Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

27 reviews

blacksphinx's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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turtles555's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

The individual stories of the very unique journeys the leads embark on brings brilliantly to life the disturbing presence of patriarchal societies. Top notch.

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mad_is_rad's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

I’ve never read anything quite like this, and it stretched my brain in a way I very much liked! I just wish I could have felt more connection with the characters.

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taryn_g's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense slow-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

4.0

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lucyford's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was the first historical fantasy book I’ve read, and I loved the setting so much! The magic was so well thought and it was interesting to see how it was perceived by people at the time. The plot was also very exciting.

The only thing is that I really didn’t like the ending. Like I know they were “together” in the end or whatever, but not in the way I would’ve liked.

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morganish's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

The Familiar is hard to fit into a genre, because it's too magical to be purely historical fiction. And it's dark, but it's not exactly horror? I'm gonna go ahead and designate a new genre of my own making that this fits into, along with several other books I've read this year like Lone Women and Vampires of El Norte: the Dark Fantasy Historical.

What Worked For Me

The Historical Setting: Similar to the other books I mentioned, the best thing about this book is that it takes a hyperspecific look at a historical time and place, one which I know very little or nothing about, and centers it. In this case, the book is set in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition; with a focus on the Jewish-Spanish experience. That was by far the most engaging part of the book for me. With as much vague cultural knowledge as there is floating around about the Spanish Inquisition, reading this was illuminating, and made me realize how very little I actually know about Spanish history or this particular period.

The Characterization: I expected this story to be a little bit more straightforward in its depictions of good guys versus villains, but this one kept me guessing. Not every character gets what a reader might think they deserve, but its done in an interesting way that always kept me surprised. It felt a bit more truly adult for that. And in a way that's hard to describe, feels a little bit more like escapism for me personally, when I'm kept guessing and things aren't all predictable.

The Prose: The writing wasn't distractingly flowery, but there were moments of writing that felt beautiful and timeless. The writing style felt a little bit like it was leaning toward and influenced by fairy tales at times, and the last few paragraphs solidified that in a way that was really emotionally impactful for me.

What Wasn't My Thing

The Distance From Characters: The downside to that narrative style is that sometimes I felt like there was an emotional separation between me and the characters. Which probably worked when it came to writing about some of the grislier things that happen in the story But made it harder to connect to them and get truly invested.

The Romance: I think that, because the story was a little removed emotionally, and because it's more historical, the romance didn't really work for me here. Especially because it followed a certain kind of trope which kind of seems like it's been done a lot (maybe that's just my age speaking). It almost felt like the writing decided it could skip big parts of the characters getting to know or fall for each other. The downside of that, for me as a slow-burn fan, is that it all felt really fast and I wasn't invested enough when I think the story expected me to be.

Who This Is For

I think this is going to appeal to historical fiction readers who don't mind a hint of dark fantasy. And for fantasy readers who like the more fairy tale-esque/YA style of stories and are okay with it having much darker, more adult elements. Existing fans of Leigh Bardugo's gritty underdog/outsider characters, dark worldbuilding & magic systems, and gothic-inspired romances would like this, even though the writing style, subject matter, and pacing felt very different from her usual.

My Personal Rating System

Still shying away from wanting to rate books like a product; it's not my place to say if a story deserves to exist, and I firmly believe 99% of all art has a place and an audience who needs it. Following my personal rating system just to show how much I personally connected with a given book:

5 stars: I got so invested that it's definitely on my agenda to read other books by this author
4 stars: I would be excited to read another book by this author, but it's not a priority
3 stars: don't plan to read more by this author, but if assigned for a book club, I'd be cool with it
2 stars: don't plan to read more by this author, & if assigned for a book club, I'd be like, ugh, ok, fine
1 star: I will never pick up a book by this author again if I can help it (usually due to overt bigotry)

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bergha1998's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

3.75

This is such an interesting story, especially coming from Leigh Bardugo. I loved the setting, and all the world building. This felt really 2010s with the main romance, I won’t say anything more to ruin it. I also liked the sprinkling of LGBTQIA+ in the mix.

Historic Fantasy, Romance Subplots, 1 🔥

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