Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

41 reviews

aino_maria23's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Torture, Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Drug use, Grief, War, Addiction, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Sexual violence, and Trafficking

Minor: Sexual violence, Alcohol, Sexual content, War, Cursing, Pregnancy, and Panic attacks/disorders

david_slack110507's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

I had an awful reading slump whilst reading this book and I feel like that may have affected my rating for this book (Even though I am giving it 5 stars, it is more of a just about 4.5 stars because of the reading slump and the reading slump only type of situation) but even with that I still majorly enjoyed this and my reading experience cemented the Grishaverse series and particularly the Six of Crows duology as some of my favourite series of books. If I had been more consistent with reading I would have liked Crooked Kingdom even more than I already do. 

I absolutely love the Crows and their dynamics with one another. It expanded on them even more from Six of Crows, particularly with the relationships of Kaz and Inej, Jesper and Wylan, Jesper and Kaz, Nina and Inej etc. It was so fun seeing all of the characters continue to flourish and to expand upon their already established relationships as well as build new ones and it was one of the main things that kept me coming back even with my reading slump in full force. I liked the endings we got for our Crows as they felt both satisfying and open-ended enough to allow for a sequel or for them to show up in other stories like Nina in the King of Scars duology. 

The plot, while I don't think I loved it as much as the Ice Court heist, was still very interesting and was not what I expected going off of the ending of Six of Crows and where this book started off as the plot twists felt cleverly planned out and implemented without feeling like they were done to simply progress the story lazily. The last part of the book - Part 6: Action & Echo - was extremely interesting and one of my favourite parts of the boom because the chaos flowed very nicely to make it an unpredictable, fun, and memorable reading experience. Matthias' death was unexpected and while it wasn't extremely emotional for me as Matthias is one of my lesser favourite Crows (though I do still really like him as a character), it was still effectively done and I'm interested in seeing how this will affect Nina's story going into King of Scars. 

Overall, I really liked this book and while I do feel like reading this through a reading slump affected my opinion on the book, though to no fault of the book, I think it was very successful and met my expectations on how to end this duology yet left it in an interesting place to open up into another book to make it a trilogy, which I would not be totally against. I'm most likely going to continue on with my Grishaverse binge and read Nikolai's duology with Zoya and Nina, King of Scars, next as well as hopefully soon rewatch season 1 of Shadow and Bone as well as finally watch season 2 for the first time as I've been waiting until I finished this book as I have been unsure whether or not they included elements of this and Six of Crows into season 2 or not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Misogyny, Terminal illness, War, Sexual violence, Child death, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexism, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Mental illness, Racism, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Abandonment, and Gun violence

Minor: Vomit, Ableism, Pregnancy, Cursing, Eating disorder, Police brutality, Sexual content, Alcohol, Bullying, Classism, Drug use, and Drug abuse

_ami_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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: Rape, Gore, Murder, Violence, War, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Death, Slavery, Torture, and Trafficking

Minor: Vomit, Ableism, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Pandemic/Epidemic

entityj's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Classism, Death, Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, Addiction, Drug use, Trafficking, Torture, and Alcohol

Minor: Grief, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, and Vomit

seforana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Grief, Physical abuse, Body horror, Murder, Child abuse, Gore, Medical content, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence

piperrhoads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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: Death, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Addiction, Alcohol, Torture, Sexual assault, and Trafficking

gracelang_09's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Physical abuse

Minor: Gun violence, Trafficking, Child death, Alcohol, Cursing, Addiction, and Death of parent

nils_0's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Torture, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Drug use, Addiction, Cursing, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Rape, and Slavery

abbyycadabbyy's review against another edition

4.0

     Dang this series is so good. I actually feel like I lost a friend.... or six. After I finished this book, I laid in bed for a good hour staring at the ceiling, feeling empty. I am so sad that it's over.

      This authors mind is one that I will truthfully never understand. The way she was about to come up with all this and make me feel so strong for all the characters is amazing. If I remember correctly, I said in my last review that, I didn't dislike any of the six. Every time I read a book with duel-POV there is always one or two characters I dislike, not in this book.

     One of the huge things that really got me is that we never got a final warp up chapter for Nina. Nina was my second favorite character (after Kaz). I really felt empty not knowing how everything ended for he after that six-month time skip. Maybe it's just me liking Nina too much, but I feel like we need it. 

    I also thought the middle got a little boring at times. Not matter what, I love the six and I could read 10 books about them and never get tired of them. 

    The gangs. The thrill. The pace. The hint of romance. The six. Chief's kiss I am in love and these books will always have a special place in my heart.

     I actually thought I was going to cry when I finished this book, just because it's over. I know I seem really dramatic but it's true. Thats how amazing these books are. I could write about this series for days but I won't just know this is your sign to read these books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Trafficking, Grief, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol and Racism

madisonstarkov's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Violence, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Alcohol, Trafficking, Gun violence, Addiction, Death, and Slavery