Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Assassin's Apprentice

Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

75 reviews

moonlitreading_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark informative relaxing sad 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

4.5

“So, was there anything to me, other than being a spy or assassin?”

The one thing I regret about reading Assassin’s Apprentice is that I didn’t start it earlier!!!! This book is slow paced, but Robin Hobb writes so well that I didn’t mind it. This book gives off an autobiographical feel and it’s more character-driven than plot-driven.

Speaking of characters, there were a lot that I liked. Even though everything is told from Fitz’s POV, the other characters still managed to stand out. Apart from Fitz, my favorite character is The Fool. I don’t know, I just feel like I want to be friends with him.

It was interesting to see Fitz’s character developing from when he was six until his mid(?) teens. But it’s crazy to think that everything that happened in this book was before Fitz became an adult. FitzChivalry Farseer you poor traumatized child.

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jo_lzr's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I really liked the prose of the book. I sympathized a lot with Fitz. There is, also, a strong focus on Fitz's mental health. Even though descriptions were a bit exhaustive at times, Robin Hobb's talent in story crafting made up for it.

I think that the fog that Galen put in the mind of Fitz so that he would forget about his ability to Skill, which caused him to hate himself so much that he wanted to commit suicide is an interesting metaphor for real life. I don't know if that was something the author did on purpose, but it is interesting to think that in real life the perspective of oneself can become fogged through abuse and gaslighting.

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roxy_reads_romance's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

4.25

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josiah17's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad slow-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

4.0

I'm very pleased by how good this book was. I was fairly apprehensive about jumping into the Realm of The Elderlings due to Robin Hobb's notoriously slow pacing and character driven stories. But I think I'll be okay because not only did I survive this book, I really enjoyed it.

Hobb's prose is maybe the best I've read. It stands out as incredibly lyrical and fluid. I felt I could already visualize the entire world after just one chapter of vivid imagery.

Going back to being apprehensive, I say that because I believe myself to be a character-first reader. But I've also come to know that pacing does seem to affect my reading enjoyment, as well as the presence of a good overarching plot. Thankfully the plot is interesting enough in this first book, and the pacing is slow but stable in a good way. These things are all thanks to how phenomenal the character work and narration is from Fitz. You instantly want to root for this cast-out, and he offers a great perspective to view the world from. Many of the dynamics between him and other characters are also very well written.

I don't really have anything negative to say about this book. I suppose the end could've felt a little less rushed, but I thoroughly enjoyed my time reading this. I will say I'm still a bit nervous to continue reading this series because this book is short and they only become longer as the series progresses, meaning the pacing may be more of an issue for me. But I already plan to at the very least read through the Liveship Traders trilogy. We'll see how things go.

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