Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

The Lives of Saints by Leigh Bardugo

4 reviews

nils_0's review

adventurous hopeful mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, War, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Medical content, Murder, Torture, Abandonment, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Violence, Cannibalism, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

peggy_racham's review against another edition

4.0

A collection of short stories.  I liked learning the history of the universe. Getting insight into the saints, the places and characters of grishaverse. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: War, Murder, Alcohol, Blood, Physical abuse, Violence, Bullying, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Cannibalism, and Child death

siglerbooknook's review

informative lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Child death, Bullying, Blood, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, Death, and Slavery

pauliina_thebookaholicdreamer's review

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.0

I love collections of fairytales connected to a fictional fantasy world.
The Lives of Saints is exactly that but it also includes beautiful illustrations throughout.
This is a book that would be nice and spooky to listen to as read by someone else in a small wooden cabin in the middle of the woods. It achieves the spooky-fairytale vibe pretty well!

However, many of the fairytales are <i> very </i> short and they end all of a sudden. I felt that most stories needed more work to make them intriguing to their full potential. We are given very little time to get know to any of the saints and then it's difficult to be strongly affected when awful things happen.

Let's talk about the awful things. This book has a bunch of <b> trigger warnings: </b> violence, gore, bullying, starvation, mutilation, death, drowning, self-harm inc cutting. And probably other things too!
The Lives of Saints is supposed to be a children's book in the Grisha universe and I don't really see that here. Most of the stories very almost comically violent with all the awful things happening to everyone. I felt like the violence was forced in to make sure that the reader understands how rough it is to grow up in the Grisha universe with all these death-filled children's tales etc etc. It was a bit too much and the violence didn't add much to the fairytales, I started to expect that everyone will die by the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Self harm, Gore, and Bullying