Reviews tagging 'Trafficking'

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

623 reviews

franklloydweft's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

4.5

Copied from fable:
Absolutely loved! Only wasn’t a 5 star because of the few tiny teensy gripes I have that just took me out of it sometimes, but other than that this was so wonderful. Can’t wait to read the second book! Loved all the deliciously layered and complex characters. Loved the setting I already enjoyed having seen the Netflix show (and luckily that show didn’t spoil the fun of this book). I had such a great time. My teeny gripes like the ages of the characters feeling a bit of a reach and the normal anachronism issues that happen with fantasy worlds were by no means a barrier to a really great ride. Highly recommend to anyone who likes a heist with a bit of magic and a fun world to explore!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Violence and Trafficking

Minor: Racism

water13girl's review against another edition

adventurous funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

thewrittenwarrior's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

Six of Crows is a standout in any circle. An excellent heist story with some of the most interesting and loveable characters I’ve read about, all in a vibrant setting that feels like it could exist somewhere just beyond our knowledge. The lines are iconic and there are so many special details that make a reread just as good. I will always give this story 5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery and Trafficking

Minor: Sexual assault

soapkiss's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Trafficking

faithtaylor's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

PHENOMENAL. This book is pulling me right back to my fantasy roots!!!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Misogyny

teajay_'s review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

bookishfads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

4.0

A fun ride of a book, can't wait to get my hands on the sequel. Leigh Bardugo really redeemed herself of the boring protagonist of The Grisha Trilogy with this fun new cast of characters, each unique and interesting in their own way, not to mention how their dynamics play out in the crazy job they sign up for. Some parts are full of plot-armor that takes away from the cleverness of the story, but I suppose sometimes it can't be helped. My main issue was simply making one character (read: Kaz) too powerful and not really what the story set him up to be. I'm glad the author got inspired from her own experience with chronic pain, but Kaz's disability hardly affects the plot. It's just character cosmetics.
Still, I enjoyed this read and its perfect if you want to get to know a fun group of characters, read some snappy dialogue full of clever clap backs and see more of the Grishaverse.
 Read more about it in spoiler section below.

So why 4 stars? I took off .25 because the last part of the book kinda started to get a bit too plot-armory for the characters and the clever plans got less and less clever and the plot twists at some points were simply because information was left out to the reader. Lame.
Another .25 is Wylan. I really liked him and wanted to get to know more of him... shame the author didn't feel the same. Not a  single POV from a character who's supposedly member of the titled ensemble... For what? A cheap plot twist? Wylan's reading disability would have been just as effective in the middle as it was at the end of the book.
 
Half a star is taken away because of Kaz Brekker.
Let's start with this age - 17! And he's this edgy criminal mastermind at 17. Ugh, it YA, I get it, marketing and all that, but making him 20 at least wouldn't have scared the teenagers away, trust me. Age aside, Kaz is so full of edge (some other characters had straight up edgy sentences torn from a local emo's diary, but Kaz takes the cake) it actually disrupted my immersion in the story and made me snort back a frustrated laugh. I can't take seriously this edge lord, who apparently first got arrested at age of 12.
Then his whole skill set is all over the place. Okay, he's the mastermind with neat sleight of hand and lock picking abilities. How come he can take down a dude who strangled a wolf with his bare hands?? With a disabled leg?? Okay, maybe the way he did it was plausible, but that still doesn't justify making Kaz good at everything just because the author wants you to think hes So Kewl! One scene - he hardly climbes up to third floor, another- he's running around and fighting and - you've guessed it - it has no impact on the plot at all. 
Kaz's weaknesses would have been so cool to explore: the touch aversion, injured leg, obsession with revenge and control, but they get swept aside to show us another clever triumph of Kazzle Dazzle. I really want to like him, but so far his comebacks, thieving tips and romance with Inej are the only fun part of the character, otherwise he's an edgy killjoy that course-corrects the plot just when it's about to get interesting.
Man just look at that paragraph.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Hate crime, Slavery, Torture, Vomit, and Trafficking

Moderate: Ableism, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Vomit

Plot revolves around an intense drug for magic users, throughout the story there's lots of forced usage of the drug and description of bodies of addicts. A character tortures and kills someone for information, quite graphic. There's also mentions of torture in prison. The aftermath of a hate crime over a fictional race is described and it happens quite suddenly - they're burned at the stake. A character gets trafficked as a little girl and sold into sexual slavery, the scene where she's sold is quite detailed, however the rest of it is vague mentions.

Moderate warnings:

A parent of a character hates them due to their learning disorder and calls them a mistake and many other hurtful things. A character who has had a radical religious upbringing defends an extremist ideology to another character. Character often get into violent situations and get injured, nothing too disturbing, but occasionally something graphic will pop up.

Minor warnings:

A character vomits out a necessary tool. It is brief and glossed over, but still to be considered. A female character has been trafficked and used for prostitution, therefore raped many times, which is mentioned, but never explicitly shown.

nooweljayy's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, and Blood

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Abandonment

claire_not_rebecca's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, and Classism

val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

adventurous medium-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

Oh good Lord I'm finally free!!! (I'm literally that meme of the guy breaking the handcuffs at sunset). That's it. I am DONE with Leigh Bardugo, I don't want to know anything else from the Grishaverse omfg so average.

I have had enough of popular book series and me forcing myself to finish them even though I'm having a boring time, is not worth it and I won't go into another reading slump this year because of it.

It actually makes me so angry how I expected greatness from this but it was so average. I guess you can't never 100% trust the popular opinion.

I was so excited at the beginning getting to know them all one by one when their names appeared and I was so ready to see their dynamics and I hoped for a found family, but this was so boring… There was no growth, there was no family, at beast there are duos. Each had ONE personality trait and nothing else, they were not especial and they didn’t have any deep.

This “mission” was so long and boring, pointless in the end.

I learnt my lesson trying to force myself to continue with the second book of Shadow and Bone and I ended up despising it and DNF it, so I won’t force myself with Crooked Kingdom.

This is a 3 ⭐, like it was good? but not excellent at all. I finished this for the sake of it, but I could not care less about what happens to these characters. I have zero interest in continuing with the duology, with the Grishaverse, or with anything new Leigh Bardugo writes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gun violence, Slavery, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

Minor: Death of parent

- Death / Murder / Blood: There’s a bunch of killings and death.

- Injury: At least half of them are injured at some point.

- Gun violence: Jesper is obsessed with guns.

- Kidnapping / Trafficking: Inej as a kid.

- Slavery: Grisha are slaves.

- Death of parent: The way Kaz describes how his father dies is horrible.