Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

36 reviews

e_emmaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Grief, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Infidelity, Animal death, Body horror, Murder, War, Child death, Gore, Sexual assault, and Violence

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

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

lovejasmine's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

like most YA trilogies the middle book is often necessary, but also ... not a lot happens between the beginning and the end

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Violence, Alcoholism, Death, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Animal death, Bullying, Blood, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Ableism, Body horror, Chronic illness, Gore, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

cecinamo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book focused a lot on Alina and Nikolai building up defenses against the Darkling. I think I almost liked it more that the first book. It ended on such a Cliffhanger though ;^;. 
Sometimes this book is a bit week from a storytelling perspective, but the characters definitely make up for it!!! Alina, David, Genya, Nikolai, Tolya, Tamar, Zoya - literal PERFECTION!!!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Violence, Grief, War, Death, and Stalking

Minor: Bullying, Alcohol, and Child death

thegrishaverse's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Grief, Violence, Blood, and Murder

effy's review against another edition

2.5

This was the weakest book in the trilogy and honestly was a bit of a slog to get through. Mal and Alina's relationship just wasn't believable as a romantic one to the point that I had to keep reminding myself that Alina's 

dislike of Zoya was because she was being territorial.

 

I literally finished this book this morning and I am struggling to think what happened in this book. 

I know there was questing for amplifiers, most of the second army dies, Mal is a dick and doesn't listen to Alina, the Darkling and Alina have some chats... tbh, that basically summarises this book in fewer words!

 

The only redeeming thing about this book was that we meet the amazing character that is Nikolai.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Murder, Incest, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Torture, and Grief

david_slack110507's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This book is much better than the first one in my opinion yet I feel unable to give it a 4-star rating. I feel like it's closer to a 3.5 or 3.75 rounded down but I may bump it up after I let my thoughts ruminate on it. 

I found that this book was much more gripping that the previous one which very much felt like the first book in a trilogy (Not a bad thing but it definitely had that feeling) whereas while the long chapters remain in this one (And I'm assuming in all of Leigh Bardugo's work) I found it much easier and enjoyable to get through as well as it taking me less time. I liked a lot of the new characters the obvious being Nikolai who I feel brought a lot of charm to the novel and his back and forth with Alina was probably one of my favourite parts of the novel. Speaking of Alina, this time around while she still doubts herself and has her insecurities she felt a lot more involved in the action and getting to see her utilise the Cut and her power was nice to see throughout the novel. 

I also really liked that we got to see more of the military-type operation and world of the Grishaverse/Ravka and Alina coming into control of the Second Army was really cool to see as it was a nice change of pace to have her decide to fight back against the Darkling (As briefly mentioned above). Tolya and Tamar were also a pretty good addition to the ensemble of characters even if they don't get a lot of backstory or much to do besides protecting Alina. 

I can definitely see how some may not like this book as like how I feel with the first book feeling like the first book in a trilogy the same could be said for this one which can definitely feel like the second book and middle-point in a trilogy with its main goal being to set up the 3rd book/conclusion and filling out the rest of time with character dramas and a larger focus on dialogue and development that action (E.g the main real conflicts only come at the beginning and the end and The Darkling remains out of the picture for nearly all of the book aside from the final confrontation and appearing physically to Alina throughout after her nichevo'ya bite)

Overall, I might have the unpopular opinion that I preferred this book to the first and found it to be much more engaging (Perhaps due to the first book having set up everything that the second book could easily and comfortably ease back into the world). I'm planning on trying to finish this series as soon as possible rather than taking a couple of months break in between like I did with this book and the first.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Death

Moderate: War, Gore, Grief, Stalking, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Cursing, Sexual assault, Animal death, Child death, Sexual harassment, and Animal cruelty

prettynerdy3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Bullying, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, War, Vomit, Child death, Gore, and Murder

onefineelephant's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

 8/10. Alina and Mal are both annoying and I don't like them but because they are so annoying, they deserve each other because neither one should be subjected onto anyone else. With that being said, I love Nikolai even if he is a little sh*t. I also really enjoy the twins. I liked how this book had more of a plot than the first one did. Also, I feel like this one was more rich and had more depth than the first one. The ending was jarring but not entirely terrible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Genocide, Grief, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Violence, War, Toxic relationship, Death, and Gore