Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

117 reviews

vendy_kha's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

I've fallen in love... If you've read Cassandra Clare and adored the Seelie & Unseelie court like me, enjoyed the feeling of that place... You have to read The folk of air series! The plot is political but not too blindly (I don't like politics in real life, this equals the levels of Throne of glass but the focus is slightly stronger on the scheming). If you love Aelin, you must like Jude too - she's a total beast and I adore her. The enemies to lovers subplot is wickedly sold on me. This book is YA, the darkness and plot are sooo catchy - highly recommend diving into this world

when she put the dagger to his throat and kissed him I nearly screamed + the poisoning herself, getting rid of Valerian? Madness but also badassery at its finest. I love how she's quick to treason for those she loves and protects!/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Drug use, Alcoholism, Bullying, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Grief, Slavery, Gore, Blood, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Toxic friendship

morriganorgana's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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

4.0

The first time I tried reading this book in roughly 2019, I found it incredibly difficult to get past a certain scene (Chapter 7) as it was quite triggering. Because of this, I initially DNFed the book, gave it 1 star, and shoved it out of my mind. After a few years I decided to give it another go, and I'm really, really glad I did. 

This time I skipped the chapter I knew would upset me (thanks to another reader who helpfully looked up which chapter for me), and it was an entirely different experience. The character growth throughout the book is great, and the more you sink into the world the more you can appreciate every act and word.

Worldbuilding is brilliant, and Black uses so much faerie folklore in the series that it felt like I wasn't dipping into a new world, but walking into an ancient one that I already knew. I was so excited to see redcaps given so much love too, as their lore originates from the Scottish-English border near where I'm from, so seeing a character from a Redcap's household was a fantastic surprise. 

Overall a great book, and I'm so glad to say that the series only gets better from here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Murder, Gore, and Blood

drowning

lynnloveshobi's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Infertility, Infidelity, Death of parent, Abandonment, Blood, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Death

Minor: War, Abandonment, Classism, Incest, and Colonisation

gabi_w21's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.5

DNF’ed around 15%. But with Jude acting like a stubborn idiot despite knowing it could get her seriously injured and Cardan not having any redeemable qualities, I gave up. Jude seemed much more concerned about if her sister slept with someone and ogling Cerdsn than anything. It wasn’t “enemies to lovers,” to me. Cardan and his buddies were just sociopathic abusers to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Blood, Death of parent, Drug use, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Child abuse, and Gaslighting

balluna's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

Words can't describe how much I love this book.

And there are so many plottwists, holy

The ending is absolutely stunning and HAS to be one of my favourite endings ever

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Murder, Violence, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Gore, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Grief, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Self harm

Minor: Child death, War, and Abortion

maple_dove's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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

I read this book in two days.

Edit: Okay. The Folk of the Air is much much more about Jude's journey and development than it is about romance. If you dive into The Cruel Prince (Folk of the Air #1) expecting mostly romance, you will be disappointed. There's more romance in the other two books, but it's still more about Jude's journey and development than romance.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death of parent, Murder, Violence, Gore, and Infidelity

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: War

Poison (graphic)

bugcollector's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

1.5

Just wanted some light reading between other books, expecting some angsty teen fantasy, hurt/comfort type of thing. 
The first book in this trilogy is definitely not great. 
Where is the pining for each other, where is the scheming? 
I'm about to lose itt
He just straight up physically abuses her and I'm supposed to ship it bc he wrote her name a lot. 
And even with that, at least be more cunning with the abuse, make it personal, not a universal "u are a smelly human and I'm a high fairy" 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, Blood, Toxic friendship, Grief, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Bullying, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, and Torture

itsmemiana's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

BROOOOOO THIS BOOK.

let me tell you... it was SO good, totally worth the hype.

first of all.... the sexual tension between Jude and Cardan could be cut with a knife (or sword if you will). I LOVE THEMMM. 🥺❤️

and I absolutely hated Cardan in the first 20% of the book but then I was down on my knees fr. what gave him the right to be so mf hot? like hello??? 🥵

and Jude is such a badass queen fr. she's one of those characters that makes so many wrong decisions but you still love her yk? and honestly I think it takes really good writing to pull that off and Ms. Holly Black did that. 😌

Taryn was cool until the last part of the book.... girl- 🤨

And Vivi was a sweetheart throughout the whole book, literally so wholesome. I love her. 🥺

and so many of the other characters were terrible people but the way they were written really made the story more interesting. I love the writing in this book.

and the ending made me low-key sad 🥲 but even more excited to read the second book. I NEED MORE FROM JUDE AND CARDAN. can't wait to read the second book ❤️ 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Gore, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol and War

emilycbaker's review against another edition

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Bullying, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Gore

lizzye33's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Violence, Blood, Death, Grief, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Murder, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Body horror, Cultural appropriation, and Classism

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Kidnapping, Body horror, Cursing, War, Excrement, Abortion, and Confinement