Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Priest of Lies by Peter McLean

5 reviews

josiah17's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-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

4.0

"Vengeance is mine, sayeth Our Lady, and I am Her priest."

Great sequel to Priest of Bones in almost every way, even though it's more of the same. The plot maintains a sense of the same repetition from the first book with Tomas Piety managing his gang. Almost slice of life kinda stuff, but simply very bleak and violent. However there's a good chunk that explores a different city and delivers some fantastic political intrigue. Lots of different variables introduced in this book throughout and the plot clearly begins to head in a grander direction.

I also felt the side characters were better written here. Particularly the primary side characters in Bloody Anne, Ailsa, Luka, and Billy. Especially Ailsa who Tomas spends majority of his time with. She's really a fascinating and incredibly intelligent individual. Billy is also simply fascinating with his gift of the cunning. And I must express how much I love Tomas Piety's narrative voice. I said it in my review of Priesr of Bones: he has such a distinct tone and execution of his perspective on the world. It feels so well-realized by McLean. He's a fantastic, and harrowing, main character. 

I think really the writing as a whole was slightly improved. McLean has a way with describing the ambience of an environment and conniving motivations, partially due to how well he's set up the grim reality of this world. Although the prose remains a little repetitive in some cases with certain phrases and whatnot. 

Ultimately a very enjoyable read. The scheming in this series is simply entertaining to read. Could bump this to a 4.5 in time. Really looking forward to seeing how the last two books play out. 
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brooke_city's review against another edition

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  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content warnings: much less on the child abuse this time (thank The Lady), but still lots of bloody violence.

Tomas isn't as clever as he thinks he is. As the leader of a gang, you'd think he'd be more guarded in who he trusts.

Elsa told him exactly who she was up front. Yet, he still naively believed it would be more. Then got mad that she played him. Now he's become the very thing he hated, fighting his own people.

It was obvious from book 1 that Luka knew more than Tomas. Luka moved thru the streets with too much finesse. Even in a foreign city.

And of course Lena, the new cunning girl, corrupted Billy the Boy. Now his magic is off. And she's a spy.


It was all obvious! How did you miss it, Tomas! His aunt may be blunt, but she's had the right of it all along.

In the words of Bloody Anne, "What the fuck does this have to do with avoiding a war?"

SN:
Cutter and Jochan BROKE me. I hope we get more of them next book.
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giul_emme's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-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? Yes

3.75

Meno bello del primo, l'ho trovato molto ripetitivo, soprattutto fino alla prima metà ma anche un po' dopo, nel senso di ripetere sempre le stesse cose, gli stessi concetti, gli stessi avvenimenti, come se il lettore potesse essersi dimenticato di cose era avvenuto tre capitoli prima, o non lo avesse capito. Questa cosa mi ha dato molto fastidio, per il resto mi è piaciuto, i personaggi (in primis Bloody Anne, ma anche Billy il Giovane, perfino Cutter) mi sono piaciuti ancora, e la trama è scorrevole e si fa leggere, nonostante gli intrighi aumentino di molto. Forse perché me lo aspettavo già, avendo letto il primo, o forse per la maggiore presenza della magia, ha avvertito un pochino meno la somiglianza con Peaky Blinders, che nel primo era davvero fortissima. Comunque sono curiosa di leggere i successivi. Voto 3.75
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eliendriel's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • 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

4.25

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srm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

5.0

GAH! So good! The ending is fantastic--such an ostensible victory that's really a total personal defeat. And istg, if anything happens to Billy the Boy, I will riot. Cannot wait to get my hands on Book 3.

March 2021: Everything from my original review stands. This book is fantastic!
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