Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

102 reviews

livvya's review

Go to review page

4.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

rachelefelli's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

cristina_reading24's review

Go to review page

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

3.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

mckiheather's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

bubbly_lara's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I absolutely loved this. All the stars, 10/10, highly recommend this series! I literally did not know what to do with myself for hours after finishing it. We meet Alina
and the group of survivors in the White Cathedral
right where "Siege and Storm" ended. We follow along as they grow together as a group and plan their escape from underground to find Nikolai and his troops in order to face the Darkling and save Ravka. They venture on the journey to find the third amplifier while they learn more about the Darklings past, Ilya Morozova and how it is all interconnected. At the end of the day, they must each choose whether they can live with the price to be paid to end this war.

"What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men."

For a moment there, I thought my little heart could not take how the story was unfolding. In what the Darkling decided on as a punishment for
Nikolai
we see once more how cruel he can truly be. The moments between
Alina and Nikolai in his monster form
made my heart ache for the both of them and the choices they must make. Also, how could I not talk about Alina and Mal.
For a moment there, I thought they would not get to live the life they both want and deserve. What with Mal being the Third Amplifier and both of them knowing he must die in order for Alina to absorb the power within Mal. No words, just heartbreak. I did love the epilogue and how they rebuilt Keramzin to be a better home for others than it was for them. Zoya handing Alina blue Grisha robes with the note "You will always be one of us" makes me tear up even writing this review.
.

Please do yourself a favour and go read this series. It deserves all the hype it's getting. I cannot wait to go dive back into the Grishaverse with "Six of Crows" next.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

brekker_by_brekker's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

orenji_juice's review

Go to review page

adventurous funny medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Spoilers have been hidden - reveal at your own discretion.

A nice wrap up to the series, despite its major flaws. Starting off positively, I loved the dry humour and witty moments between characters in this book, it actually made me smile. I also loved every character apart from the main ones (Mal, Alina and the Darkling). However, there were two major problems in this book: the romance and Alina.  Specifically, the love square. Yes, you heard me. A square. If you don't like love triangles, this book is not for you. While I understand that Alina is struggling with her feelings for Mal, Nikolai and the Darkling, the love triangle has progressed to a square since book 1 and has slowly gotten worse. Until Alina realises that Mal is special
(an amplifier)
she doesn't want to love him. Then when she finds out this information, they IMMEDIATELY start acting like lovers again. Hunny, this isn't love. You're USING him. She also toys with Nikolai's feelings. But the Darkling and Alina is by far the worst romance in this book. Yes, they both feel different. Yes, they both are lonely. But that doesn't give the Darkling a reason to rape Alina, and for Alina to crave his attention??? Excuse me???? This problem sort of started from book 2, but I am mentioning it in this review because it has not ceased.
Moving on from the love square, Alina as a character is just not good. The other characters go through character growth, but Alina does not; she actually goes backwards. I don't mind characters who go backwards, as long as they realise their mistakes and grow from it. Yet no, not for Alina. She is recklessly ambitious, self-absorbed and petty. Focussing a bit on her relationship with her friend Mal, he has sacrificed so much to be with her, and has even regressed a bit in book 2 but recovered in this one (character progression, yay!). Alina on the other hand, acts like her life is the most troubled life of all time.
I think Nikolai as an evil fairy is having a worse time, and even more so especially after sending away his parents, that aren't really his parents, and having to deal with this information.
Even in book 2, Alina also gets into petty fights with Mal and lacks the ability to recognise her own faults. Most of the fights are to do with him thinking he is too 'normal' for her and Alina thinking she is 'special'. Alina even allows him to think like this <spoiler and sends him away when he confesses his love to her in book 3. Like I said previously, she prioritises power over love as evident in book 2 and 3, but fails to learn any life lesson.
Hell, she even kills Mal and only morns him when she realises that she has lost her powers.

I know it sounds like I am being negative, but these flaws hindered my perception on this novel and even the previous one; I think it had the potential to be a 4-5 star book. However, I love the world and will consider reading Six of Crows :)

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

toastyghosty13's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

I felt that this book actually started off pretty strong and was much better than the previous book of this series for the first half of it. As the book drew to a close, it felt too slow and too rushed in parts. 

One thing that bothered me was that
Mal was the third amplifier. This just seemed strange to me, especially when the idea of Morozova and his normal daughter surviving being drowned in chains is a huge reach, on top of the fact that Mal is some supposed descendant of the daughter. I found this to be a weird plot point, but I guess it can work. 

Something that really bothered me that stems from this is that when Alina killed Mal to try to use him as the last amplifier as a last resort, she lost all of her power and it was reflected in all of the other normal citizens instead. I found this very cheesy and a weird way to take it. I doubt I am the only one that wanted to see Alina go super saiyan on the darkling in some massive showdown, so this was a huge letdown to me.


I did not realize how many people would die off, nor did I realize that they had even died until spoken about in past tense.
Harshaw is one of these, plus Ruby and some others that were from the final battle and the battle at spinning wheel. I think all of these characters got done dirty, plus Genya got done dirty for no reason, in my opinion. Same goes for Botkin and anyone that was defending the orphanage; I feel that that was totally unnecessary for them to die and did not really add anything to the plot.
 

The end bothered me unbelievably.
Leigh pulled a Game of Thrones, where we are all expecting some epic showdown just for the big ending move to be getting stabbed in the heart by some forgotten dagger. This was boring and a disappointing cop out, since she is the main character and I expected a lot more for the final scene.


The afterward I actually quite liked. It was quaint, and pretty wholesome. I enjoy that
they still have contact with everyone that stayed on to be advisors to Nikolai in the palace and that Alina and Mal are not just cut off from the world completely. They opened an orphanage that they really care about and are able to reminisce whenever old friends from the palace come by to visit. Overall a great afterward.


I have heard that the other duologies are a lot better than this. I am pretty disappointed with the turn this series took after how much I enjoyed the first book. I have the boxset so I will at least be reading The Six of Crows Duology since I already own it. I would not purchase King of Scars unless Six of Crows makes a huge turnaround of what Shadow and Bone left me feeling.


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

ilaria4's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional funny fast-paced
  • Loveable characters? Yes

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

hayleythegoose's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings