Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

39 reviews

nils_0's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Pregnancy, War, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

audlittlebookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

I enjoyed this so much! This one is more political drama with a touch of espionage. We also got to see characters dealing with grief and PTSD. Leigh Bardugo is a master at writing stories with multiple perspectives and giving each character a unique voice. There was a portion in the last half of the book that felt a bit hard to follow and didn’t flow as smoothly as the rest. In all fairness, that could have been intentional, given the context, but it made that section less enjoyable to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, Slavery, War, Grief, and Trafficking

Minor: Pregnancy and Miscarriage

onecheesetoasty's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Trafficking, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Misogyny, and Addiction

kiwij96's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.75

The emotional whiplash that this book has left me with is astounding. Leigh Bardugo has perfectly crafted the Grishaverse and has perfectly tied in character history with the other books in the series. This one broke my heart and gave me hope for future books in the best way. 

This book follows Nikolai, Zoya and Nina and takes place 3 years after the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and a year after the Six of Crows duology. All three of these characters are aome of my absolut  favourites from this series.

As someone who loved Zoya from book one of Shadow and Bone, rightly or wrongly, this was more her book than Nikolai's story. This gave her already tenacious character a brutal backstory and an awe-inspiring yet tragic redemption. This gives us understanding of who she is and why. I am honestly in love with her.

This book, from the Triumvirate's perspective, and Zoya and Nikolai's perspectives turned the whole Grishaverse on its head and the second that happened I was lost in the story in the best way possible.

Nina's character has always been a law unto herself, but her story in this felt disconnected from the rest of it. I feel Nina, Adrik and Leoni could have done with their own spin-off really however I did love learning more about their characters and recognising the references to previous books.

However, I am very confused as to what happened with the men from the very start of the story. Maybe I misread that bit but the whole time I was asking where they went and if they ever made it to Ravka.

That ending honestly has me in a spin, what an absolutely genius yet evil way to end a book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, War, Miscarriage, and Murder

Minor: Body horror

bergha1998's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

4.0

I hadn’t done enough research to even realize this one should be read after the Shadow & Bone Trilogy & the Six of Crows Duology, but luckily I did read it after. I found it really fun & insightful to finally have Zoya & Nikolai’s POVs, but also so happy to get Nina’s again too. The duo storylines were interesting, too, but with all Nina’s grief I did find Zoya/Nikolai’s more compelling. 

Found Family, No True Romance Subplots

“Each spine had been an open doorway whispering, Come in, come in. Here is a land you’ve never seen before. Here is a place to hide when you’re frightened, to play when you’re bored, to rest when the world seems unkind.”

“Hope was the wind that came from nowhere to fill your sails and carry you home.”

“It must be easy to ponder the universe, safe in your palace, away from the petty, brutal dealings of man. Maybe you don’t remember what it is to be powerless. I do.”

“You’ve spent your life only choosing the paths at which you knew you could excel. It’s made you lazy.”

“Most of us can hide our greatest hurts and longings. It’s how we survive each day. We pretend the pain isn’t there, that we are made of scars instead of wounds.“

“Stop punishing yourself for being someone with a heart. You cannot protect yourself from suffering. To live is to grieve. You are not protecting yourself by shutting yourself off from the world. You are limiting yourself.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Violence, War, Slavery, Kidnapping, Grief, Racism, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Chronic illness, and Death of parent

micaelacccc's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, War, and Death

Minor: Animal death and Adult/minor relationship

aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Torture, Blood, Misogyny, Sexism, Grief, Addiction, Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, War, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, and Trafficking

Minor: Vomit and Xenophobia

adamparrishlover's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Grief, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Death, Miscarriage, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Slavery

Minor: Drug use and Suicidal thoughts

onefineelephant's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.5

9/10. I loved this book. I don't think I liked it more than the Six of Crows books, but that's because I'm a sucker for found family. I love Nikolai, Zoya, Nina, and Hanne. The only part that I didn't like was that it felt like I was reading two separate books - one about Nikolai and Zoya and another about Nina and Hanne. It didn't feel like the two connected or overlapped very much, so when I would read a chapter from one of their POVs, then I wanted to keep reading that story rather than switching to a completely different story (that I also liked and then the cycle would continue). I'm guessing the two stories will converge in the next book, but I think this book felt off because of the unrelated stories. Love the Grishaverse, though. This series continues to surprise me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Trafficking, Violence, Blood, Drug use, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Murder, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Sexism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Child death, Rape, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and War

sxndaze's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.25

It’s interesting to read from Nikolai and Zoya’s pov since we didn’t really get to explore their characters in the main trilogy. It’s always a treat to read from Nina’s and see where she’s at. It started off slow, and I can’t say I really cared until the second half of the book where the plot really picked up speed. I’m intrigued enough to continue because I’m already so invested in the world and the characters, but the book is okay for me. The writing is definitely wonderful though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use and Animal death