Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Cruel Prince by Holly Black

72 reviews

diana_raquel's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Violence, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Torture, Toxic relationship, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Suicide, and Trafficking

cloudysky123's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-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

5.0

The book is a must read for fantasy lovers my fav fantasy read so far this year this is epic shit really!!! Pls I'm begging everyone to read this atleast once guys

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Pregnancy, Suicide, Torture, Blood, Cursing, War, Gore, Miscarriage, Murder, Alcoholism, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Slavery, Stalking, Suicide attempt, and Violence

_ao_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

4.0

I wanted to give up early on, but told myself I'd give it until the end of the first third. It picked up right around 1/3 of the way through, and wound up being better than I had expected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Xenophobia, Toxic relationship, Racism, Slavery, Blood, Classism, and Gore

Minor: Grief, Infidelity, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Torture, and War

jque97's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Bullying, Classism, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Torture

Moderate: Alcohol, Kidnapping, Confinement, and Physical abuse

Minor: Sexual content, Death of parent, and Child abuse

pizzamyheart's review against another edition

mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Despite the shocking opening This took forever to get into.  There were so many characters it was hard to keep them straight.  There were plot points involved that seemed to go nowhere.  As if they took a 600 pg epic and cut it in half,  leading much to be desired.  

I hear the series gets better so I'll try book 2. Then update if it was worth the time.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture

cherryfreckle's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Alcohol, Death, Violence, Bullying, Torture, Slavery, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Alcoholism, Grief, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

crybabybea's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.75

LOVED the prose the author used, and how it played into the world-building. The faerie world felt super immersive and I liked the attention to detail to cultural practices that really sold the difference between the faerie and mortal worlds. It felt whimsical and magical, almost gave me Spirited Away vibes at times. That being said, the world had a good amount of darkness as well; I really appreciated the portrayal of the faerie world as dark and dangerous, and the faerie people as manipulative and cruel. It felt more true to actual faerie tales than other fae-fantasies I've read. The logic of the world-building stayed consistent throughout which I was impressed with.

I love a good morally gray character and EVERYONE is morally gray here, even side characters are given attention. This is especially well done since the story is only told from Jude's point of view, so we get to see for ourselves the choices other characters make and wonder what they are up to. I thought it was clever to use Jude and Taryn as foils of each other by making them twins who navigate the faerie world in different ways. Jude tries to outplay the fae folk in cruelty, while Taryn tries to outplay them in court affairs. But, I felt the climax of the main conflict between Jude and Taryn was a bit childish and felt out of character for both of them.

Interesting politics that felt fresh and helped keep the intrigue up. The pacing was a bit weird at times but nothing too terrible. There was random scene that broke the fourth wall that really gave me the ick, but that's about it. 

I did overall enjoy it and found it fun and a quick read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, and Murder

katyariannewriting's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Torture

annick's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

4.25

I enjoyed this. I’d happily recommend as young/adult fantasy. 

 books I rate over four stars mean I’d recommend to others and I’d be likely to reread in future (from being willing to likely and on to definitely and occasionally: imminently)

Once I got around 70pages in, I really got into it and ended up reading on until 3:30am. And excited to start book two the next day

It has flaws. I dislike the US-default of this writer’s fairy-based fantasy writing. Some twists were not a surprise (and most of these weren’t disappointing when revealed)

The psychological tensions between the twins feels undercooked. maybe it’s  a slow burn into the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Bullying, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Death, Torture, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Stalking, Physical abuse, Blood, and Violence

sxndaze's review

adventurous dark tense 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

4.25

a fantasy that has absolutely captured me. i’m curious to see how jude and cardan go from here

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Bullying, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent and Torture