Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Excrement'
Crescent City – Wenn die Schatten sich erheben by Sarah J. Maas
30 reviews
katvou's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Blood, Body horror, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Murder, Gore, War, Sexual content, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death and Kidnapping
Minor: Cannibalism, Excrement, Vomit, and Alcohol
memreads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Less sex than prior books, which I appreciated as the story remained more plot and character focused.
It was fun reeling through the different characters and their progression through the story.
I found myself giggling, cheering, tearing up, and even hugging the physical book toward the end of the story.
Elizabeth Evans delivered another delightful performance of SJMs work. I cannot wait to see what spin off stories of side characters arise next from Midgard.
Graphic: Violence and Sexual content
Moderate: Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Torture
Minor: Drug use, Excrement, and Addiction
hapalyn's review against another edition
- 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
Such a fast read, yet it felt like so long at the same time.
As for the ACOTAR crossover, I feel satisfied with how it was handled. There wasn't enough involvement there to make the series too intertwined. I almost feel like Crescent City is just the backstory for all of the lore in ACOTAR. I think it gives ACOTAR more depth, but readers who don't care to read all of CC can still read ACOTAR and be satisfied. Lots of Nesta, which was awesome because she's my favorite. I am excited to see where the ACOTAR series goes after reading this book.
Graphic: Death, Cursing, Sexual content, Blood, War, Medical content, Violence, Gore, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture
Moderate: Vomit, Genocide, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Gun violence, and Misogyny
Minor: Emotional abuse, Addiction, Drug use, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Excrement, and Domestic abuse
skillyillian's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
(like for real i think this is the longest review i've ever written for a book.)
So idk what the fuck happened here but I have such mixed feelings about this book. I just. What happened here??? Let me clarify: it's not bad. It's really not. But there were a lot of letdowns for me here. And a bunch of really good moments, too. But I have some....concerns.
Bryce has a whole deal with the fae being misogynistic assholes, right? so she
sjm takes several big traditionally "feminist" stances, with bryce saying "fuck the patriarchy, we're more than incubators" and then
AND my biggest problem with the way sarah treats her female characters is that everyone is tiny. for fuckin what? I saw ONE character described as "full-bodied" and that was IT, through an entire 800+ page book. I will NEVER forgive her for how she did the ocean queen so dirty. the queen of the OCEAN, and she was described as a "tiny female." like sorry but hey what the fuck???? from my notes, and i quote, "the endless, 'depthless' OCEANS and she's tiny??? teeny tiny itty bitty little thing to represent the vast swells, deep rolling tides, and stunning, dangerous beauty of all the oceans of this world and you made her micro fucking scopic. ... the ocean queen should be big. make her plus size, make her fat, make her a TRUE representation of the beauty and intensity and power that comes with being the queen of an element that takes up more space than all the land on the planet combined. let her take up the space she deserves, the space she owns!!!!!" like why the FUCK was the OCEAN QUEEN not even past four feet tall, and when she got taller to intimidate them, she didn't even make herself taller than hunt. she was still smaller than the men in the room. NO, FUCK THAT. let her tower over them!!! let puny hunt athalar cower in fear of her!!! tell us about her fat rolls, her big tummy, the way her skin has stretch marks that are lighter than the rest of her skin, like the crests of waves!!!!
just... it feels like for every traditionally "feminist" statement she made, she negated it with weird little internalized misogyny digs at her other woman characters. it makes the rest of her feminist takes come off as performative and forced imho. making the ocean queen "tiny" is a major reason i'm docking points.
but moving on. bryce is a total asshole for most of this book. when she gets back from prythian, she just refuses to acknowledge hunt's trauma because it's making him hesitate on their mission. she says she needs "all of him" but won't give him the space to process the INSANE amount of trauma he went through.
honestly, ithan and tharion's plots were the "this could have been an email" part of this story. every time we'd be in the middle of something exciting, it would switch to one of their POVs, and i'd roll my eyes and just suffer through it. it broke the immersion SO MUCH to be in the middle of a lore dump, fight, etc., and then be like "anyway back to wolf boy and fish guy, who can't do a god damn thing right to save their lives, or anyone else's."
next, the crossover. good god. now, i am fully aware that the fandom caused a ton of hype for this and made it out to be the hugest thing to happen to fantasy since tolkien. but, that being said, sjm, her publisher, and marketing team all hyped the fuck out of this, too. all of the marketing for hofas was about the crossover, and she ended the second book with bryce meeting the whole inner circle. so why did she spend the entire crossover
and the finale.
also, i'm so tired of every single sjm character being painfully aware and yet unaware of their surroundings. please, it's in every fucking book, and you'd think after 15-16 books she would have moved beyond "could have sworn", and yet. this is probably me being a dick but the final count was 52 times (which, in an 800+ page book, isn't a ton, but it's in every single book she writes) where something happened, like for sure happened, and someone just "could have sworn" it happened. like please just say the damn thing happened instead of giving the impression that your characters are only half aware of their surroundings.
