Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - The War of Two Queens

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The War of Two Queens by Jennifer L. Armentrout

6 reviews

abicaro17's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.25

holy shit. this was significantly better than the last book! I had my fears but it definitely proved me wrong. Once again this book falls victim to a action packed beginning and end but a relatively boring middle. I think Poppy is wayyy too overpowered in terms of where we started. I will say though between the end, the joining, the Poppy & Castiel reunion, and Tawney I have a lot of positives too. Which is why the book is rated as high as it is. While this book falls victim to a lot of the pitfalls of the 2nd and 3rd book, it is entertaining as hell and FINALLY answers series long questions (despite how ridiculous some answers are).

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roget's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No

1.0

This reads like a crack fic.

This series would be so much stronger if space that was given to all the tone-ignorant quipping and pages of unnecessarily aggressive, uncomfortable exchanges were instead given to expanding the lore.

The real plot is crammed into info-dumps in dialogue—just like, lecture after lecture of some being or another backtracking like “Well, ACTUALLY…” and then re-explaining lore and ancient relationships that’d already been explained and re-explained half a dozen times but apparently incorrectly. The consort? Interesting plot line. I wish we’d have gotten more of that development.

The Malik-Poppy backstory reveal was absolutely undercut by the series’s penchant for throwing gossip girl-style shocking “twists” at us every five minutes, not to mention the tonally inconsistent suggestive and situationally abhorrent illicit comments. The series isn’t respectful to Kieren, either. He’s basically treated like Poppy’s arm candy this book, and Poppy’s character is shockingly undynamic given the many, many changes she’s been through. She’s still acting like the angry, impulsive, and brash kid who’s playing at power without really understanding it.

The pacing is weird.

It takes them over half the book to rescue Cas, then it’s a large chunk of just adult scenes—the most awkward of which occur in the house of a set of resistance people who take them in and offer shelter only to be melted by Isbeth once Poppy and Cas are done using their familial home as a love shack.

As for the content…

There are numerous mature scenes, and if you’re not up for that, you’ll find yourself paging through them frustratedly and wading through neverending passages of violence as you wait for eons for an update about the more integral parts of the plot.

I’m interested to know more about the primals and their clearly warped family tree. I want Poppy to return to Ileesium. I want to see more of those dynamics unfold. I wish the book would spend more time and nuance developing that and Poppy herself.

Kind of just reading to find out what happens and how it wraps up at this point, which is disheartening. I’m sure some people find this series fun or entertaining, but the issues have sort of spoiled it for me, at least.

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widdlemun's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.75

Bluntly, it's like a train wreck you just can't look away from. It has moments when it uses modern language in this medieval fantasy setting which breaks emersion. Example A, towards the end of the book a character leaves and another character describes it as him "peacing out." I couldn't stop laughing. Or when a cigar container gets brought up but there are no cigars. Definitely can be campy, if you don't take it too seriously I'd recommend a read.

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