Reviews with content warning for Death - The Bright and the Pale

Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Bright and the Pale by Jessica Rubinkowski

13 reviews

booksandbabble's review

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-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? Yes

3.0

Content Warnings

lktx's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

The Bright & the Pale is Jessica Rubinkowski’s debut novel, a YA fantasy inspired by Russian folklore. The reader follows Valeria, a teenager in the Thieves’ Guild, on a mission that leads her returning to her home a decade after she escaped a magical freeze.

The world is dark and tragic, as it Valaria’s life so far. Her people are slaughtered by the tsar, rounded up into prisons, and she lost her Guild partner, Alik, the year before. Along the journey, she unravels the truth about how and why she was chosen for this trip back to Knnot Mountain. A large chunk of the book takes place inside the caves of a mountain and as someone with claustrophobia, I felt the fear the characters had at times.

I thought all the characters were complex, with the exception of one at the very end, an almost comically stereotypical antagonist, “waxen skin” and all.

I listened to the audiobook and while I thought the narrator, Carlotta Brentan, did a good job overall, there were times the tone was almost whiny. Other than that, I enjoyed the voice she used for Val’s character, though some of the others could use some work. The audiobook is about 9 hours, a nice length, and it kept me hanging on to find out what happened next until the VERY end. The last sentence is banger. I immediately put the sequel, Wrath & Mercy, into my queue.

Pros:

Interesting world full of ice and snow, dark and very obviously inspired by Russia. I also loved the addition of Adaman, inspired by Mongolia.
Love that the YA trope of the hero’s birth was flipped on its head and it felt like watching the birth of a villain.
The love interest is a nice departure from genre tropes–no love triangles or anything except two teens into each other but having a really hard time admitting it to the other, for their own reasons that make sense.

Cons:

I thought the middle/Act 2 dragged a lot and it made me wonder if the book was originally too long and got cut into a duology.
Aforementioned stereotypical antagonist.

Content Warnings

karapillar's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional tense slow-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

4.5

Content Warnings

jackierabbit's review

Go to review page

adventurous tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Yes! Always a sucker for treacherous adventures in dangerous caves. The love interest is disabled—a refreshing sight to see. I love Valeria and a spoiler character so much.

The ending was great and I want the sequel. If you like the Mines of Moria scene in Lord of the Rings, or Zetian from Iron Widow, you’ll like this.

Content Warnings

libbygriffin's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This had so much potential. A journey to claim a valuable item from a deadly mountain. I love journey books, and I saw the potential in this. What dampened my feelings towards this book was the main character. Her choices were consistently stupid and badly thought out. She assumes and only sees things on the surface level, and doesn’t think deeper into it before coming to a conclusion- which results in many misunderstandings.

Spoilers!!!!

I was definitely not expecting a “Descent” style monster to be in this book! So eerie!

Content Warnings

winterteufel's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Content Warnings

pvbobrien's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious medium-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

2.5

Content Warnings

clairew97's review

Go to review page

DNF’d this book 94 pages in. Absolutely hated it. The main character is so annoying, hates another girl on the trip for no reason, insta love, literally no explanation for anything that happens, questions nothing and the world building was nonexistent pretty much. Literally made zero sense and I couldn’t get any further. I’m upset about it because I was really looking forward to this one but not for me

Content Warnings

criticalbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.25

Content Warnings

imds's review

Go to review page

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

3.0

Content Warnings

More...