Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Malice by John Gwynne

14 reviews

jaedia's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, and Violence

Moderate: Murder, Toxic friendship, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexism, and War

Minor: Terminal illness, Child abuse, Confinement, Medical trauma, Alcoholism, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Self harm, and Torture

bookwisp's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

This is a difficult review to write. On the one hand, this was a so-so read, despite Corban's coming-of-age story (I'm a sucker for those types of arcs). On the other, I've been left with the distinct sense that this first book in the quartet is very much intended to introduce the reader to the chessboard and for both sides to make their opening moves. I don't think it's supposed to have knocked my socks off, if that makes sense.

There are a lot of names and places to keep track of. I was extremely glad of the Kindle search and X-ray functions which helped me to keep track of characters and alliances. Even so, it was a bit of a struggle. Also, I do have some gripes about the overall lack of female characters (and some about the handling of the female characters we did get), but as I believe Cywen might play a bigger role in the second book, I'll (mostly) hold my peace on this one.

If I'm honest, I was mostly reading for Corban's POV. And yet?? I did get through all ~640 pages, so Gwynne's done something right. Overall, I can't say I was blown away, but there's something about the pacing and the plotting that has left me wanting to read on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Bullying

dogearedbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying

kylieqrada's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

Beautifully Bookish Bethany described this on her channel as a good vs. evil story where both champions think they're fighting for good and it made me pick it up IMMEDIATELY. I am so so glad that I did. The multiple POVs are perfectly calibrated so that I'm always enjoying whatever perspective I'm in, while simultaneously dying to get back to where we left each plot thread. My personal fave character so far is definitely Corban, who reminds me of a way less annoying and problematic Kip from the Lightbringer series. I also love how John Gwynne is able to craft his travel and battle scenes so that I can actually picture it and not get totally lost and just skim read, which happens in epic fantasy more than I'd like to admit. Add in strong, dynamic female characters, epic world-building, and a body diverse cast, and I am LIVING. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Violence