Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout

289 reviews

storykeeper_saga's review against another edition

1.5

dark slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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 This story, for me, had an abundance of problems. It reads like a first draft and honestly, being that Armentrout has published so many books its unacceptable. Just the sheer amount of ellipsis is a problem.

The worldbuilding has a lot of potential but nothing is done with it. The premise sounds really exciting but it was utterly wasted. 

I will say, Armentrout can write an interesting story. I didn't want to stop reading, it just wasn't good. It also wasn't boring for me, at least. 

There's a lot of issues with this book, I will continue to at least the next one but I have very low expectations.

Poppy was not a well written character. The fact your main character is a religious figure but we know nothing about the religion is a problem. Especially with how some of the later reveals work with it. I know a lot of the plot twists in only a few chapters. That isn't a bad thing, I don't mind knowing plot twists because I like seeing how things happen. But it was very obvious Armentrout wanted to surprise her audience.

I hate Hawke. He is a terrible love interest. While I was reading I began having sudden memories of my ex who SAed me. It genuinely was hard to get through some parts.

If you enjoyed this book, I am glad. This is a small portion of my thoughts. If you would like to hear more I will be leaving a link to the review I will upload on YouTube next month 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Death of parent, Sexual harassment

nmtthews's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence

Moderate: Death of parent

kamross's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

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I'm surprised to see a lot of terrible reviews on this - but given the fact that I read it in 4 days (and would have read it much sooner if I didn't have a job and a family 😂), it's safe to say that I really enjoyed it.

I looooove slow burn and descriptive writing. Really the only negative on this for me is that I could see the plot twist coming, but that wasn't a huge deal to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, War, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Torture, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Pregnancy

eleek0609's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail

nejmia_remis's review

4.0

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, War, Classism

tiana_king's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Okay up front you’re going to be confused for the first dozen chapters of the book. The author info dumps about the world in no particular order and doesn’t explain things in detail for a good while. The foreshadowing is a bit obvious for a lot of things but the reveals are still interesting. With a more straightforward world building set up and more character development this would’ve been a five star book. However it’s captivating enough that about a third of the way through I was snorting it like crack lol I hope the next book is even better!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Torture, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment

Minor: Death of parent

jen1804's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad 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

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The time it took me to finish these 600 odd pages is no reflection on the book, I’ve just been in a bit of a head funk this past week or so and haven’t been in the right space to read.
I really loved this book, it was a great read with plenty of plot, lots of mystery & twists, just enough romance, and a good amount of friendship too. I loved the world and the really interesting commentary on religion that runs through this story. I really enjoyed the use of vampire style, wolf style and zombie style beings but in an old timey fantastical way. And I adore both Poppy’s and Hawke’s characters. I love that Poppy is so strong, she can defend herself, she can fight and she has a fantastic snarky personality combined with a good heart. Hawke is extremely hot and I love the teasing flantery nature the two of them have together. I really loved the story arcs in this book and the character developments and I really look forward to reading the next book in the series to see where this story takes me next.
Satisfactory ending? Yes, a cliffhanger which I love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder

Moderate: Sexual harassment

Minor: Death of parent

kateped's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder

aisclaradm's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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I had a great time reading it, but realistically I couldn't give it anything higher than 3 stars because it was just so painfully badly written. 

That being said, the plot itself was great, the world was interesting, and the romance was fun. At the end of the day, I did really enjoy this book, and ultimately, that’s the reason I chose to read it, so it’d be a bit disingenuous to rate it TOO badly because of the poor writing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Cursing, Kidnapping, Death of parent

Minor: Cannibalism

lovebexdeath's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Re-reading this as an audiobook was such a delight! Stina Nielsen does an impeccable job bringing Poppy and Hawke to life. My only gripe is that there was some inconsistency with the voice choices of different characters, so it was sometimes hard to keep track of who was speaking at specific times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent

Minor: Body shaming, Child death, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Stalking, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, War, Classism

dubious consent about 75% through due to

Poppy not being fully aware of Hawke/Casteel's identity when she consented to having sex with him