Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah

38 reviews

garrettcz's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Murder, Death of parent, Bullying, Slavery, and Torture

Minor: Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, and Torture

persephonefoxx's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

lesliehirgelt's review

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Grief, Hate crime, Child death, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Infidelity, Bullying, and Murder

angela005's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Death, Death of parent, and Blood

Moderate: Grief, Genocide, and Torture

Minor: Pregnancy, Alcohol, Infidelity, War, and Forced institutionalization

bessadams's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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: Blood, Violence, Murder, and Death of parent

Moderate: Grief, Torture, and Child death

kassidyreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Death and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Child death and Torture

ofheartsandaros's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Child death and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol

kiwij96's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

From the second I started the first chapter I was immediately obsessed. The storytelling is genius and so brilliantly written, I could not put it down.

Six of Crows inspired chaptering, with each one written through the perspective of a main character. Heavily inspired by A Thousand and One Nights in the best way. The worldbuilding was gorgeous and descriptive, I loved the characters and the quests. The stories within the story - the history of this fantasy world which shapes and deepens your understanding of characters.

I am one for enjoying when heroic quests go awry and everything goes wrong and good lord did things go wrong for the characters. Many times. Betrayal, heartbreak, loss, pain, old foes, new foes, deceit. It all very much happens in this action-packed story and at times it is brutal.

I am very interested in seeing how this trilogy plays out, however, as this book ended in an interesting way. Not on a cliffhanger as such, but I am looking forward to seeing what happens after this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Torture, Death of parent, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Cursing, Misogyny, Sexism, and Vomit

theespressoedition's review against another edition

slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Death of parent, Torture, Murder, Blood, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Gore, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury

thebookaholic's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I really enjoyed this book, but it did have a few flaws for me. I adore Arabian inspired fantasy (shoutout to the Daevabad trilogy) and was super exited when I found this at Waterstones one day on a whim. I got around to starting it a couple of weeks ago, and found the world and main character Loulie and her companion Qadir (very small spoiler)

(non-romantic relationships between a woman and her ancient magical companion FOR THE WIN)

to draw me in with their initial descriptions and imagery and interactions. That said, after the first couple of chapters I felt there was a serious lull of content that prevented me having that 'omg i need to keep reading' feeling so it took me ages to get through it. The second half though? LOVED IT - the adventure, the new characters, the action scenes, the new places, the gender flexibility... I loved the subtle inspirations from folklore throughout that still felt independent of and a fresh take on those stories as opposed to another predictable retelling.

Overall, whilst i really loved many elements of the book, there was just something missing for me. Maybe it was the writing style, it feels YA in a sense but not in the nicely fast-paced way or in terms of content (I have no idea if that makes sense, like idk how to explain this take??), or maybe I didn't love it as much as I wanted to just because it didn't give me that feeling of 'I need to stay up until 3am reading because it's just SO GOOD' and ended up taking me just over two weeks to finish (double what it usually would).   

However, I will probably read The Ashfire King when it releases and if you love these kind of stories, definitely give it a go!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Grief