anyway moving on to greener pastures. ruhn and lidia carried the fuck out of this book. i like their romance better than anyone else's in all of CC. they're just so good despite their occasional dumb choices. i love them. plus
overall, i think this is one of sjm's weaker books for sure. it was entertaining and gripping enough, but mostly because i wanted to find all the lore connections and easter eggs, and my bestie and i read it together, which makes reading anything fun. fuck, she could make the bible fun. the plot was fine, if not drawn out in some places, but i wasn't ever, at any point, invested in ithan or tharion. the ending was a little rushed compared to the other 800 pages of the book, but i like that she acknowledged the consequences of destroying the ruling class and that there would be a power vacuum there.
also, hunt finding out about
anyway sjm is someone you read for the characters and worldbuilding, not necessarily for incredibly strong plots, prose, or descriptions.
But also, credit where credit is due, connecting three different series across nearly a dozen and a half books is an insane feat of storytelling. the easter eggs and lore connections were great. i feel like she laid a lot of groundwork for other connections. she ended cc3 as if it was the end of the series, and i think it should stay that way imho. as much as i'd love more ruhn and lidia, i have had enough bryce and hunt for probably forever. this book did a lot, and carried a lot of weight for the maasverse, but i think it ended up being kinda messy. i wish the crossover had been better and that the characters weren't so prone to poor life choices for the sake of conflict. AND THE OCEAN QUEEN SHOULD HAVE BEEN FAT.
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Medical content, Torture, Child death, Genocide, Sexism, Body horror, Colonisation, Grief, Cannibalism, Misogyny, Death, Physical abuse, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Murder, Medical trauma, War, Self harm, and Cursing
Moderate: Sexual violence, Excrement, Slavery, Kidnapping, Rape, and Sexual assault
gemma_clare's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Sexism, Torture, Addiction, Cursing, Drug use, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual content, War, Vomit, Gore, Death, Excrement, and Violence
Moderate: Death of parent, Drug abuse, Genocide, Murder, Rape, Grief, Gun violence, Classism, Confinement, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, and Sexism
vermontsnowboarder's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
1. Pacing. The pacing throughout this entire book was off. Parts of it were dragged out unnecessarily
2. Plotholes. Again, I think this is because there were too many different storylines to keep track of. But the mistakes were glaringly obvious.
3. Repetition. Ok, all of this can be blamed on too many storylines. One storyline would end. That last paragraph would be *marginally* rephrased and then used at the beginning the next time that storyline was picked back up. A literary technique might be used here, but it wasn't used well. I would have thought the editors would have caught how jarring it was to repeat sentences. But it was more than just that.
4. The characters. I've never been a big fan of Bryce and Hunt. Bryce was excellent in the first book and has only slid wildly downhill into being an unrelatable, whingy, my way or the highway. Hunt was still cardboard. Truthfully, the only characters that were developed and interesting were Ruhn and Lidia. The fact that she did well writing them and devoted a similar amount of space means that if more care was taken, we could have cared about the others as well. Even well-established characters weren't written well.
5. Writing. There are many instances of weak writing. It feels a bit odd for me to say about an author that I like so much. Having read everything Maas has written, I know that she can write torture scenes well.
Moderate: Death, Misogyny, Colonisation, Confinement, Violence, War, Slavery, Torture, and Sexual content
Minor: Sexual assault, Classism, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Excrement
heidishartrandnewell's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.75
Graphic: Sexual content, Death, Vomit, Blood, and Torture
Moderate: Incest, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Classism, Grief, Gun violence, Excrement, Sexism, Colonisation, Infidelity, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Rape, and Slavery
kera_reads's review against another edition
- 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
4.75
Graphic: War, Violence, Torture, and Cannibalism
Moderate: Genocide, Vomit, Murder, Trafficking, Grief, Slavery, and Kidnapping
Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, and Drug use
justbooker's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
On the other hand, I believe this book has the best lore building moments of the series. The information dumps were easy to follow and engaging. With the lore building in the first book, it felt very scattered and needlessly confusing. This books had smooth, consistent lore that felt properly woven between character dialogue.
As far as characters go, Lidia is probably my favorite. I appreciate the depth and growth that she shows with Ruhn. Every development between her and Ruhn kept me on the edge of my seat, desperately rooting for them. I would love to see
Overall, the plot felt alright. I appreciated the loose ends that were tied up. I cheered when Ruhn
Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, War, Murder, Torture, Vomit, Excrement, Death, Death of parent, and Violence
Moderate: Child abuse, Trafficking, Child death, Domestic abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Cursing, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Alcohol, and Body horror
Minor: Sexual assault, Racism, Classism, Pregnancy, and Rape
dixiecarroll's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Cannibalism, Gore, War, Excrement, Child death, Colonisation, Kidnapping, Torture, and Violence