death of parent, Blood, Gore, Physical abuse, War, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual violence, Genocide, Cursing, Slavery, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, and Self harm

Minor: Animal death and Child death

smaugwithablog's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

It was a slow burn for the character development and relationship building, but the plot/action was very quick to begin and kept it entertaining, despite not being the main thing I was focused on. It really makes you think about human nature, love and the expression of it, and what it means to be vulnerable.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Rape

Moderate: Slavery and Emotional abuse

Minor: Torture

kymboh78'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Gore, Murder, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Cursing, Rape, Kidnapping, Gore, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Slavery

Minor: Animal death and Cannibalism

pagesinthesnow's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, War, Torture, Racism, Rape, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Self harm, Slavery, and Confinement