Reviews tagging 'War'

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

104 reviews

cnannery19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Violence, Gun violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, and War

sydoodle's review against another edition

fast-paced

4.25

This is a major upgrade from the first one in my opinion. I had a great time. Mal makes me viscerally angry. Alina is less insufferable I actually dig her character a lot in this one. Nikolai carried. One more yessir yessir

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, War, Grief, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Blood

madalina0_0's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, Death, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

mckiheather's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Torture, Confinement, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

wishyouweresober's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Physical abuse, Gore, War, Torture, Murder, and Violence

klsreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Body horror, Murder, Violence, Gore, and Blood

Minor: Child death

midnightcomets's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? No

3.5

Ι love these characters and this story, but I really couldn't handle that amount of romantic drama, at least not currently. Of course I will continue with Ruin and Rising at some point! 

P.S I could write an entire essay on Alina's journey and its connection to trauma 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Gore, War, and Stalking

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Vomit

literarydumpling's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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

4.5

A great second installment of the Shadow and Bone trilogy. In a sense, very different time to the first book, but has just as much of a journey as the first book.

There world expands a little more and I liked the detail of how the map has gotten bigger and how the Fold has changed after absorbing Novokribirsk. There are new characters introduced that are done in a natural, but exciting, way and it doesn't feel like a huge character dump, each one is clear in terms of who they are.

I think it was great how they explored Alina and Mal's relationship and how things aren't all rosy now that they know they love one another, but that they have to grapple with Alina's new-found infamy and what that means for them.

The character development of Alina is great and you can see the parallels between her and the Darkling, and it really does keep you reading more because you can't tell what she will do next as opposed to the first book. You almost start thinking Alina is an unreliable narrator with her thoughts towards power and wanting to achieve more without stopping to notice how it is affecting the people around her.

One final thing I loved was the additional information on the politics of Ravka. With the introduction of Nikolai, you can see how Ravkan court is held as well as the split between politics, culture and religion in this world, and I think it is very well done without being too overwhelming!

You won't be disappointed by this book at all, and I'm very keen to read the second book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, and Blood

emilywemily6's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

4.5

I am really enjoying this series as a whole, but you can definitely tell this is a middle book in a saga where most of the book is spent in inner/external turmoil and not a lot happens in the plot. The last 100 pages blew me away and I couldn’t put it down though! This book feels necessary to introduce important characters, show character development in Alina, and set up for the final conflict in the third book, but it felt slow and was a little bit of a slog to get through. Mal got a bit annoying but as Alina understood him better I guess I did too. And I somehow have a crush on both Nicolai and the Darkling (despite everything).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

Moderate: Grief, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, and Bullying

Minor: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

bubbly_lara's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

In th3 second instalment of the Shadow & Bone saga, we get introduced to a new set of characters helping Alina and Mal first to support themselves in exile and then return to Ravka and fight the Darkling. We get more magical creatures (took me until I saw all covers next to each other how brilliantly the cover design ties into the story), we go back to Little Palace and are reunited with some of the Grisha we already met in the first book. I cannot wait to see ho  the story unfolds and concludes in the following book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Gore, Violence, War, Medical content, Cursing, Death, and Alcoholism