#book trigger warnings

[brynnmclean]

okay, but I do feel that it’s important for me to offer trigger warnings for Brothers of the Wild North Sea, should anyone wish to read it.   If anyone needs more or more specific warnings, let me know and I’m happy to help.  (And if anyone has read the book or reads it and sees anything else, feel free to add!)

Under the cut:

- there is no on-screen rape, but there is a background level of sexual violence against women wrt Caius’s father Broccus and Fenrir’s brother Gunnar

- one of the main characters does talk about getting raped/sexually assaulted in the past (the conversation is brief)

- another monk gets saved from being sexually assaulted during a viking raid

- two secondary characters have drunk sex (which is something I personally like having a heads up about, even if it’s considered consensual which this instance is)

- there is a scene where the main character attempts to manipulate the other via sex.  It’s the beginning of a scene and thankfully short.

- there’s period-typical homophobia from a really vehement abbot (a lot of hellfire doctrine) and another gay character (not the main characters) takes that teaching to heart and commits suicide via hanging himself

- also period-typical ableism regarding a monk who is nonverbal

- characters get injured in battle, so there’s a lot of blood and wounds down to the bone 

[thecrowdedbookshelf]

The Immortals by Jordanna Max Brodsky

Title: The Immortals 

Author: Jordanna Max Brodsky 

Genre: Urban fantasy 

Rating: two stars 

Trigger warnings: Weird conceptions of virginity, depictions of violence, animal violence 

Review: 

The book starts with Selene DiSilva taking care of some girls physically abusive boyfriend, and that about sets the tone for the book. Throughout the novel Selene kicks butt and takes names, reluctantly picking up a side kick professor named “Theo”. Together they set about trying to find out who is killing young women in the city, and what it has to do with Selene, AKA Artemis, getting her powers back. 

I’d like to start off saying that I wanted to like this book. It had such an interesting premise and I love to read urban fantasy about the immortal gods trying to pass as Mortal People, but unfortunately this book fell flat in many ways. First, lets start with characters. Selene’s character is stiff, albeit flexible. Throughout the book her character experiences some development in that she learns to hate mortality less and like the idea of relationships more. However thats about it, outside of those two things there is minimal growth between the start and the end of the novel. Theo, the sidekick, is also unfortunately one dimensional. He experiences little to no character growth at all, and ultimately ends up forgiving himself for sleeping with his best friends wife. 

Thats another thing I didn’t like, at the start of this book Theo goes on long, and I do mean long, tangents about how much he loved this woman and slept with her while she was married to his best friend. The worst bit? Only about a third was plot relevant. The other two parts served just to make you feel bad for him, which ultimately you don’t really. If you’re like me you just end up skipping entire passages of him ruminating on how good sex with her was. Ick. 

Furthermore, this author was dedicated to the idea of giving Artemis a romantic entanglement. Now initially I was against this, she’s the virgin huntress goddess after all, but ultimately the concept grew on me and I ended up rooting for her and Theo. The romantic relationship was handled very well, with even conversations about consent and what Selene’s boundaries are. My problem was with the fetishization of virginity prevalent in the book. It’s not just with Artemis, all the girls had to be “virgin sacrifices”, and the one girl who wasn’t was horrifically mutilated so she could “be a virgin again”. This was uncomfortable, but could be explained as narrative. But then as the book progressed, more and more attention was drawn to the fact that Selene was a virgin and was interested in this man, and on the very last page the author tipped the scale from “weird focus on” to “fetishization of” virginity. 

However, this book salvages its two star status rather than a one star in the relationship between Artemis, Apollo, and their mother, Leto. Their relationship was one of my favorite in the books, and is my favorite part of this interpretation of Artemis. The mother/daughter relationship is portrayed in a very real way, Selene hasn’t talked to her mother for years, but drops everything to visit her in the hospital. Every scene with Leto in it was incredibly heart wrenching, and Selene’s character motivations as they related to her mother were stronger than any of her other motivations. If the author had oriented the book around the twins relationship with Leto, the result would have been a much stronger story. 

This book was a quick read, with some interesting plot twists that make you go “oh my god I didn’t see that coming”. Sometimes they are good twists. Sometimes they are bad twists. All in all, this book is ultimately derivative and bizarre piece of vent writing that made it past an editor. I would not recommend this book to anyone. 

[sulkybbarnes]

what is igyts? i saw you tag some post with it

It’s a book called I’ll Give You The Sun by Jandy Nelson, and it’s a great read. The characters are amazing, the way the story was told is very clever, and I loved the writing style. I also loved the complexity of the characters and their relationships with one another. I would def recommend reading it if you’re prepared to go on an emotional rollercoaster.

Book trigger warnings; past character death, grief, mentions of attempted suicide, mentions of rape/dub-con, mentions of drug addiction, mentions of bullying and homophobia.

[duckduckbooks]

Gone Girl spoiler but also trigger warning so if you plan on reading it then read this