Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

The Starless Crown by James Rollins

15 reviews

ericaco0's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Physical abuse, Torture, Death, and Body horror

Minor: Cursing and Injury/Injury detail

acmack's review

adventurous fast-paced

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

3.75

If animal deaths are a big trigger for you, then this is definitely not the book for you. A lot of people and critters die, and it kind of feels unnecessary at times. But the overall plot is interesting enough to me that I'll read the second book.  Also, this is one of those books where I just over-write the author and the 14yo female protagonist in what appears to be magic highschool is actually a 24yo in magic college. I don't think a lot of the themes here are for 14yos so I'm not going to envision a 14yo (also I'm now a 34 yo and I desperately want books with older protagonists!)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Death, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Child abuse

maregred's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Animal death, Gore, and Torture

Moderate: Violence, Slavery, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Classism, Stalking, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Infidelity

Minor: Sexual violence, Pregnancy, and Child death

dips's review

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Slavery, Grief, Bullying, and War

rainbowkisses's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Sexual violence

readwthsam's review

adventurous dark tense slow-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? No

3.25

overall, i did enjoy this book! it was fhe first ever novel i’ve read of Rollins and i was not too disappointed. 

albeit i did like the cast of characters, i feel as if there were a tad stereotypical (?) and the pov switching was a little distracting and hard to keep up with in the beginning, which then made it quite difficult to catch on to what the main conflict was. however the overall plot itself was interesting

undecided if i want to read the second book later this year 

ps: also i read this for a school project hence why i dragged out how long i read it lol

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, and Torture

Moderate: Death of parent, Slavery, Ableism, and Bullying

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Alcoholism

danreadsitall's review

adventurous 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? No

4.0

 Finished the first book in James Rollins' Moon Fall series "The Starless Crown." Basic premise, the planet is locked with the sun and moon in fixed positions so half the planet is burning and half is freezing. Along the strip that is habitable people live, but there are numerous Kingdoms, cults, and wheels in motion. I enjoyed the reveals and the little pieces that go together so I won't touch on the plot too much.

Nicola Barber narrated and she did a fantastic job. Terrific work.

Reasons to read:
-The timeline for future events in the book are on a more sensible scale, hope that means that the entire cast can age in the story
-Decent number of the cast are not the traditional MC archetypes
-Story does not sugar coat things and carries the brutality of combat on the characters
-Different take on magic in this setting
-Math showed the true threat, cursed math
-Lots of cool creatures

Cons:
-Worse spiders and wasps
-Bit rough on the animals 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Animal death

blessjessmess's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

Moderate: Violence and War

Minor: Death of parent

fenemiestolovers's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.75

 I really enjoyed this book! The world, which is similar yet significantly different from ours, was compelling from the beginning. Rollins asks, what would our world look like if it stopped spinning? It's full of lovable and terrifying creatures who are recognizable yet amplified to be dangerous and fantastical. It was easy to root for the unlikely companions on a journey to save the world from the threat that looms over their heads, and easy to hate the foes who use despicable means to meet despicable ends. That being said, there were characters who floated in between these categories and surprised me throughout. The ONLY reasons I couldn't give it five stars are because 1) the male gaze of the author felt so apparent when describing women's bodies and 2) the author is has a character falling for someone he knows may be his half-sister. For me, incest is NEVER necessary and always gross. I really loved everything else about this book but that did sour it for me quite a bit. I am excited to see where this series goes next, but if this incestual start goes anywhere else, I won't be able to continue. With a serious content warning for what I mentioned above, I would definitely recommend this book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Classism, Pregnancy, Ableism, Child death, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Incest, Injury/Injury detail, and Abortion

Minor: Sexual violence, Vomit, Fatphobia, Sexual content, and Rape

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