Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

The Obelisk Gate by N.K. Jemisin

45 reviews

sup3r_xn0va_maya's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

The Obelisk Gate is the sequel to N. K. Jemisin's "The Fifth Season" and it definitely does not suffer from "bad sequel syndrome "as one goodreads user put it. This was an amazing follow up, with so much wonderful and vast world building and character growth.

I loved this and I see why it also won the Hugo award (and many other awards).
I was drawn in to the story and my interest or excitement never faltered. This book reminds me of how enamored I was while reading Octavia E. Butler's Patternist series, I see some elements of OEB's stories come through in The Fifth Season and The Obelisk Gate. Mainly a dystopian setting, found family, and found community to help survive the recent disasters.

I read this in 5 days only because I was buddy reading with my boyfriend and we had to read around his schedule. If I had read this on my own I probably would have finished it within a day or two. It was that good.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Physical abuse, Violence, Child death, Blood, Child abuse, and Death of parent

claire8's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Death

Moderate: Child death and Child abuse

Minor: Cannibalism

catsy2022's review against another edition

adventurous sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Death of parent, and Child death

cerilouisereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Violence, Death of parent, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death

ailsaod's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

I read this on a deadline so whenever something messed up happened I just had to shrug and keep going. This book didn't leave as much of an impression on me as book 1 (it had a tough act to follow) but my overall impression is that this book is like someone pulling a rug from under your feet and this causing you to fall down a flight of stairs. Do I know what is going on? No. There were all sorts of factions coming out the woodwork (stonework?) and I have no idea who I'm supposed to be rooting for. Also what on earth is up with Nassun? After spending the whole of book 1 trying to get to her you have this idea of what she is going to be like and having chapters from her pov did not meet those expectations in the slightest! I found her point of view a bit frustrating because I found myself wanting to shake her as she

embarked gleefully on her villain arc!

While I would say this book is less of a shocking experience than book 1 it did almost have me in tears while in the canteen at work on my lunch break (with other people around!!) so there is that. I am a bit mad that it affected me so much as the scene I am vagueing about was not unexpected at all. And then just to put the icing on the cake we had the mess that was the ending with the bugs.It'll probably be a little while until I read book 3 as I need to recover. My expectation from what happened in this book is that is will either be absolutely fantastic and be the best ending I've ever seen or it will bet bogged down by its own intricacies and I won't understand a word. It could really go either way!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gore

Moderate: Murder, Terminal illness, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Medical content, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cannibalism and Genocide

If you like reading about a man getting boiled from the inside out than this is the book for you! :( Also warning for euthanasia/mercy killing.

erikwmj's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Violence, and Xenophobia

Minor: War

youstina_m'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: War, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Cannibalism

nodogsonthemoon's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Violence, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and War

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Cannibalism

vasha's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

This installment wasn't quite up to the strengths of the previous volume. It still had lots of great writing but some passages weren't as good (and the device of second-person narration got odd at points). Good interweaving of themes but got baggy toward the end. Another commenter said Nassun often seemed to be "10 going on 30" and I can agree with that. I like the way the series as a whole is shaping up, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Grief, Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Body horror, Child death, War, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Pregnancy, Excrement, Sexual harassment, and Alcohol

vigil's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

not as good as the fifth season, but nowhere near bad. the entire book is a slowburn for the real plot coming in towards the end, but i didn’t mind what i was reading in the meantime.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Animal death, Cannibalism, Grief, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Murder, Violence, Colonisation, Cursing, Gore, Terminal illness, War, Body horror, Confinement, and Injury/Injury detail