Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake

5 reviews

grayscale08's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Violence, Death of parent, and Blood

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, War, Cursing, Child death, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Gore

Minor: Grief, Sexism, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Ableism, Alcohol, Body horror, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, Forced institutionalization, and Classism

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? No

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: Violence, self-harm, (traumatic) child birth, infanticide, death of a child, death of a parent, sexual assault, blood 

Two Dark Reigns by Kendare Blake is book three in the Three Dark Crowns quartet. These books have been pretty consistent with keeping me engaged in the story, and keeps developing the characters. Arsinoe is still my favorite. 

We pick up from the cliffhanger of the previous book (possible spoilers for the first two books), and we see Arsinoe, Mirabella, and Billy make it to the mainland. This is a struggle for the sisters going from being treated as queens on Fennbirn in a more equal society to now being in a patriarchal one that doesn't give women freedom. Although they survived the journey, the island is calling them back by sending Arsinoe visions and dreams of the Blue Queen (who turns out to be someone totally different than was recorded in history). 

We also follow Jules Milone and her mountain cat familiar as she figures out how to use her newly discovered war-gift in conjunction with her naturalist abilities. On top of this, she is now being coerced into leading the rebellion against Queen Katherine, because the people are sick (no pun intended) of having poisoners on the throne. We finally get some explanation for what happened to Katherine in the Breccia domain, and she stopped being needlessly evil. Turns out she doesn't even have an ability! I stead she borrows from the dead queens that possessed her when she fell into the Breccia Domain . 

I love seeing a rebellion! I'm also happy to continue following Jules, because she is awesome. We found out some major twists I wasn't expecting! This series certainly keeps you on your toes! And we are left with another doozy of cliffhanger. Just one book left! I can't wait to see how it wraps up and what happens to Fennbirn.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Child death, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Self harm

kibiiiariii's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, War, Sexism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Violence, and Pregnancy

taryn_g's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Death of parent

Moderate: Child death and Violence

emily_mh's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

This is definitely my favourite in the series so far. I actually quite enjoyed reading it, as the mystery of the Blue Queen and the mist made everything so much more compelling and gave the book some real plot direction. HOWEVER there were some definite issues that reduced the quality of the read. First and foremost, why wasn’t there more discussion about the magnitude of overthrowing the queen system? It’s everything everyone on Fennbirn has ever known, and also considered the will of the Goddess, a divinity that everyone believes in. But also, where was the grief over Joseph? That was a major character death at the end of the last book, but it’s barely even talked about in this one. And finally, I found it hard to believe that Mirabella and Arisnoe just automatically knew how to be loving sisters when they were raised to hate one another for nearly their entire lives. I think if Blake had really explored this connection it would have added a lot of depth to their characters and relationship. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, Death, Child death, Murder, Pregnancy, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Ableism, and Animal death

Minor: War, Abandonment, Death of parent, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Body shaming, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Vomit, Grief, Infertility, Confinement, and Infidelity