Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

24 reviews

littlepepperguy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

2.5

I don't care if it makes me a little immoral but I am shipping Alina and the Darkling heavy. Oh no, a hot leader of an oppressed group resorts to violence to end a colonizing, inept monarchy? I don't see what's not hot about that. 

Aside from that, this book in the series  feel like nothing of value actually happens. A lot of events strung together that are ultimately null and void and the actual plot/events of merit occur in the last chapter or so. Unless you love hearing the whining of a reluctant cult leader and a farm boy who don't even like each other like that I would recommend just watching the show. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jaydeecepticon's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark 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


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

klsreads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

toastyghosty13's review

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

rant incoming

i found the majority of this book to be extremely boring. there were parts like when sturmhond was introduced that were interesting and exciting, but a lot of it was weird political and bureaucratic filler.

i also found the lack of real flirting and the overkill on sexual harassment to be annoying and unenjoyable. sturmhond came off as creepy, in fact most men in this book did besides tolya. at least sturmhond is still an interesting character with the fact that he is
the prince and an infamous privateer, but his character is written as if he is a real ladies man but then defaults to being a creeper. i barely registered the fact that alina was interested in him romantically until it said she blushed at him touching her leg when she kicked him?? a weak watery lackluster attempt at enemies to lovers fit into one page.


mal
had an existential crisis that could have been solved if he and alina had just slept together. i’m not sure what age range this book is meant to be for if there is no intimacy but one of the main characters can plunge deeply into alcoholism for a majority of the book. mal was so unbelievably jealous by 2 guys who were both repulsive in different ways, and alina should have trusted him enough to tell him the truth about her visions given the fact that they have known each other since they were children.


genya was
done dirty imo and she would have fought for what is right, especially given that she is literally best friends with alina and would have had a much better quality of life at her side when this is all inevitably over. genya chose to follow the darkling because she wasn’t seen as a real person even though he literally gave her away as a gift to the queen. alina would never, but of course for some reason genya chooses to be on the darklings side of this war and then gets used as an object again shocker.


overall a pretty big disappointment for a sequel. i’m still invested in whatever the backstory is about saints and amplifiers, plus i already own the box set so i might as well finish it out. i’ve heard six of crows is a lot better thankfully so i’m holding out hope for that one. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

salem0's review

Go to review page

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

3.25

i love worldbuilding stuff, and this book was mainly centered around explaining more of the background of the grishaverse which was pretty interesting. the plot was pretty slow tho, and it was a little boring in the middle of the book. i liked seeing some of the characters' flaws become more prominent in this. last fight scene felt a bit rushed, i would've liked it to have lasted long. nice book overall.

also my copy came with a short story about genya, called 'the tailor', which was pretty good and quite emotional. i'm probably biased because genya's one of my favorites from the trilogy so far. but i liked it a little more than the whole of s&s.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

enderchilde's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.25

The more I read of this trilogy, the more I want to dnf it. 
I really dislike Alina and the romantic and platonic relations she fastens.
The Darkling gives me the creeps in a very annoying way. 
The "magic" is AMAZING I love the sciency way it is explained, hands down, FANTASTIC. 
Almost everything else can f*ck off.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

1.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

david_slack110507's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

This book is much better than the first one in my opinion yet I feel unable to give it a 4-star rating. I feel like it's closer to a 3.5 or 3.75 rounded down but I may bump it up after I let my thoughts ruminate on it. 

I found that this book was much more gripping that the previous one which very much felt like the first book in a trilogy (Not a bad thing but it definitely had that feeling) whereas while the long chapters remain in this one (And I'm assuming in all of Leigh Bardugo's work) I found it much easier and enjoyable to get through as well as it taking me less time. I liked a lot of the new characters the obvious being Nikolai who I feel brought a lot of charm to the novel and his back and forth with Alina was probably one of my favourite parts of the novel. Speaking of Alina, this time around while she still doubts herself and has her insecurities she felt a lot more involved in the action and getting to see her utilise the Cut and her power was nice to see throughout the novel. 

I also really liked that we got to see more of the military-type operation and world of the Grishaverse/Ravka and Alina coming into control of the Second Army was really cool to see as it was a nice change of pace to have her decide to fight back against the Darkling (As briefly mentioned above). Tolya and Tamar were also a pretty good addition to the ensemble of characters even if they don't get a lot of backstory or much to do besides protecting Alina. 

I can definitely see how some may not like this book as like how I feel with the first book feeling like the first book in a trilogy the same could be said for this one which can definitely feel like the second book and middle-point in a trilogy with its main goal being to set up the 3rd book/conclusion and filling out the rest of time with character dramas and a larger focus on dialogue and development that action (E.g the main real conflicts only come at the beginning and the end and The Darkling remains out of the picture for nearly all of the book aside from the final confrontation and appearing physically to Alina throughout after her nichevo'ya bite)

Overall, I might have the unpopular opinion that I preferred this book to the first and found it to be much more engaging (Perhaps due to the first book having set up everything that the second book could easily and comfortably ease back into the world). I'm planning on trying to finish this series as soon as possible rather than taking a couple of months break in between like I did with this book and the first.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

noxygens's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

jomannisto's review

Go to review page

  • Started back at shadow and bone because I really enjoyed six of crows, which was my entry to the Grishaverse.
  • Became apparent I am too old for this book as I am pushing 30, and the relationships are really written for teenagers who crave the edginess of ”homely girl next door turns out to be special while Toxic Boy #1 is grossly jealous of Toxic But Ancient Old Man #2 And They Fight Over Her. Toxic Boy #1 does not acknowledge that Homely Protagonist was groomed and sexually harassed.”. Great candidate for a problematic twilight phase for a new gen of emo teens
  • Mal turned into the whiniest and broodiest little piece of crap that I have ever had the misfortune of experiencing.
  • The magic animal trio suddenly breaking the ”only one amplifier” seems tacked on.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings