Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

48 reviews

jstarshine16's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Alcohol, Gore, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and War

Minor: Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Sexual content, and Xenophobia

catmac15's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

3.75

Is it my favorite book in the grishaverse? No, not really. But is the book bad by any means? Definitely not.

I think the show does a good job of picking up the pace of Alina's time at the Little Palace while still acknowledging the struggles she went through staying there (ex. loneliness, dealing with her newfound power), the first like 200 pages of this book are kinda slow and just consist of Alina adjusting to the change of setting [at the Little Palace] but enjoyed the last 50-100 pages more because that's where a lot of the action was

and when Alina leaves the Darkling and everyone else on the ships, that's when Alina begins to question herself morally, to me that's when I truly to saw her character development come to light

 

It was cool to see how the first season of the show compares to this book; I honestly think any changes the show made from the book were good ones.  I did read the Six of Crows duology before starting the Shadow and Bone trilogy so I know that Bardugo does end up writing the other books in the grishaverse as multiple POVs; this book would have been better to me had it been written in different POVs (ex. Mal's, Darkling's, Genya's), luckily the show does add those different POVs in (and it adds a lot more to the story).

Overall, I think this Shadow and Bone is a good book to start to the grishaverse with; it's just not my favorite book by any means. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Death, and Violence

Minor: Gun violence, Torture, and Toxic relationship

fenna2002's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence

zoeelora's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Torture, Stalking, and Suicidal thoughts

rayne_1906's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

3 hours 15 minutes - I was very much on the fence about whether to rate this 4.25 or 4.5, but I eventually elected to go with the higher of the two. This came as a surprise to myself, as I really struggled through the first 25 pages of this book, after which point I put it down for the night. I came back to it the next day, a little apprehensive and demotivated, as it hadn't really made me want to carry on reading at that point, but I am glad that I did. From that point onwards, there was rarely a dull moment. The writing was clever, in making you feel and believe exactly what the main character did, which led to some really good plot twists. Speaking of which, there were multiple times in this book where I thought, ahh yes I know where this is going, and then the story changed in front of my eyes, but in a way that made sense, no plot twists for the sake of plot twists. One downside to this book is that there is a lot of terminology, in another language, that often isn't immediately described, or wasn't at all to my recollection, and sometimes it all became a little hard to keep track of. I think this is what put me off initially, right at the beginning. However, this quickly became an amazing read, and left me many times thinking how much I loved the book while reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Medical content, Torture, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol and Adult/minor relationship

limiwh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Gaslighting, Grief, and Slavery

Minor: Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

writtenbydnicole's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, and Gun violence

Minor: Grief and Slavery

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

• 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

4.0

Alina Starkov is an awkward apprentice mapmaker for the King's army with no family and only one friend. But then her regiment is attacked while crossing the Shadow Fold, a dangerous darkness dividing the nation of Ravka in half, and Alina discovers a power she didn't know she had: she is a Sun Summoner, one of the Grisha who can control an element of nature. Suddenly, she is dragged into a world of grueling Grisha training and court politics, while the powerful Darkling watches her every move. Alina must learn to use her power and also figure out who she can trust.

I've been meaning to get to the Grishaverse books for years now, but the Netflix adaptation was both motivating (I can't watch it until I finish the series!) and problematic (everyone and their mother is now trying to check these books out from the library—I had to wait 8 weeks!). Unfortunately, I think the show (and all of the excitement about this book that it stirred up) overhyped it a bit for me, because this fell a bit short of my expectations. I enjoyed the world-building and the concept, but the writing was a bit blah. Several parts felt rushed and therefore didn't give the full emotional impact that I think Bardugo intended. That said, I still really enjoyed the story! The descriptions of the settings and clothes helped me picture everything well, which is one of the things I love most about fantasy novels and also the main reason I like to read a book before watching a movie/show adaptation. I also loved the climax of the novel:

Alina's realization that her act of mercy was not weakness but strength, and her subsequent reclamation of her powers. Call me lame, but heroes choosing love and kindness is a theme that I love more than any other!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Blood

Minor: Torture and Death of parent

erynmcvay's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

My review is probably biased because I watched the show first and really loved it, but I really loved this book. I’m so enthralled by Ravka and the Grisha and can’t wait to see how Alina’s journey will progress over the next two books. Obviously ... a big part of my love for this book is my love for all-powerful, ancient, impossibly handsome, mean men.

The Darkling is a true villain in the way that his actions are objectively evil, and yet I really can see his own justification. I can understand why he does what he does, without feeling sympathy for him.

Also I want him to kiss me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Slavery, Torture, Medical trauma, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Death, Bullying, Body horror, and Blood

illgiveyouahint's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• 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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture