Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

A Sky Beyond the Storm by Sabaa Tahir

7 reviews

linde_ahobbit's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional 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: Complicated

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I really liked the book, eventhough it was a tad too long, up until the end  when

Harper gets killed off... It's such an unnecessary death in my opinion. I get why Darian was killed, because Laia needed a reason to kill the nightbringer. But Harper?? Can't Helene get anything for herself? Yeah, she gets to be empress but she lost everyone in te process. Idk, it really rubs me the wrong way. Especially since Laia and Elias get such a happy ending together. :/ Suffice to say I cried a lot reading the last chapters of this book. Justice for Harper and Helene...

That's also the reason I'm only giving this book 4 stars. It was good, but it left me feeling sad and unsatisfied at the end.

I also did not enjoy Keris ending. She was absolutely vile and having childhood trauma doesn't explain away the awful things she did.

Those are the thoughts I have right now. Great series, but the ending was not satisfying for me personally.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Slavery, Xenophobia, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, War

rexpostfacto's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark mysterious sad medium-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder

Minor: Child death

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-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: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Stalking, Death of parent

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Hate crime, Infidelity, Misogyny, Abandonment

madamenovelist's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail

kilic's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective 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: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail

water_violin's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad 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: Yes

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Whew! What a saga! I don’t think I can really review only this book (it was really just a small part of the entire story), but: it was so good. Heart wrenching. Beautiful. There is so much to love and so much to grieve. The story is gritty and real and doesn’t pull punches. It is full of violence and love and horror and hope. Although the resolution is gorgeous and satisfying, do not start reading this series expecting a happy story. You’ll learn to love so many fascinating, diverse characters and... some of them won’t make it to the end. Overall, these books are heavy, but beautifully written.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder

Minor: Child death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia

ehmannky's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense fast-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

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Overall, a solid finish for the Ember series and I liked where all of the main characters wound up. This book really goes deeper into the pitfalls of revenge v justice and emphasizes the ideas that if your forbearers did harm to a population, it is your responsibility to make it right as best you can.  All of that wrapped up with incredibly fast-paced action, wonderful characters (also, I was about to tear my hair out with Elias and Laia for like 9/10ths of this book and it ruled. The pining was magnificent), and what I considered a pretty solid ending. 

However, I did have some problems with the ending I think that my biggest qualm came with the ending on a more philosophical scale (I was fine with all the deaths and the personal ends of the main characters).

I don't know how I feel about the fact that the Martials still get to have an empire and that an Empress (even if that empress is Helene) is in charge of this country. I feel like I would have personally felt a more equitable ending would be...I don't know, giving the Tribal people complete independence (or at least a vote on if they wanted to leave) and the Scholars should have gotten either a full on country supported by the Martials or every Scholar should have gotten so much money and land since they just went through another genocide. As I said, the book does reiterate the point that you are responsible for making right the sins of your forbearers, and that even if you didn't personally do something that you need to make it right. Also, I would have loved it if Tahir had kept with the idea that Helene is not going to be forgiven by all she hurt and she would have to be okay with that, rather than implying that she is eventually forgiven by those like Mamie Rilla.

As my rating indicates, I didn't find it *that* much of a hinderance in my enjoyment of the series, and I can accept this ending as fair to the extent that the world Tahir will allow it to be. 

I honestly can't wait to read whatever Tahir comes out with next, because if I like it half as much as I liked this series, I'm going to love it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Xenophobia, Death of parent

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual violence, Torture, Vomit