Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Starless Crown by James Rollins

5 reviews

squids_can_read's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

The only hospitable part of Urth is the Crown, a slim section of land where all life on Urth lives. But now that life is being threatened by Moonfall. A cast of strange and unique characters have to work to find a way to save Urth but there are forces working against them everywhere. 

The world-building in this book is amazing. The world is expansive and well thought through. The history is interesting and so is the religion. I will say that I am a little confused about how the Crown works but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. 

However, I think this book was lacking in the character department in a strange way. I thought that there were too many characters that we got points of view from. If they were just mentioned I think it would have been better because it would have been easier to keep track of them all. With all of the different characters, I felt that it was really hard to understand any of the characters' motivations. It was hard for me to connect with any of them. 

Overall, this was an extremely interesting fantasy and I'm excited to read more in this world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Gore, Animal cruelty, Torture, Death of parent, Murder, Blood, Death, Pregnancy, and Bullying

Moderate: Incest

nebulasaurus's review

challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Sexual assault, Blood, Death, Stalking, Violence, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Alcoholism, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

schnaucl's review

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.25

For a while when I was reading this book I thought it was the best fantasy book I'd read in quite a while.   By the time I finished I wasn't quite as enthusiastic, although I still enjoyed it and definitely plan to read the next book in the series.  

I can see what what Rollins was going for with Kanthe's twin brother, and I wish it had been done with more subtlety instead of turning him into an actual sadist who doesn't understand or care his actions would be perceived by the people he will rule or the soldiers he will one day command.  All of the antagonists are rather one dimensional, in fact.  For the most part they're open (at least in their private thoughts) about just wanting power, they don't even try to convince themselves that they want what's best for the country or even their faction (which would coincidentally also mean they become more powerful.  They just want power to be powerful.  It may be an honest motivation, but it's not an interesting one.

The beginning of the book was especially compelling.   The set up with Nyx, her school and family was interesting and richly drawn.  I was definitely the most interested in her story, although Kanthe's story was also compelling.   I was less interested in Rhaif, but perhaps he'll grow on me.   The bats were fascinating, and the jungles were richly drawn.  

I will also say I'm not a huge fan of alternate fantasy spellings (let's add some extra y's to words!).  Fortunately it was mostly, though not entirely, confined to the "quotes" at the beginning of the sections which read like fantasy old English.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Slavery, and Child death

Minor: Alcoholism and War

katherineguild35's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

9/10: Beautiful writing, wonderful story, love the characters but it is so dark and disturbing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Grief, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Medical content, and Murder

Minor: Pregnancy and Sexual content

pvbobrien's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Medical content, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence, Ableism, Slavery, Murder, Gore, Grief, Bullying, Animal death, Child abuse, Alcohol, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Death of parent and Rape