Reviews tagging 'Torture'

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

37 reviews

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? No

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: Violence, torture, child marriage, descriptions of blood, death, addiction, forced pregnancy 

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo is book one in the King of Scars duology, a continuation of the Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows series. If you haven't read those yet, beware of spoilers for those series. I'm glad I picked this one up. I remember when this first came out people said is was slow or it wasn't good when compare with Six of Crows, but time has given me a gift. My opinions on Six of Crows is so clouded, that it impact how I feel about this book. I quite liked it. 

This time we focus on Nikolai Lantsov, the King of Ravka, after the events of Shadow and Bone. We see him grapple with the monster inside him left by the Darkling. He struggles to control the beast, and seeks a ritual to rid him of it. We get to learn about Zoya's history in this book and get her point of view. I love that Bardugo never softens Zoya, and leans into her thirst for power. Nina Zenik is under cover in Fjerda helping persecuted Grisha and testing out her new powers granted by her use of jurda parem. I love Nina so much. I could read just about her. She gets to do some amazing things! Give me more Nina. And waffles. 

I loved getting an inside look at Nikolai without all the bluster and charm he protects himself with, so we can see his insecurities and his doubts. It makes for some really great growth. As funny as Nikolai usually is, Davis stole the show with his dry, comedic timing, along with Genya. We get plenty of twists, some of which I saw coming and some of which I didn't.

Looking forward to Rule of Wolves.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Torture, Blood, Violence, and Addiction

Moderate: Death

jazzsilvestri's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Suicide attempt, and Addiction

prettynerdy3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Trafficking, Violence, War, and Child death

Moderate: Medical trauma, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Violence, Addiction, Child abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Slavery, and War

merisavale's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious fast-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

4.75

Great book. I didn’t love the Shadow and Bone trilogy but I feel like this is back up there with 6 of crows. An easy read with lots of emotions and twists! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and War

Minor: Rape and Torture

jessiereads98's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

Really torn between a 3.5 and 3.75 on this one. A good addition to the Grishaverse. Solid themes and a compelling story overall. The world remains expansive and sucks you in as we’ve come to expect from the Grishaverse, with interesting domestic and foreign politics. While they have similar themes and are obviously working towards the same big thing in the next book, I’m just not sure Nina’s story belonged with what was billed as Nikolai’s story. In this book the two were nearly completely separate and it was a bit jarring switching back and forth. The ending is obviously full of cliffhangers for the second book and some of this throughout felt so obviously like set up for the next book or future entries in the Grishaverse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Gore, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Genocide, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Animal death

Minor: Alcohol, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Slavery, Child abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Sexism, Classism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, and War

shalladin's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Gore

Moderate: Genocide, Emotional abuse, and Torture

lis4so's review

adventurous challenging emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Drug use, Gun violence, Death, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Gore, Addiction, and Grief

Moderate: Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Miscarriage, War, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Violence, Child abuse, Murder, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, and Slavery

Minor: Abandonment, Animal death, Bullying, Rape, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, War, Torture, Slavery, and Vomit

micarus's review against another edition

adventurous funny 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Death, Torture, and Addiction

Minor: Sexual assault and Pedophilia

spaghettii's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Suicide, War, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Child death, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Addiction, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Sexism, Death, Drug use, and Torture

siennakt30's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Trafficking, Sexism, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Torture, Violence, and War