Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Tower of Dawn by Sarah J. Maas

23 reviews

tupeloallie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Stalking, Violence, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Emotional abuse, and War

Minor: Murder, Blood, Suicide, Vomit, Death, and Drug use

barbarianmissy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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

4.0

How do I only have one more book to read in the SJM universe??? I’m quite cross. SJM, write more pls cause I’m gonna spiral after Kingdom of Ash. Thank you. 

As for Tower of Dawn! When I first realized this was an entire book about my enemy ka-Chaol and his gal pal Nesryn, I wasn’t thrilled. But, in the end, I was pleasantly surprised! 

This book wasn’t a crazy action packed story necessarily (mostly cause Chaol could not walk through most of it) but it was really cool going to a whole other continent and dipping my toes into a cool, complex, kind of off-the-chain culture that hadn’t been affected by the turd that is the King of Adarlan. There was a lot of political intrigue and world building that I thought was super cool. I wanna live in Antica! I wanna ride a big bird! 

As for the new characters, I loved the royal family. I loved how they were all so different and sneaky and had defined personalities and roles. I loved the different relationships and banter between them all and how they used their influence for their own gain. I’m happy they’re coming to Tessaren, I’m excited to see how they integrate with our OG team.  

I know we briefly met Yrene before but Yrene is very cool now. I love her, she fixed not only Chaols lil legs but also his shit personality. She said “I can fix him” and was one of the few women on Earth to prove herself right. She’s also just a badass on her own. Good for her! 

The love stories in this one were really well paced compared to some of the more rushed ones in Empire of Storms cause the lack of 27 main characters and different storylines, so they were really able to make it focused on them. Was it a smidge slow at times because of that fact too? Yes. Did I enjoy it overall? Also yes. 

Also, side note. I know they are side characters but I love Borte and Yeran. Their love/hate relationship is wonderful and I just like em. 

Now, for the finale of all finales…. ITS TIME FOR KINGDOM OF ASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Grief, Torture, Pregnancy, Violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Medical content, Slavery, Ableism, Blood, Medical trauma, War, Animal death, Drug use, Sexual content, and Stalking

annikenr's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Grief, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, and Drug use

shannah_gone_bananas's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious slow-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

2.25

It’s very very slow. Compared to the other books in the series it is a hard read. Which is sad because I love Chaol’s character. He’s been one of my favorites. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Medical trauma, Child death, Murder, Death of parent, Blood, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Death, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Acephobia/Arophobia, and Violence

Moderate: War, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, and Vomit

anguawolf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Murder, and Kidnapping

Minor: Cursing, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Slavery, and War

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

3.75

A welcome disruption to the drawn out repetition of the previous book. The worldbuilding of a new civilisation and continent injects some variety into the series, although at times I found it difficult to suspend my disbelief at the glowing descriptions of the khaganate's empire and political structure. 

While I don't know if Chaol *needed* a redemption arc, this book executes one remarkably well for a character who was so insufferable in earlier . 

While this book at times felt like it is just moving the chess pieces into place for the finale, it also includes some delicious twists and revelations to be explored in the next book.

I took half a star off for the overuse of classic Maas phrases such as "eyes lined with silver" and characters saying something "too softly" - girl needs to pick up a thesaurus.

PS: lampshading the irony of me accusing Maas of needing to pick up a thesaurus when I use the word "book" five times in four paragraphs

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Drug use, Grief, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Colonisation, Death, Sexual content, Body horror, Child death, Classism, Violence, and War

Moderate: Medical trauma, Racism, Infertility, and Medical content

undecidedpersonality's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Gore, Murder, Vomit, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Body horror, Medical trauma, and Blood

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual content, Colonisation, Alcohol, and Genocide

Minor: Classism, Drug use, Slavery, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Ableism, Animal cruelty, and Confinement

annamary54's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

4.0

If I didn’t do this as a tandem read with Empire of Storms, I think this would’ve been more of a 3.75 ⭐️ read. Having the action of EOS really helped move this plot along. I’ve never been a big Chaol fan, but the development in this book is INCREDIBLE. I actually started to like him towards the end. I really enjoyed Nesryns journey especially because it brought more action to the book. The world building in this series is CRAZY, SJM you are amazing! My head is exploding at the last 50 pgs of every book. Could’ve done with out the explanation of their HVAC system for like two chapters in the beginning, but I understand why that point was really made at the end. Overall this was a very good character building story, I am glad I did the tandem read, otherwise I probably would have been a little bored at times. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Drug use, Grief, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Murder, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: War and Sexual assault

sfdogmom's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Ugh Chaol. I like Yrene. Gooped by the twist at the end. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Grief, Sexual content, Ableism, and Alcohol

Minor: Slavery

yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

3.0

I found myself a bit bored with this one. Yrene really carried the whole book for me and I just kept wanting to come back for her. Chaol kept making progress in his emotional development then backtracking which was a bit frustrating. There’s lots of important information that is revealed in this book but I’m really glad I read it in tandem with EOS because I would’ve struggled to get through it otherwise.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical trauma, Death, Pregnancy, Grief, Medical content, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Alcohol, and Murder

Minor: Ableism and Drug use