Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas

119 reviews

emilywemily6's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.75

This book blew me away. I feel like the story continuously amped up throughout which was really fun pacing. I also had no idea where the story was going so I was hooked. And that ending!! That twist!! I didn’t see it coming at all, though I knew something magical was going on. My only critique is the Chaol- Celaena drama with keeping secrets, etc. It was overly dramatic for barely any reason. But other than that this was the perfect setup for the rest of the series!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Classism

Minor: Medical content

micaelamariem's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

Two years after reading Throne of Glass, I finally read the sequel, Crown of Midnight. 

If you somehow haven't heard of the author, Sarah J Maas, she also wrote the A Court of Thorns and Roses series and the Crescent City series. 

Crown of Midnight, the second book in the Throne of Glass series, was published by Bloomsbury YA. Throne of Glass is a YA fantasy series targeted to older teenagers (though adults can still enjoy them!)

Crown of Midnight continues with Celaena's story after she becomes the King's Champion as to be his personal assassin. Meanwhile, she is trying to figure out what all the secret passageways and riddles she finds in the castle means, and would they have any answers to stopping the king's thirst for power as he continues to dominate other countries. 

I really enjoyed this book--even more than the first one. I'd give it 4 stars out of 5 on the rating scale system because I did enjoy reading it, but there were a few hiccups with the book.

Part of me loved seeing the intricacies of Chaol's, Dorian's, and Celaena's friendship. I loved the character development that happens--particularly with Dorian, though Celaena grew the most as the main character. I didn't like the jealousy trope being played with both Chaol and Dorian. It just seemed a bit childish and annoying.

I also enjoyed the plot and there were many twists and turns, even if I did ultimately guess the big twist at the end. There were a lot of other reveals I didn't see coming. The plot also included a lot of fight scenes, so I was never left too wanting for action. That being said, the first half of the book did move a lot more slowly. I wish the romance in the book didn't come and go so quickly, too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Vomit, and Stalking

hollymileham's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.25

big slay from me such a good plot and i loved celaenas character arc 
this series is really giving bbc merlin and that was my whole personality at age 9 so some things never change

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Torture and Grief

Minor: Sexual assault and Vomit

cayliehausman's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

the start of this series has been a bit slow, developing the norms to break them in this book. While the start was slow, and contained some sweet moments, the escalation from the 35ish chapter is intense and fast-paced. It was so worth every minute of world building to get to this ending, I’m fucking pumped to read Assassin’s Blade and learn her true back story now that we know more about our main character. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty

ejreadz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Genocide, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Trafficking, Grief, Stalking, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

stephhaigreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

Look the only reason I’m rating this 4.5 instead of 5 is because it should have been longer.  It felt like so much was happening and it got almost confusing, especially because it had been a while since I read the first one.
MASSIVE SPOILER BELOW

also Nehemia’s death took me hardcore by surprise, I was NOT expecting a George RR Martin main character kill off so early in the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content

merrow's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.0

A good sequel that expands upon the characters and situations. It does have the common struggle with direction I feel many second books have where it has to turn an initial closed premise into a big expansive story line but it handles it well. The monsters are effectively creepy and the king successfully and compellingly evil, but the ending twist does feel slightly contradictory.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

chapters_and_pages'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

4.5

And this book is exactly why I gave Throne of Glass just 3⭐️! 

This series is just brilliant and it continues to improve with each book. Even though this was my third time reading this book, I just could not put it down! 

Celaena is just absolutely precious and deserves the whole world, and the fact that she can kill someone in more than a thousand different ways honestly just adds to her charm in my opinion. 

This book has made me even more excited to continue rereading the series and I can’t wait to get to Heir of Fire and read about Rowan and Manon once again! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content

amandafitz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

emsavors's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism