Reviews tagging 'War'

The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn

80 reviews

icox's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I usually dislike war and battle books but this was such a rich and riveting view of the life of a sniper and a woman in the Soviet army. It has war, hope, devastation, love, family, death, mystery, suspense, all sorts of stuff. I stayed up to 2:30am for two nights in a row to finish this as soon as possible! I couldn’t put it down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Sexism, War, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Gun violence, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Stalking, Adult/minor relationship, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Suicide and Sexual assault

silverhill's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, War, Blood, Grief, and Gun violence

Moderate: Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, and Medical content

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Infidelity

kmroz's review against another edition

adventurous inspiring medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, War, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Antisemitism

thebranchlibrary_'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Violence, War, Gun violence, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Rape

katiefronk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Blood, Gore, Death, War, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Medical content and Grief

Minor: Rape and Adult/minor relationship

katrinaburch's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

While not my favorite of hers, it is excellently written and a good story, as well as, being well researched. I enjoyed the fact that she used a lot of Mila's own biography as source material. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Gore, Murder, Rape, War, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Violence, Gun violence, Medical trauma, Blood, Alcoholism, and Death

kenzieburns's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

3.0

It took me about a hundred pages to get into this book, but once I was in I was hooked! I've loved most of the other things Kate Quinn has written, so this was an auto-buy for me as soon as I saw it. I can always count on Quinn to bring me a heroic war story, and I love her focus on women and how they contributed to the War. I loved the character development Quinn put into Mila throughout the novel. It was really rewarding to watch her grow into her own and stand up to her asshole "husband" Alexei. Some of the plot was a bit unbelievable, which knocked off a few stars. Specifically, the whole "marksman" thing, especially because we all know the FDR wasn't assassinated and we know Mila makes it back to Russia, so like I knew how it would turn out? Idk, I feel like the story could have been just as good without that whole weird little plot, but I see why Quinn added it to explain Mila's creepy stalker dude on the tour. Overall, a good novel that did well tieing together historical fact and creative license/fiction.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism and War

Minor: Domestic abuse and Abandonment

ravensandlace's review against another edition

adventurous dark inspiring tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Title: The Diamond Eye

Author: Kate Quinn

Genre: Historical Fiction

Format: hardback library book

Series: NA

Star Rating: 3 stars

tw: misogyny, teen pregnancy, pedophilia, guns, war, blood, rape, injury, death 

I am so disappointed. I so badly want to like this author. She writes about topics that are incredibly interesting to me. The last book I read was about women breaking codes for the Allies in World War II. How awesome is that? This book is about a Russian woman sniper who killed over 300 Nazis. You can’t tell me that doesn’t sound cool to read about. Especially if you are interested in World War II like I am. But alas, I am having a heck of a time trying to like her books. 

One of the positives about her books and this book in particular is she writes about females in history that everyone should know about. This one is about Mila, a Russian sniper who took down over 300 Nazis, like I mentioned above. I like to think I have a pretty extensive knowledge of World War Two but I never heard of Mila. Although, when I did a small Wikipedia deep dive, there were some discrepancies on whether or not she actually did kill as many Nazis as she said she did. There was mention of some issues of whether or not she was in the places she said she was. But I admit, I didn’t read too much more about it. Propaganda was very prominent during World War II so I’m not too sure what to truly believe. 

I liked Mila well enough, although I did think she was a little rough around the edges. But then again, she grew up during an extremely difficult time in Russian history. So I can forgive that. The amount of misogyny she had to endure made me so mad. Is it that hard to believe a woman can be a sniper? Apparently, in America, it is. I especially couldn’t stand Mila’s ex-husband. He made me so mad. Not to mention, he turned out to be a real piece of garbage. We also did get a POV of the man who assassinated Teddy Roosevelt. I thought that was pretty interesting but his POV was boring.  

Overall, while I didn’t love this book, it was okay. I just found myself to be pretty bored during most of the book. I really want to keep reading her books, however. She has such interesting novel topics, but there is something about her writing. I think maybe she just puts so much detail in her books that it just becomes too much and it’s hard to wade through. I just don’t know if I can look past it. I shall give her books one more go because I decided whether or not to give up on Kate Quinn. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Medical content, Misogyny, Gun violence, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, War, Alcohol, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Gore, Grief, and Pedophilia

saliwali's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual harassment, War, Violence, Grief, Murder, Bullying, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, Rape, Sexual violence, Stalking, Mental illness, and Medical trauma

Minor: Xenophobia and Antisemitism

author2223's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, War, and Gun violence

Moderate: Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, and Misogyny