Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

21 reviews

wickedgrumpy's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

It's been a while since I read book 2 in the series and I contemplated re-reading before picking this volume up because when I initially tried to read it I was overwhelmed.  Book 2 leaves on a cliffhanger and book 3 starts right after and so you see the immediate events and it was a little difficult to jump right it.

I thought that the series was quite solid.  Book 3 really tied it all together and bits that were resolved were introduced in book 1 so it was quite good closure to see actions that have consequences and a resolution all together.

Some of the reveals were also top notch, since there's (in hindsight) a lot of foreshadowing but to be able to put it all together wasn't something I managed.  I don't know if it was because of the gap between the books and it would have been obvious if I read them in closer succession but I was satisfied with how it came together.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Blood, Abandonment, Alcohol, Body horror, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Vomit, War, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Child death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, and Medical trauma

blissofalife's review

adventurous dark tense 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

5.0

Could hardly put it down! Unlike the previous two books in the series, the stakes remain per high for the entire book. It doesn’t really feel like there’s a climax so much as several climaxes as El grows and gains an understanding of the nature of the enclaves. Lots of time spent on explanations. Ties the whole series up very nicely, and doesn’t leave any loose ends. Naomi clearly did a very thorough mapping of the series before beginning!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Cursing

Moderate: War, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Minor: Child death, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Classism, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Gore

herasrevenge88's review

adventurous challenging emotional 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? Yes

3.0

I’m honestly kind of sad that I had to give this only three stars because I had such high hopes for this book. The first 50% of this book I was bored out of my mind but I just kept hoping that it was going to get better. It did get better. It really picked up and was really really good and made me laugh out loud a couple of times….for the last 50% of it. I feel like the first 50%. might’ve been better summarized in a paragraph or two so that way we could just jump into the story. It might’ve made for a really short book but at least I would not have had to sit through 200 pages of awful.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Death, Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Gaslighting, War, Child death, Gore, Body horror, and Genocide

keen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Blood, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Confinement

oliverreeds's review

adventurous 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? Yes

5.0

absolutely crushed

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Violence, War, Confinement, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Torture, Child death, and Gore

queenie_ofthe_void's review

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

3.0

Not sure how I feel about the ending and the pacing. It seemed like this could have been two books, and a lot of side characters fell by the wayside (Chloe, Magnus, Liu, etc). For a final book with a lot of ground to cover, I felt too much time was spent building a relationship between Liesel and El. Not the relationship itself, but that time could've been used to a better purpose. REALLY not happy with how things ended for Orion. His entire arc was learning how to be a 'person' and not 'a hero who kills monsters' but then ended up choosing to spend his life away from loved ones and killing monsters full time. Disappointing tbh.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Classism, Violence, Gore, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Injury/Injury detail

mayabaxx's review

adventurous emotional tense 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Murder, Child death, Death, and Death of parent

ashlikes's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Grief, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Infidelity, Pregnancy, Bullying, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Murder, and Sexual content

Minor: Addiction, Colonisation, Confinement, Dementia, Xenophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

chamaeleontis's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

I loved this book. It was a great way to end the series. But I was a little disappointed by the ending (rushed and has a trope I don’t like), or it would have been 5 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Torture, Violence, War, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Body horror, Child abuse, Medical content, Blood, Drug use, Gore, Classism, Confinement, Grief, and Sexual content

Moderate: Acephobia/Arophobia

purplepenning's review

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Grief, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Death, Violence, Gaslighting, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Mental illness

Minor: Sexual content