Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Six of Crows: Sangue e Mentiras by Leigh Bardugo

282 reviews

bookishfads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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

A fun ride of a book, can't wait to get my hands on the sequel. Leigh Bardugo really redeemed herself of the boring protagonist of The Grisha Trilogy with this fun new cast of characters, each unique and interesting in their own way, not to mention how their dynamics play out in the crazy job they sign up for. Some parts are full of plot-armor that takes away from the cleverness of the story, but I suppose sometimes it can't be helped. My main issue was simply making one character (read: Kaz) too powerful and not really what the story set him up to be. I'm glad the author got inspired from her own experience with chronic pain, but Kaz's disability hardly affects the plot. It's just character cosmetics.
Still, I enjoyed this read and its perfect if you want to get to know a fun group of characters, read some snappy dialogue full of clever clap backs and see more of the Grishaverse.
 Read more about it in spoiler section below.

So why 4 stars? I took off .25 because the last part of the book kinda started to get a bit too plot-armory for the characters and the clever plans got less and less clever and the plot twists at some points were simply because information was left out to the reader. Lame.
Another .25 is Wylan. I really liked him and wanted to get to know more of him... shame the author didn't feel the same. Not a  single POV from a character who's supposedly member of the titled ensemble... For what? A cheap plot twist? Wylan's reading disability would have been just as effective in the middle as it was at the end of the book.
 
Half a star is taken away because of Kaz Brekker.
Let's start with this age - 17! And he's this edgy criminal mastermind at 17. Ugh, it YA, I get it, marketing and all that, but making him 20 at least wouldn't have scared the teenagers away, trust me. Age aside, Kaz is so full of edge (some other characters had straight up edgy sentences torn from a local emo's diary, but Kaz takes the cake) it actually disrupted my immersion in the story and made me snort back a frustrated laugh. I can't take seriously this edge lord, who apparently first got arrested at age of 12.
Then his whole skill set is all over the place. Okay, he's the mastermind with neat sleight of hand and lock picking abilities. How come he can take down a dude who strangled a wolf with his bare hands?? With a disabled leg?? Okay, maybe the way he did it was plausible, but that still doesn't justify making Kaz good at everything just because the author wants you to think hes So Kewl! One scene - he hardly climbes up to third floor, another- he's running around and fighting and - you've guessed it - it has no impact on the plot at all. 
Kaz's weaknesses would have been so cool to explore: the touch aversion, injured leg, obsession with revenge and control, but they get swept aside to show us another clever triumph of Kazzle Dazzle. I really want to like him, but so far his comebacks, thieving tips and romance with Inej are the only fun part of the character, otherwise he's an edgy killjoy that course-corrects the plot just when it's about to get interesting.
Man just look at that paragraph.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Slavery, Trafficking, Torture, Hate crime, and Vomit

Moderate: Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, and Violence

Minor: Rape, Vomit, and Sexual assault

Plot revolves around an intense drug for magic users, throughout the story there's lots of forced usage of the drug and description of bodies of addicts. A character tortures and kills someone for information, quite graphic. There's also mentions of torture in prison. The aftermath of a hate crime over a fictional race is described and it happens quite suddenly - they're burned at the stake. A character gets trafficked as a little girl and sold into sexual slavery, the scene where she's sold is quite detailed, however the rest of it is vague mentions.

Moderate warnings:

A parent of a character hates them due to their learning disorder and calls them a mistake and many other hurtful things. A character who has had a radical religious upbringing defends an extremist ideology to another character. Character often get into violent situations and get injured, nothing too disturbing, but occasionally something graphic will pop up.

Minor warnings:

A character vomits out a necessary tool. It is brief and glossed over, but still to be considered. A female character has been trafficked and used for prostitution, therefore raped many times, which is mentioned, but never explicitly shown.

nooweljayy's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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: Violence

Moderate: Torture, Physical abuse, Cursing, Death, Gun violence, and Blood

Minor: Abandonment, Addiction, Child death, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, Gore, and Trafficking

aribookishly's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Ableism, Misogyny, Torture, Addiction, Blood, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Gore, Sexual assault, Trafficking, and Violence

lovorka's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Rape, Child abuse, Blood, Murder, Torture, Addiction, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, and Trafficking

jestareader's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.75

Fantastic Read! 

If I had read it when I first got it as a teenager, it would have been perfect. However, now that I am out of my teenage years, the characters felt uncomfortably young for their stories in a work fiction which discussed sex, SA, violence, and murder.  So in my head, they're older. 

Inej and Waylan - 22
Kaz, Jesper, Nina - 23 
Matthias - 24 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Death, Addiction, Drug use, Violence, Trafficking, Murder, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Torture, Sexual harassment, Rape, and Sexual content

adalina_xox's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual assault, Addiction, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Slavery, Torture, Rape, Drug use, Blood, Physical abuse, and Trafficking

theresamothinmyroom's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Trafficking, Slavery, Sexual harassment, Violence, Drug use, Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Gore, Torture, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Cursing, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexual violence, and Body shaming

im_hungry_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? Yes

5.0

Easily five (six) stars. Though, I considered being petty and put a 4 just because it ended on a cliffhanger but thankfully, I had picked up the Crooked Kingdom as well. Leigh make them canon, you amazing author 🫵

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Death of parent, Gore, Violence, Child death, Death, and Gun violence

Moderate: Torture, Addiction, and Trafficking

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Pedophilia

iseefirede's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Fantastic read. Little slow at the beginning but I loved seeing the way their relationships grew.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Slavery, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Torture and Confinement

samigeo122'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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Torture, and Slavery

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Ableism, Racism, and Gun violence