Bloodraven by P.L.Nunn
4 / 5 stars
Goodreads description: A son of a forest dwelling people, Yhalen knows little of the world outside the ancestral forest, until he is captured by a band of ogres on a slave-taking mission. Only grim tales of the barbaric giants had reached the forest, but Yhalen soon learns that even the darkest fireside story only hinted at the brutality of these Northern warriors. He discovers the meaning of true fear at their hands, and only the awakening of ancient magic saves him from destruction.
Surviving ogre viciousness, he finds himself given to Bloodraven, the half ogre, half human war leader as a slave. Yhalen, refusing to bend, soon pays the price for offending prickly ogre pride.
But Bloodraven is no mindless, violent ogrish beast. Bloodraven has an agenda and Yhalen finds himself drawn in the wake into human and ogre politics, into bloodshed and cruelty and into the forbidden magic that is damnation in the eyes of his own people, but which might mean the difference between death and salvation.
So… This was intense.
I began reading this a long time ago and since it’s a book so large it’s almost terrifying (more than 600 pages) it took me a while to finish it. Size wasn’t such a problem in my case, unlike Yhalen’s (see what I did there!) because the book was so captivating and I loved it.
I had a few problems with it, though, especially at the beginning. I didn’t expect there would be that much blood, gore and rape but that was a good thing since it made the plotline very realistic.
This book is brutal and it made my face cringe amd heart ache so many times.
What I felt for the characters in the beginning changed so much towards the end. Especially the tsundere characters (Bloodraven of course).
The fantasy part of this book was very well written and unlike other fantasy books I’ve read before. The last 100 pages of the book left me shocked as I never imagined something like that woulf happen. However, I liked the ending and I feel it’s the end this book deserves.
Because it’s full of violence, death and very intense and graphic description of rape and sexual acts, I know this book isn’t for everybody. However, if you don’t have a problem with such thing or if you’re a fan of it, I highly recommend picking this up. It’s really amazing.
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