Reviews tagging 'Blood'

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

78 reviews

tinysierra's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

“There had been a time when words were the only place he could find solace… each spine had been an open doorway whispering, "Come in, come in. Here is a land you've never seen before. Here is a place to hide when you're frightened, to play when you're bored, to rest when the world seems unkind.“ pg 154

I would not recommend reading King of Scars if you haven’t read Six of Crows or Shadow & Bone. It’s debatable on if you need to read Shadow & Bone before Six of Crows, but in my opinion they are both a must read before King of Scars. King of Scars will not be impactful if you have not read them. The Crows (besides Nina) are not in this book, but they are mentioned.

Nikolai, Zoya, and Nina are all beautiful characters. I love that we got to see King of Scars through their eyes. Leigh Bardugo’s writing is beautiful. The new characters add to the story.

The pacing felt slow and sluggish in the first half, although it did pick up in the second half. I wish I could have skipped straight to the second section.

Again, I love Leigh Bardugo’s writing, but the plot in King of Scars didn’t hold my attention like Six of Crows or even Shadow and Bone did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Torture, Death, and Grief

Minor: Fatphobia

nenya's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

4.25

I read this book after having read the Six of Crows duology, being excited to continue the Grishaverse. I would not say that I was disappointed but it wasn't entirely what I had expected. The only crow it focusses on is Nina Zenik (who is an icon, I love her with all my heart, don't get me wrong) which is amazing, because she is so developed, driven by her grief and ready to seek revenge -

it is beyond fulfilling to see her get it not only for her but also for the dead women and children by having them speak their truth and avenge themselves through her power

, but I did wish for some insight of how the other crows have been going on. Apart from that, the plot was great and the writing very true to Bardugo but I do feel like it can not entirely match the atmosphere and brilliance of Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom. Nevertheless, the ending took some turns I did not expect and left me pretty shocked. I'm most definitely excited to read the sequel!  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Murder, Sexism, Slavery, Medical content, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Racism, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Violence, War, Addiction, Misogyny, Drug use, Gaslighting, and Torture

Moderate: Confinement, Miscarriage, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Infertility, Suicide, Alcohol, Terminal illness, Abandonment, and Vomit

erins_bookshelf_'s review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

I knew a book series centering Nikolai would be great but I did not know Nina was here too and that made it so much better 
I really liked the storylines in this-  they were all interesting, and I didn’t really have any specific POV that I hated reading so that’s good 
Overall very good, a few slow spots at the beginning, but other than that it was great :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death

Moderate: Child death

Minor: Drug abuse, Alcohol, Addiction, and Miscarriage

helenastinks's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Body horror, Blood, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Pedophilia

Minor: Rape, Misogyny, and Miscarriage

avawest's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Grief, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death, and Gore

Minor: Miscarriage

krijemseoddusana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• 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: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Death, and Murder

ali_debookness's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping

Minor: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Suicide, Self harm, Slavery, and War

syd991's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Ugh. Leigh Bardugo, why do you write such amazing books?!

After reading (and loving) the other Grishaverse series, the first book of this duology did not disappoint.

Like all of Bardugo’s books (at least in my opinion), I found the beginning a bit slow, but as soon as you move past the first 100-150 pages, the story picks up in such a dramatic fashion. To Bardugo’s credit, this is an entirely new story, separate in its own right from the previous books. Establishing the current state of Ravka and where each character is at mentally does take time.

But god, I loved Nikolai’s sarcasm and humour which filled the book (A particular favourite of mine is a stint about a spider in a suit). The characters developed in this book are exactly what I needed, and what I believe the Grishaverse needed.

Readers, do be warned, you do need to read ALL of the Grishaverse books (Shadow and Bone series and Six of Crows series, at the very least), as the plot and various events will most likely not make sense, and you will also spoil major elements in both series. I also read the collection of Grishaverse short stories prior to this, and I will say it was a nice addition, but I don’t feel it necessary. I can also imagine the Lives of Saints book might give you additional information, but I have not yet read it, but the elements were explained in an easy to comprehend manner.

This book reminds me more of Six of Crows, fast-paced and intricate, with such an amazing story. I’ve had to immediately pick up the sequel, Rule of Wolves.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Murder, Pregnancy, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Infertility, Child death, Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, and Suicide attempt

gayghostprince's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Body horror, Murder, Grief, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, War, Torture, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Drug use

Minor: Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Infertility

there's a paragraph describing insects burrowing into skin. it's not pleasant, but not very graphic. the content warning for drug use is for a fantasy drug

emilyz05's review against another edition

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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Honestly, the only thing that I truly liked about this book were the characters that I have already fallen in love with from previous grishaverse books. The plot was messy and undid a lot of the fabulous world building Leigh Bardugo had established. The first half was too slow, but the second half was a little too far fetched and seemed like a cheap way to just continue the story. Nevertheless, it was still entertaining enough and there were many plot twists that I could not have imagined. Also, it does tie a few loose ends from the previous books and I imagine it will continue to tie loose ends in the next one. Six of Crows was better :)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood