Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

15 reviews

jess_always_reading's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I absolutely loved the Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology, it was beautifully crafted. I was very excited to dive back into the Grishaverse again but King of Scars just wasn't it for me. It felt like a hard left from the previous series, the pacing was tough, and the Nikolai & Zoya chapters (2/3 of the book) just weren't engaging enough to make me want to see where things would go. I'm also generally not a fan of

dead villains/resolved challenges coming back, it feels uninspired and repetitive

. 

That being said, I really loved most aspects of Nina's storyline. It felt true to character, the pacing was good, and I loved the story. 

#ReadThisForNinaZenik

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Drug abuse, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, and Torture

Minor: Sexual violence and Rape

themiscyra_anna's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Pregnancy, Murder, Misogyny, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Torture, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Child abuse, and Animal death

onefineelephant's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.5

9/10. I loved this book. I don't think I liked it more than the Six of Crows books, but that's because I'm a sucker for found family. I love Nikolai, Zoya, Nina, and Hanne. The only part that I didn't like was that it felt like I was reading two separate books - one about Nikolai and Zoya and another about Nina and Hanne. It didn't feel like the two connected or overlapped very much, so when I would read a chapter from one of their POVs, then I wanted to keep reading that story rather than switching to a completely different story (that I also liked and then the cycle would continue). I'm guessing the two stories will converge in the next book, but I think this book felt off because of the unrelated stories. Love the Grishaverse, though. This series continues to surprise me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Trafficking, Violence, Blood, Drug use, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Murder, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Sexism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Child death, Rape, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and War

infjkiki's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, Sexual violence, Confinement, Blood, Violence, Gore, Trafficking, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Addiction and Drug use

Minor: Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Sexual assault, and Rape

maddiebo97's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

UGH i loved it

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Trafficking

Minor: War, Violence, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Vomit, Sexism, Miscarriage, and Grief

irissel's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense medium-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

3.25

For a book that has so many ofy favorite characters from the Grishaverse (Nikolai, Zoya, Nina in particular), I really expected to like this book more. However, it was kind of middling for me. I really liked Zoya and Nikolai's dynamic and Nina's plotline was very interesting along with the new character who was brought in there, Hanna. However, I found Nikolai and Zoya's plotline frustrating and convoluted and I was completely uninvested in Isaak's storyline. I will probably still read the sequel, though.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Mental illness, and Addiction

Minor: Sexual violence

Forced pregnancy

jessy_caca's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Trafficking and Xenophobia

Moderate: Sexual violence

hannahwhiteyy's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-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

3.0

While I absolutely adore Nikolai, I struggled through the slow pace of the book and plot. I didn’t anticipate the

plot twist,

which made the book more interesting. But it was disappointing that it took around 300 pages for me to become invested.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual violence and Miscarriage

gmoneyyyyy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Death, and Murder

lxxnne's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Body shaming, War, Violence, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Death, Blood, and Addiction