Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco

10 reviews

sweetordinary's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

If you are a fan of a dark mystery filled with self-discovery, love, and adventure, this is a book you need to try. Magic is infused every step of the way. 

I love and appreciate the fact that the themes of love, romance, and intimate relationships took a back seat for the main character.

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queer_bookwyrm's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: violence, murder, blood, self-harm

Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco is book one in the Kingdom of the Wicked series. I wasn't sure about this book at first, since I bought it at the top of the booksta hype, and honestly it didn't grab me at first (although that could be due to a book hangover from the previous book). I quite enjoyed this once I got into it, and now I need to know what happens next! 

We follow Emilia di Carlo and her twin Vittoria, in Sicily. Emilia and Vittoria are witches, and are taught protection charms and stories of the Wicked, the seven demon princes of Hell, from their grandmother. When Vittoria is brutally murdered after a series of other witches being murdered, Emilia is consumed with vengeance, and seeks to use dark magic to find and kill the murderer. It does not go as planned. 

Emilia finds herself embroiled in the middle of prophecy, and surrounded by demons that want something from her, including a very handsome and annoying one she has accidentally tied herself to. There is more going on than Emilia realizes, she's been lied to by so many people, she doesn't know who to trust. I did find myself being a bit annoyed with Emilia's naivete. Several times I muttered "you dumbass" to myself about her decisions. 

I found her relationship with Wrath compelling, but I definitely don't get how people would want him as their book boyfriend. Maybe that's just the aro in me 😆. That cliffhanger was rough, but I can't say I'm completely surprised. Perhaps the next book will prove me wrong. This was an entertaining YA read, but nothing too impressive. I will be continuing with the series. 

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theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


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purplehulk713's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny inspiring mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

3.75

Not that I didn’t enjoy Kingdom of the Wicked, but I had higher hopes for it from reading its preview. Maniscalco’s writing was sometimes confusing—too ambiguous to be understood upon a first or second reading of the section. It was frustrating. But the magic was bewitching, especially the culture of the streghe and their myths (some true, others false) about the Malvagi (the Wicked) and La Prima Strega (the First Witch). The romance was pretty good, I love a good enemies-to-lovers trope, but I hate how Emilia (like many other YA protagonists) judged Wrath so simply every time she saw a new side of him, and didn’t realize that just because he is one of the Wicked, that does not mean he is heartless or totally evil or whatever. Kerri Maniscalco did do a good job of leaving me wanting more, despite if it was for reasons of ambiguous writing on her part. I’m still confused about the details of the devil’s curse. Envy as a character also seemed rather predictable. Basically, as much as I enjoyed Kingdom of the Wicked, it didn’t wholly satisfy me as a reader.
Beware the Malvagi, fellow streghe…

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r1vana's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

3.0

Another anticipated book series.
This book was everywhere on booktok and I put it to the side until the last book gets released so I could binge watch it. But..I am kind of disappointed…
The story was really long. At first I was very invested: the magic world, the world building, the characters, the dark magics…. 
So many things were going on which was kinda hard to keep up. 
This book is kinda hard to digest because it emphasizes mainly on grief, pain, “mental health” and deep sadness, probably even depression. But those feeling changes to anger and thirst for revenge: 
          “Grief carved me in half. And fury honed the pieces into a weapon. 

The story is about Emilia who goes on a rampage/vengeful tasks to find her twin sister’s murder and kill him/her/they… but in order to do so, she needs help… from Wrath, the MMC, and my new book boyfriend. 
The ending kinda felt rushed. The story had a lot of potential but felt that it was kinda badly executed. Hopefully the other two books are better…

Emilia…. My oh my… she is a stubborn and hard headed character. Which sometimes, I wished I could go into the book, and shake her to wake her the f-up. She can be extremely reckless because she is so blinded by this “revenge” that I feel like she doesn’t think rationally sometimes. Sometimes, there are scenes of hers that felt repetitive. 
Edit: I just saw someone say that it feels like reading Bella Swan’s POV…. Lol.

Look besides all that, the princes of Hell are quite interesting. I hope we get to see them more on the other two books:
           "There are seven demon princes, but only four di Carlos should fear: Wrath, Greed, Envy, and Pride. One will crave your blood. One will capture your heart. One will steal your soul. And one will take your life.”

"One will crave your blood. One will capture your heart. One will steal your soul. And one will take your life."

    Wrath didn’t seem as present as I taught he would be but he did make an impression on me. Especially whenever he bangers with Emilia. The only thing with him is that for a so-called Prince of Hell, we don’t really see the scary side of him. The author probably saved that for later. 

And I love Emilia’s grandma, even though she is constantly pestering her granddaughters, is it always for the better. People trust your ancestors stories, they might come true who know…:

   "Love is the most powerful magic. Above all else remember that. It will always guide you where you need to go?”
She dropped her hands and stepped back. "Now go, bambina. Go be brave, Your heart will conquer darkness. Trust in that."

The murder was kinda obvious…

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ka_ke's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

It’s fine. It’s nothing spectacular, and I expect the spice to be way better in Kingdom of the Cursed. The idea is cool, I just don’t know if it was executed as well as it could have been. 

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faitherslibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0


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verk's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

Al principio me costó un poco engancharme pero después era difícil de dejar Jajaj. 
De las hermanas me gusta más Vittoria peo bueno, el personaje principal es Emilia que no me cae mal pero a veces se porta de forma muy tonta. 
Me gusta que haya misterio y que no sepas a quien culpar de todo jaja, aunque sospechás quien podría ser (y  se confirma, o no, al final 😅).
Wrathe gusta mucho su personaje, está mejor desarrollado que el de Emilia. 
Me dejó con ganas de leer el 2do 😅.

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politewriter's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A rather thrilling fantasy novel. The world building had some rather fantastic depths and color to it. It was really easy to see how the author incorporated their personal experience. I really liked how that meshed. Some elements of their story seemed to get muddled at times, and I found myself needing to go back to reread something in order to understand what was happening. Lots of characters, but the author does a good job of keeping them all straight— as well as their alliances and organizations. However, FL seemed to have very little development throughout the story. She made a lot of odd choices, and that really took away from the tension of the story. I liked the chemistry between the FL and the ML tremendously. I hope to see that further developed in the second volume. 

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foreverinastory's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

3.5/5

I feel a bit confused by the ending. And also about the dynamic between Emilia and Wrath. I know I'm supposed to ship them, but I don't know if I do.

Rep: white Sicilian-Italian female MC, white Sicilian-Italian side characters, BIPOC male side character (Indian coded).

CWs: Blood, child death/loss of sibling, death, gore, grief, murder, self-harm (cutting for blood to power spells), violence, magical compulsion and brief mention of unwanted touching.
 

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