Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Rule of Wolves

Much better than the King of Scars (which wasn't bad, just took much longer for me to get into). It's a long read, but I felt that all of the POV's came together nicely, loved the themes of growing past your trauma and learning to be loved and the comfort that community brings, and Zoya and Nikolai's romance was 10/10. I think that despite this being like *~Nikolai's duology~*, it was really Zoya's, and I'm fine with that since I am a sucker for prickly and angry female characters. I do think there was a lot going on in this book, but unlike the previous book, I think I was okay with all of it. Like, maybe Nina's chapters could have been their own book, but I don't know. I think it worked here.

I think really my only complaint was the Darkling's chapters. I don't know if I particularly believe the inclusion of him brought much to this duology and I think a lot of the things Bardugo uses him for could have been accomplished with another character or something else. Like, I get the idea of her characters working beyond their trauma from him and I think narratively they did need to heal from the damage he did to them. But did he have to physically be there for them to do that??? I liked the focus on people really taking stock of the pain he did to them and their loved ones and really reckoning with his abuse, and trying to recover from that, I just don't know if he needed to be there as a character. I will say that a lot of reviews seem to be like "she's scolding us for liking the Darkling!!!" when this duology feels a lot more like, "hey, let's focus on the victims of the abuse and their trauma and how they're recovering from that."

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haddy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.75

<spoilers> I really enjoyed this book, the grishaverse books are my favourite series. I laughed, I cried, I was shocked, I was angry, I enjoyed it immensely.
Only reason it wasn’t 5 stars was bc I really felt like David’s death was a bit sudden and needless? And the darkling stuff kind of made sense but was kind of out of character imo. But everyone is able to have character development I guess🤷‍♀️

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imcourtneymarie's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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gayghostprince's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

this is my favourite grishaverse book, even over six of crows or crooked Kingdom.
I am truly awestruck by how much I love this
most importantly though: ZOYA!!!!!
she's my fav character now I love her so very dearly

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veganecurrywurst's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Das ist mein Lieblings Grishaverse-Buch. Der erste Band von King of Scars hat mich nicht so wirklich gepackt, aber der hat es echt wettgemacht.

Ich fand das Ende echt gut.

Hanne/Rasmus und Nina sind meine Lieblings Storyline. Bin super froh, dass sie zusammengekommen sind. Der Plottwist am Ende war super. Ich mag die beiden mehr als Mathias und Nina. Außerdem bin ich begeistert, dass es eine Transperson in der Geschichte gab.

Mayu, Ehri und ihre Schwester fand ich als Charaktere super spannend.
Außerdem bin ich ein riesiger Zoya-Fan

sie als Zarin passt perfekt

Aber irgendwie konnte ich mich nie wirklich mit Nikolais Charakter anfreunden.

ich war echt traurig als David starb. Die Arme Genya. Ich fand auch toll wie viele Charaktere aus vorherigen Büchern vorkamen

Ein würdiger Abschluss für das Grishaverse.

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livreaderlife's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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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stellenelcielo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful relaxing 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? No

5.0

Honestly, excellent ending to a series.

Well, I think it’s an ending? Maybe? Haven’t checked if Leigh Bardugo plans to write more for it, would definitely read them if she did, but if she didn’t? This would be a good finish.

Where to start? There were chapters that I felt were slow, and others that were fast.

Nina was a character that consistently took effort to enjoy. Truthfully, I just didn’t think Fjerda was a salvageable country, and had no interest of seeing any redemption or storyline surrounding it, more so than any complaints about Nina as a character (I digress, I did find her insufferable when Matthias was alive) only that her obsession with Fjerda was annoying.

The rest? Loved them. Zoya has my whole heart, and I’ll leave it there cause I’d rather not go into spoiler territory.

But yeah. 5 stars because I was genuinely happy with the ending, the writing, the characterization. Left me feeling hopeful for any of Bardugo’s future works.

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