Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

33 reviews

ali_debookness's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping

Minor: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Suicide, Self harm, Slavery, and War

theirgracegrace's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Violence, War, Xenophobia, and Grief

Minor: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexual assault, Child death, Confinement, Colonisation, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

whatevertheysay's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Racism, and Slavery

ayayayayana's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

5.0

i absolutely loved this book. i would be forever grateful for leigh bardugo writing a duology about nikolai zoya and others. the character development was amazing. i never really liked zoya that much until i read this book, her character was really so lovely, brutal and kind of way inspiring. know i understand the hype about her. a lot of people say that this book is really boring or that nina’s chapters were boring but i dont think they were, maybe this book just isnt for everyone and its okay. i enjoyed it. im so excited to start the rule of wolves, the ending of this book made me question and wonder SO MANY things. i hope in rule of wolves everything will be explained.Characters diverse was amazing, i cant tell how much i love Nikolai, Zoya, Genya, David, Tolya and Tamar, and the romance was incredible.

*SPOILER ALERT FOR THE TEXT UNDER THIS*

 i cant stop saying how Nina’s chapters were sad and depressing, especially the beginning because of matthias. She’s really so strong and she went through so many things. And i loved Hanne and their friendship belong with Leoni and Adrik. 


In conclusion, if youre in crooked kingdom or ruin and rising, u should DEFINITELY read this duology as well if youre interested about Nikolai and all the politics. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Slavery

emily_mh's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.5

I went into this book fully expecting it to be completely centred around Nikolai and for him to be the star of the show, but this was definitely not the case in a surprisingly good way. Instead, the female characters absolutely SHONE in this book and completely stole the show. They were just incredible. It was a joy to read from Nina's perspective again, but it was actually Zoya who I fell in love with. She's had such an incredible character arc over the course of the Grishaverse and that was really revealed and expanded upon in this book. She's such a bad ass and doing a much better job of being the main character than Nikolai is. 

Being back in the Grishaverse was a delight, but so was reading Bardugo's writing again. It is wonderfully descriptive, and her plot development here is truly on another level in comparison to Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows. I really enjoyed seeing her expand her world-building, and she REALLY knows how to write incredible endings.

I docked a half-star for two reasons. The first is that I felt extremely disconnected from Nikolai, to the point where (shockingly, given he was one of my favourite characters in Shadow and Bone), I was dreading his POV chapters. The second is that for the first half of this book the plot felt a little directionless in that I didn't really know what the book was going to be about until like 250 pages in.

Also, the return of the Darkling kind of feels like a cheap enemy and I'm worried about how it's going to impact my enjoyment of Rule of Wolves.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, and War

Minor: Ableism, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Excrement, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, and Vomit

luluslittlelibrary's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.5

I really liked this book more than I expected. The beginning is painfully slow, so it was hard to get into, but once things started moving at a faster pace, I was hooked. I loved getting to read Zoya and Nikolai's POVs for the first time. They both have very clear "voices" so it was super engaging to read from their perspectives. I would have also been interested in getting a POV from Genya or David as well in this book. 

I LOVE Nina's storyline. For me, I was a lot more interested in what was going on with her in Fjerda than I was with the others in Ravka. I'm not going to give any spoilers but I would recommend this to anyone interested in reading more about Nina and what she's doing as a Ravkan spy in Fjerda.

And then there's the sequel. I definitely liked Rule of Wolves more than King of Scars so I would recommend reading it even if you didn't love King of Scars (I think it is much better). Once again I love everything that happens with Nina (and Hanne!). And I think the connection between Zoya and Juris is very interesting. I'm not big on the storyline surrounding the darkling, I think it was interesting but maybe didn't belong in this book (?). Also, the ending is SO GOOD.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Death, Grief, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Murder, Gore, Child death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Trafficking, Domestic abuse, Racism, Slavery, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pedophilia

shetland_pone's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Genocide, Grief, Pregnancy, and Slavery

valyn_grebe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Drug use, Grief, and Gun violence

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Sexism, Slavery, and Vomit

maureenocal's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious sad 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

5.0

I loved every minute. It’s the perfect follow-up to the Crows duology with tons of references to old characters and previous action. I waited to read this until I also had the sequel (Rule of Wolves) in my hands because once I realized Leigh wasn’t writing it as a standalone, I knew the end would leave me screaming. And it did, oh it did it suuure did.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, and Slavery

readwithria's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Addiction, Sexual violence, Grief, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Medical trauma, Trafficking, Genocide, and Kidnapping

Minor: Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Slavery, Murder, and Self harm