Reviews with content warning for Addiction - Rule of Wolves

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Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

57 reviews

epellicci's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

3.75

Rule of Wolves is a book that deals heavily with themes of war, grief, self-discovery, and acceptance. With drama and action in every chapter the book follows five individual perspectives through the quest for peace in Ravka. While it has more heavy than celebratory moments, the book still manages to champion themes of love and healing. Cinematic in it's scale, it is a book that is easy to get lost in, and as with previous Bardugo books, the ending both brings the story to a satisfying conclusion and leaves the door open for further adventures for a varied and diverse cast of characters.

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deedireads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

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

4.25

All my reviews live at https://deedispeaking.com/reads/.

TL;DR REVIEW:

It’s not easy to wrap up a whole universe, and it wasn’t perfect, but I loved Rule of Wolves as the Grishaverse series conclusion. It made me laugh and cry (!) and shake my fists and cheer.

For you if: You have read the other Grishaverse books!

FULL REVIEW:

“This is what love does. In the stories, love healed your wounds, fixed what was broken, allowed you to go on. But love wasn’t a spell, some kind of benediction to be whispered, a balm or a cure-all. It was a single, fragile thread, which grew stronger through connection, through shared hardship and trust.”

It’s not going to be easy to review this book without spoilers for other books in the universe, but I am going to try! (If you’ve read it, DM me on Instagram because I have a lot of thoughts I can’t say here, lol.)

Basically, Leigh Bardugo had a tall order on her hands here. How do you write a conclusion to a universe and all its conflicts — one with a massive, very dedicated fan base (with very strong opinions)? Well, I think she pulled it off well. This book had me IN MY EMOTIONS. I laughed, I cried (!!!), I shook my fists, I cheered. There are a few choices that I’m not quite sure how I feel about — and obviously parts that made me VERY SAD, LEIGH, but okay fine, I recognize the necessity — but overall, I’m a happy reader.

One of Leigh’s greatest strengths has always been her characters, and that talent really shines in Rule of Wolves. The growth for our main characters is incredible — from all the way back in Shadow and Bone, yes, but even just going back to the start of King of Scars. I love them all. PROTECT EVERYONE.

If you’re making your way through the Grishaverse books, keep going! You have a good one to look forward to.

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lennie_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

So after the ending of KoS, we have 2 extra POVs in this book. I won't tell you who because spoilers but I definitely appreciated one more than the other!

In this book Ravka and Fjerda are at war. Nina is deep undercover in Fjerda, Nikolai & the monster are still joined but they've come to more an amicable arrangement and Zoya is trying to master her new powers.

This book is heavy, and definitely slow at some points but it's worth sticking with.

I also think that by the time you get to RoW (after reading all the other GrishaVerse books), you know not to immediately believe everything you read. Especially when it comes to Kaz and Nikolai; Leigh uses a Lot of similar plot devices and, well at least for me, I could always assume there was an alternative / back up plan.

We do have romance in this book, as well as tragedy (if you know, you know 😭) and there are a lot of different threads weaving together at the same time.

There is also discussions about race & heritage, as well as confirmation of a trans character and an aro/ace character.

And we get to see the Crows and Mal & Alina in this book 😍

I also really enjoyed seeing more of Shu Han; the characters, the governing, the Khergud etc.

A lot of issues are resolved in this book but not all of them and Leigh has left a few storylines open for the new third Crows book.

It's hard to review this book without giving away spoilers but if you enjoy the GrishaVerse and were annoyed by the ending of KoS, you should hopefully enjoy this!

There is Trans rep, pan / bi rep, lesbian rep, POC rep, aro/ace rep, mixed race rep and more

CW: reanimated corpses, addiction, death, grief, murder, body horror, torture, medical trauma, confinement, chronic illness, dead children

Content Warnings

leahsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

After binge watching the first season of Shadow and Bone on Netflix, I finally felt ready to start this book. And I didn’t even realize how much I missed all my babies until I started reading, but it felt like coming home!

There wasn’t a single thing that I didn’t like about this book! I’m complete trash for Leigh Bardugo, and this book literally blew her other books out of the water. So I’m just going to completely let my inner fangirl run free here and gush about everything I love.

The writing. I love how LB writes, and allows me to visualize everything that was going on. There was such an emotional component to this story, and I was able to really get all up in my feelings alongside the characters.

“In Ravka, they would be readying for the Feast of Sankt Nikolai. And for war. That was the knowledge that sat heavy on her chest every night when she lay down to sleep, that crept up to twine around her throat and choke the breath from her every day. Her people were in danger and she didn’t know how to help them.”

The characters. I truly loved seeing my favorite characters in the Grishaverse. And when I say that, I mean all my favorite characters, because some made cameos that I was super happy to see! There were some new POVs that I didn’t see coming, but it gave some perspective into what was happening in other parts of the story. I mean, who doesn’t love Nikolai, but Nina and Zoya are some of my favorite characters in the whole series. Seeing them all go through so much and still not give up, even in what seems like hopeless situations, was absolutely amazing. I love tough female characters, and everyone undergoes some serious emotional growth throughout the story.

“Zoya’s laugh sounded brittle to her ears. ‘A king with a demon inside him. A monk with the Darkling inside him. A general with a dragon inside her. We’re all monsters now, Nikolai.’”

The romance. There’s a slow-burn connection that has been building up between Nikolai and Zoya, despite all of their efforts to shove everything down and ignore it. And let me tell you, I have been waiting for those feelings to just explode out of them! They make such a great couple with their opposing natures and the way they just understand and complement each other.

“‘Tell me it’s more than war and worry that makes you speak those words. Tell me what they would mean if you weren’t a king and I weren’t a soldier.’”

Speaking of romance, the connection between Nina and Hanne was so heart-meltingly sweet! Especially after seeing the hell that Nina has been through in the last 3 books, I just wanted to see her get to be happy, but I wasn’t sure that it was going to happen. It was a bumpy road for everyone, and Nina was torn between her desire for revenge and her feelings for Hanne.

“Whatever she might feel for Hanne, she intended to see Brum dead, and she doubted Hanne would be able to forgive her for that. The divide was too great.”

The action. There’s a lot of action throughout the story, and a LOT of plot twists. There was just one twist that I was able to predict, and I was ABSOLUTELY THRILLED when I was right. But overall, I was on the edge of my seat for nearly the entire time that I was reading. I didn’t want to do anything other than read this book, because there was so much going on. It was never boring, and there were multiple subplots that always kept things intriguing, even with so many POVs.

The ending. While the entire book was absolutely incredible, the ending took this book to a whole new level. I loved how things wrapped up neatly without feeling rushed, but the best part? It left the door WIDE OPEN for a third Six of Crows book, which I will be eagerly anticipating.

Content Warnings

yavin_iv's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

Content Warnings

beckyyyy's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.75

I enjoyed this book a lot like I do all of Leigh Bardugo's books. The plot was good, the characters were good (although there was one charcters chapter I didnt like but I just don't like that character but the plot line for the was still good.) The action was great and there was lots of unexpected things to keep me excited to read

Content Warnings

totallyshelfaware's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

4.25

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