Reviews tagging 'Death'

Seasparrow by Kristin Cashore

19 reviews

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? No

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: (provided by the author) sexual assault/child sexual abuse mention, (provided by me) animal abuse mention, PTSD 

Seasparrow by Kristin Cashore is the fifth and final book in the Graceling Realm series. I have loved spending time in this world with these characters. This one was a little slower than some of the previous books, but it still gives you so much. 

We follow Hava's point of view after the events of the previous book. She and a group with Queen Bitterblue are sailing back to Monsea from Winterkeep, but are caught in a winter storm and pushed off course to the far north. Things get dire when they are in a shipwreck and forced to survive on the Arctic ocean and on the ice, with only their feet and wits to carry them to civilization. 

Hava finds out that one of the crew has smuggled a pregnant blue fox aboard and drugged her. Have saves her and becomes the caregiver of a bunch of sentient blue foxes. I love that we got to see more blue foxes in this book. I desperately want one as a companion. A good chunk of this book is about survival. The last third of the book is mostly Hava trying to figure out who she is and where she belongs, and dealing with her anger, pain, and trauma. 

Cashore does an excellent job of depicting the complexities of trauma and grief throughout this series, while also showing the potential for healing. I'm so glad we got to learn more about Hava and her Grace of making a person see her as what she projects herself to be (a sculpture, a curtain, a bundle of rope, trees). I read Hava as being ace-spec and maybe neurodivergent. It's bittersweet seeing this story end. I could go on reading about this world, following different characters forever. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Death

beebeewin's review

adventurous dark emotional reflective slow-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

4.0

What can I say, other than I was surprised by this book! I feel like at first, I was not truly getting into the story. It was quite slow at the beginning and that wasn't helped by the fact that Hava is a hard to character to like. But in the end, Hava's characterization is probably one of the best parts of this book. Hava as a character is neither good nor bad. She is someone who's been scarred by trauma and can't express her emotions or feelings because of that. This book is about her coming to terms with the trauma and working to be better. By the end you can see her growyh and how she is working on, but not yet perfected, her ability to process her emotions. As someone who's experienced a lot of childhood trauma this book felt so fucking personal. Kristin Cashore once again did a great job of writing the processing of trauma. I think I talked about this in the first three books of this series, Cashore does not hide from the trauma and the truly deep scars it leaves on people. I think the fourth book lost this thread, but it is back here. Due to the setting of the story Cashore was able to do a great job of slowly having Hava unpack the trauma she experienced and learning how to live in the world that comes afterwards. It was interesting, the survival aspect of this novel really tied in with how Hava had to survive as a child and was so well written and I assume researched. 

I definitely found myself really getting into it once it got into the second act. The third act was a lot more reflective, but that made sense for the novel narratively.  But I think the lowness at the beginning is why I'm not giving it a higher rating. It did take a while to get into and I felt like at least 100-150 pages could have been trimmed. I think Cashore was trying to build Hava's perspective but i think the rest of the novel did that well ao much could have been removed. I do appreciate Hava's perspective, it's someone who was on the outskirts, which made me way more interested in her perspective.

I also really appreciated the romance. It wasn't over the top like some other books I've been reading recently. Instead it was really the slow build, as these two people are healing themselves and want to be together as they heal with one another. It felt so honest to the story and truly lovely. 

I would definitely recommend this last book in the series (so far)! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Grief, Vomit, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Rape, Child abuse, and Death

ceti's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Grief, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death and Death

how_sweet_the_sound's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

I absolutely loved this book. While the ending felt sudden, the rest of the book had me tearing up multiple times. What a stunning addition to the Graceling Realm series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Death of parent, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Confinement, Blood, and Body horror

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

emilycfox's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement and Sexual assault

Minor: Homophobia and War

Detailed animal abuse

gabbyeleene's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Rape, Death, and Homophobia

gingerbread814's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective 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: Gore, Animal death, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Physical abuse and Emotional abuse

Minor: Homophobia

imds's review against another edition

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Violence, Abandonment, Vomit, Child abuse, Grief, Sexual violence, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Child death, Trafficking, Bullying, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Drug use, Pregnancy, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

lizziaha's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

My main qualm with this book is that survival stories just aren’t really my thing. Luckily for me, there were other parts to this book. I particularly loved Hava’s relationships with Jacky, Linny, and Giddon. Something about the way that Hava is always expecting to be ignored or rejected and then someone (usually Giddon or Linny and sometimes Bitterblue) comes along and proves her wrong is so compelling. I love that even though there’s a broad cast of characters, each one feels distinct, and their personalities are complex, even if they don’t play a huge role in the book.  The blue foxes are such a wonderful addition to the story and the way the audiobook narrator voiced them just made them so adorable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Abandonment, Murder, Animal cruelty, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Moderate: Kidnapping, Blood, Gore, Trafficking, Drug use, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Grief, Homophobia, and Rape

Minor: Sexism, Misogyny, Torture, and Classism

dragongirl271's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Death of parent, Sexual assault, and Domestic abuse