Reviews with content warning for Torture - Kingdom of Ash

Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

398 reviews

rhi_submerged's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Content Warnings

akirokis's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

havenotreadinyears's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

laurenator209's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

booksivereadtc's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad 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

Wow. What a finale to the story. I didn’t give it a 5 because honestly, it was too long. There were a lot of loose ends to tie up but the lead up, especially in Aedion and Lysandra’s plot line was almost painfully long. Aelin

losing her powers made me sick with rage and I’ve never cried so hard as when we lost the 13

but overall an incredible story !

Content Warnings

lexa1403's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous emotional inspiring 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: Complicated

Content Warnings

smutslut26's review against another edition

5.0

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: Yes

Content Warnings

mgdmcc's review against another edition

2.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I haven’t reviewed the rest of the series so far [that I recall] so this is going to be a bit of both a review of the book itself and the series overall.

KOA is a long ride through a dark night. In the conclusion of this series all of SJM’s strengths and weaknesses are on display. The intricate world building, the poignant moments of growth for each character, and Aelin’s final stand against every force that’s been bending her life all paint an intricate and lovingly crafted modern fairytale. The overdrawn battles that feel like paraphrashed scenes from Lord of the Rings, the repetitive sparing, descriptions, the men being forgiven for doing and saying incredibly fucked up things to the women they claim to love, or “banter” that appear to be the same 5 lines repeated [if I drank every time Aelin “winked”, someone said “mate”, “scent” or “gods save us” after a throw away joke, I would have died of alc poisoning]; without most of these this book probably could have been shortened 10-15%.

Aelin’s escape from the mask

, the women's growth into their power and the acceptance of the cost, any scene with Manon, and Lysandra saving everyone’s ass 500x are stand out moments to me.

Overall, it is clear Maas spent a large amount of time mapping out this finale to give her beloved characters an end she felt fitting [I still think Aedion should have been killed but I guess he just continues to breathe regardless of his uselessness] and close out the window on the first world she created. I think it was the best of the series, both a blessing and a curse.

Throne of Glass is a fantasy series that builds a beautiful fairytale of a woman who, despite all odds, refuses to back down from what she really deserves. It can feel hard to find fantasy these days that spends as much time really working through the trauma and beauty of wanting to be alive in these kinds of flushed out settings. However, especially as someone who has read her other series the recurring themes, tropes, descriptions, and sentences grow exhausting and lose luster. I genuinely enjoy Crescent City [well maybe the first two…less so the third] and ACOTAR helped me through a time I really didn’t think I would be able to move on from. Slogging my way through Throne of Glass had many highs and lows, but mostly it made me appreciate the other two series for what they’re pacing and character growth. Enjoyable, but not something I think I will be rereading in the next 10 years.

Content Warnings

amandatory13's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark hopeful tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

This is a reread for me. It was good and I like that we got a lot of “epilogue” ( I know they are actual chapters but it felt like an epilogue). However this book was too long. I don’t mind reading a long book and I know it was hard for SJM to wrap up a series she spent like a decade or longer on, but we could have cut like a quarter of this. I dont really like military history, I don’t care about flanks and maneuvers, so that was a drain to read. I feel like the timeline was questionable at certain points between the separate groups.

The Wolf tribe and lost fae portaling in at the end was Avengers Endgame in a bad way and we’re supposed to believe that the cadre were carefully drawing wyrdmarks in the midst of battle and they didn’t get trampled/kicked away by other soldiers????

And why didn’t Elide say sorry???

I know she saved Lorcan’s life but she still should have said sorry for telling him she hoped he died

Lastly the

nameless thing with the King of Adarlan was stupid. He could help close the lock by being blood related to Brannon. If Dorian could do it, so could the king. We didn’t need a rigmarole about “he took my name.” It’s a cool reveal bc we didn’t realize it but it was ridiculous to the plot line

Content Warnings

infjkiki's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional 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

Content Warnings

More...