Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Best Served Cold by Joe Abercrombie

18 reviews

mckenziemreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Violence, Death, War, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual content

Moderate: Ableism and Sexual violence

Minor: Incest

lenteja_virtual's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Absolutely GOLDEN from the begining to the end ✨ my fav. novel of abercrombie till now. All characters are fantastic and the story and its plot twist are just 🤌🏻✨

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Alcoholism

da3m0nic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Vomit, Grief, Alcohol, Cursing, War, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Violence

Moderate: Vomit, Medical trauma, Torture, Alcoholism, Genocide, and Kidnapping

Minor: Misogyny, Confinement, and Incest

ripxw's review

challenging dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and War

Moderate: Sexual content

josiah17's review against another edition

dark funny tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Very entertaining revenge story. Every single character brought something to the table, and Abercrombie's dialogue is just incredibly engaging. The dynamics between Monza and her crew provided a decent amount of nuance and tons of laughs. Shivers and Cosca in particular are standouts. Shivers mostly unintentionally hilarious, and Cosca is always ridiculous in nature.

This book also was by far the darkest of the books in the First Law world. It was abundantly grim. Largely because of the setting and Monza's status after the first chapter, but it felt like Abercrombie took things to the next level of hopelessness as we get to explore a different portion of the Circle of the World. 

Loved the structure of the book too, although the last 130 pages felt slightly prolonged to me. Looking forward to the adaptation and the other standalones. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Violence, and Sexual content

eh1736's review

challenging dark emotional funny medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Vomit, Violence, Drug abuse, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Sexual content

amir_hamza's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Cursing, Violence, and Gore

surdiablo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny tense 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

4.0

My feelings are a bit complicated when it comes to this one, but I believe it's safe to say I didn't love it like the original trilogy, although it's an excellent standalone novel. I will explain what I liked first. As usual, Abercrombie excels at writing characterizations with such distinct voices and having delightful, humorous banter between each other, which often were among the highlights of this book for me. Without getting into direct spoilers, there were indeed several references and appearances of certain characters, both major and minor, from previous trilogy. They all served their purpose very well and was integrated rather tastefully with proper reasons, than just for the sake of cameos. The book also retains a cinematic effect during action sequences and other important scenes, just like in the trilogy and was also reminiscent of 'Kill Bill' movies which I really liked. Some of the character growth might be different from what you may expect at first, but they left me with a lot to ponder about in a bittersweet way, which I actually appreciate. 

As for what I didn't like, I found the book to be dragging somewhat in certain sections which felt like a chore to read sometimes, but of course not in an extreme way, like with certain Wheel of time books. My major problem, which I'm sure your mileage will definitely vary, was that the main character wasn't much interesting to me. Now don't get me wrong, Monza is fine on her own and was definitely a strong badass who you can root for, it's just that I personally found her a bit too straightforward and bland with the goals she had in mind and her actions in general, while the side characters were simply more appealing as people to read about. I loved all of their arcs regardless either way, especially the irony surrounding some of them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, War, Violence, and Torture

Minor: Child abuse

iono'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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and War

Moderate: Alcoholism, Torture, Drug abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Incest and Sexual content

kylieqrada's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

4.5

Simultaneously THE ABSOLUTE SHIT and a little problematic. I have a weak spot for ol' Joe and I am so happy to be back in The First Law. Monza is the Grand Duchess of my heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Sexual content, Incest, and Alcoholism

Minor: Homophobia and Misogyny