Reviews tagging 'Death'

Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey

26 reviews

savvypotions's review against another edition

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

3.75


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bkmckown's review against another edition

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2.0

This book was recommended to me by MANY people. It’s was such a slog to finish. Over 1,000 pages and I would’ve quit if I hadn’t needed it for many of my reading challenges. I’ll start with the positive:

The overall story was fairly interesting. The sexy parts were indeed spicy. That’s about it. 

Now for the stuff I did NOT like:

 Let me preface this to say that I don’t like fantasy that much. Especially the ones who refer to characters in full name, the ones that have names that are difficult to pronounce, the ones that have exotic names for every group of people, location, position, etc

The main character is basically a child who is taught in the erotic arts. HUGE WTF! She’s a sex slave. Her first “master” just enjoys inflicting pain- which part of her “curse” makes it pleasurable to her. I felt like it wasn’t BDSM, but just abuse. Maybe there was a time in my life where I’d find this read enjoyable, but this isn’t it. 

I did give it 2 stars because the author did create and intricate cast of characters and story, but honestly, I would’ve DNF at any other time. 

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lily_alybaba's review against another edition

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adventurous tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • 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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ambientdusk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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lanid's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25


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strawberrypinch's review

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-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

3.75


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carolibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

3.0


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btrz7's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25


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massivepizzacrust's review against another edition

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

3.5

I have a lot of thoughts about this book and while I think it has some issues (or maybe a lot of them), I've definitely never read anything like it. Did I enjoy reading it? I don't know. Would I recommend it to other people? I... don't know...? But it sure will continue to live in my head forever. 

I think for what the content of this book is, I didn't love the "narrating from the future" writing choice. It felt detached and I've never been a fan of explicit foreshadowing. All the emotionally important raunchy scenes happened off screen or were only summarized in a couple of sentences, while the "just what work looks like" scenes were the ones highlighted. That's just not what I personally enjoy. But I liked the world building, where the wider plot went and how the main character interacted with the diplomatic challenges around her given her skills... 

Phedre's boys were my favorite part, I love them. Also, if Joscelin could unbutton about two more buttons on his shirt, he would be so much better than Melisande could ever be. That's just my two cents. 

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laura_mcloughlin's review against another edition

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

5.0

One of my all-time favorite books! I have read this book a lot,  in fact it lives on my Kindle (along with the 3rd one in the series) in case I'm without a book to read (or not liking the book I'm reading).

Fair warning - it takes awhile for the Plot to get started. The first 40% of the book is world building. It is (mostly) interesting world building but you may (like me the first time I read it) start wondering when things will really get moving. But once the Plot starts it is hard to put down.

I would recommend these books to anyone who enjoys epic fantasy (especially those set in what is clearly our world, with just a few tweak). Phedre is an amazing heroine and Jacqueline Carey is an auto-read for me. 

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