Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

38 reviews

merrow's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

5.0

Throughout this book, the action sequences are very well crafted to fit both the setting and the characters. Some of these characters really come into their own here, and the plot takes a direction that feels fitting but I didn’t fully expect.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Miscarriage, Violence, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Murder, and Blood

Minor: Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Torture, Slavery, Pregnancy, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual content

bi_n_large's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Confinement, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Emotional abuse, and Vomit

Minor: Rape, Racism, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and War

anguawolf's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Genocide, Sexual harassment, Gore, Blood, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Physical abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Cannibalism, Self harm, Classism, Cursing, and Hate crime

Minor: Stalking

mangofraiche's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Torture, Vomit, Confinement, Grief, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, and Xenophobia

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

3.75

Continues the strong character development and worldbuilding that Maas delivered in Heir of Fire, with some satisfying plot twists and emotional breakthroughs for various characters. 

This is also the first book that starts to get properly horny.

Many of the descriptions  are starting to become repetitive - there are only so many times that I can read that someone was "covered in black blood" or had "eyes lined with silver" (just say they're filled with tears jfc). Also the way that Maas describes territorial Fae males is already exhausting, and the lack of nuance between familial vs romantic territorialism makes a big middle chunk of the book seem uncomfortably incest-y.

Overall this is stronger than the first two entries in the series and makes me excited to continue reading, but imo, a small step down in quality from Heir of Fire. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Body horror, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, War, and Vomit

Minor: Incest

anndreya's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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? No

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Slavery, Miscarriage, Vomit, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, and Pregnancy

Minor: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Grief, and War

booksalacarte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective tense medium-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

First read- 3⭐️
No Written Review

Reread- 4.5⭐️ 1.5🌶️

Multi POV
Slow burn
Found Family
Mythical Creatures
Magic
War



Tw: discussion on infant loss

This series is a lot. There is always a lot going on, but the multi POV shifts solidly enough that you don’t feel jostled all over the place. Every character has an important viewpoint and unique voice. 

I do think that some of the characters had kinda big personality shifts from the last book to this one. Mainly Chaol and Aelin. No maybe they aren’t endgame… but all of a sudden finding out that Chaol was having an illicit affair the summer before the champions competition and acted in a way that he had quickies in alleys??? I don’t buy it.

And Aelin while I appreciate the grief that was focused on in Heir of Fire… in Queen of Shadows she was working well below her standard badassery. As if her entire personality became dependent on Rowan.

And what is up with the “he seemed to say” and “she seemed to say” conversations?! Full blown, detailed conversations all with facial expressions. I bet they looked like absolute idiots to the people around them when they happened………… so weird. Just make them telepathic already. 


Starting the story with Dorian’s POV was so important to see his depression and mindset since his situation was the last we read about in Heir of Fire. It definitely put in some tension and anxiety when it came to no one else knowing what was going on.

Knowing everything definitely makes the reread fun and heightens my ratings… but I am definitely not blowing through them on a binge the way I did on the first read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Confinement, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Death

annamary54's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.75

i will give a full review later, mostly gave it a 4.75 cause i didn’t care about the witches until the last quarter of the book

it’s later: 
honestly reading these back to back i can’t remember what was heir of fire and what was queen of shadows, but i’m gonna try my best. in the last one i struggled to care about the witches at all, and the first 3/4 i thought were very slow. this one definitely moved a lot faster from the beginning. i did start to care about the witches in this one, but like i said it took me until the last quarter to really care about that whole story line. all of the books before this one felt like exposition and this one actually had some action in it. i gave it such a high rating because i really was engaged and didn’t want to stop reading basically the whole time. (except the witch chapters, i’d usually use those as a stopping point)

I did NOT see adieon father reveal coming, but that spices stuff up for sure.

i also shouldn’t have read acotar before this cause now the romance is so pg to me, i’m like COME ON LETS GET TO IT, but whatever i’m still reading kicking my legs behind me and twirling my hair. it’s hard to write anything about this book cause so much happened, and so many story lines. loved the development in all the characters. and i’m excited to see more of the ones that haven’t fully bloomed.

VERY happy about the Lysandra redemption arc because i kinda loved her from the start…although i do have a problem loving villains. (arobynn…for a lil bit, and lorcan when he was still in bad guy mode)

overall, i rate based on how engaged i was with a book, and i was VERY engaged except the witch chapters for the first 3/4 of the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Gore, Body horror, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Violence, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Pregnancy and Miscarriage

Minor: Sexual content, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Alcohol, and Excrement

booknerd_life's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Murder, Vomit, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Ableism

im_eebee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective 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? Yes

4.75

This book was just amazing. Everything picked up in the last book, and this one just ran with it in the best way possible. I have to give it 4.75 because I technically didn’t like it as much as Heir of Fire, but this is definitely one of my top reads ever.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Blood, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Ableism, Sexual violence, Classism, Grief, Gaslighting, and Murder