Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Morning Star by Pierce Brown

28 reviews

naechan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

5.0

It took me forever to get through this trilogy because it kept sending me in to depressive spirals and then I wouldn’t wanna read anymore, or get out of bed, or do anything really. What a bleak and unforgiving world! 

10/10

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, and War

reddeddy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Hate crime, Torture, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

Minor: Ableism, Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Excrement, Vomit, Cannibalism, and Pregnancy

kiwij96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.75

This book was immediately well-paced. From the firat page I was pretty much sucked back into this universe. It was very heavy on the politics at times but it worked. Compared the Red Rising and Golden Son, there wasn't a page that wasn't relevant to the story. For sure a couple of paragraphs could have been edited out here and there, but generally speaking, the whole story flowed well chapter to chapter. This book hurt me with some of the character deaths, redemptions, and betrayals, but that makes for a great story.

Where this book loses marks is the battle scenes. Sometimes they are just too...wordy, or like they're trying to achieve too much. I cannot conceptualise half of the scenes in my head, which maybe is a me-problem, but sometimes I just can't picture it and it brings me out of the story a bit. (There was also that "Bye Felicia" moment and I actually took damage from cringing.)

HIS NAME IS PAX 🥹😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, and Cannibalism

alyse_turns_pages's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

Wow. What an epic ending to this trilogy (yes i know there’s 2 more books later). This story had me shocked and gasping so many times. I felt so drawn to all the characters…even the ones I was supposed to not like Sir Pierce had me thinking like Darrow about a few of them. The adrenaline I felt while reading this is unreal-I’m not sure if the tummy ache I got was the book or all the gummy bears I was stress eating while reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Medical content, Trafficking, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Drug use, Genocide, Hate crime, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

murrayscottferguson's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense fast-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: Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

cc0906's review against another edition

adventurous challenging fast-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

paguroidea'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? Yes

5.0

Doubling down on Sevro being a favorite at this point but GAH did

Ragnar have to die? that had me upset for a hot minute and it took me longer to finish this one than it took to get through the last two books. I don’t usually find myself so invested in “side” characters but this series has me hooked.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, and War

Moderate: Torture and Grief

praaliine's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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

As a reader, there’s always that one book (or more than one) that you come across once in while that completely alters your perception of literature and storytelling. Morning star was it for me, the whirlwind of strong emotions aside, Pierce Brown continues to outdo himself and master his craft. There’s a big cast of characters and yet I can tell he’s given ample attention to each one, making them so complex and so real that I laughed and mourned with them. The character development (for Darrow, his friends and his enemies) is remarkable, it was so refreshing reading about these characters breaking out of the tired worn-out mentality that drove the corrupt Society. Sadly, there will always be those characters that are just unable to think beyond their status in the hierarchy and cannot move on, and there were. It was also interesting to read about certain eerie and deranged antagonists (oh and Pierce KNOWS how to write a psychologically sinister character), how they played the long game and their malevolent plans fell into place as they willed it, and how they were met with their due penalty. 

He’s done such an excellent job of capturing our own society, its so easy to read some of these characters and fell repulsed by them claiming we’re morally better than them, but this brilliant story forces you to reckon with the fact that all humans have these innate selfish ambitions and desires, and must seek to do better. This book has an abundance of found family like I’ve never seen before, it was fast paced, it was heavy and at some stages, thrilling and exciting. Plus the battle scenes were epic—as usual.This was beautiful and the ending was satisfying, but I’m definitely not stopping here, I intend to finish this saga and I have high expectations because bar has been set by Pierce himself.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, Cannibalism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

bibliorama's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

I loved this boyo. <3 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism