Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

44 reviews

jess_always_reading's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.5

I absolutely loved the Six of Crows/Crooked Kingdom duology, it was beautifully crafted. I was very excited to dive back into the Grishaverse again but King of Scars just wasn't it for me. It felt like a hard left from the previous series, the pacing was tough, and the Nikolai & Zoya chapters (2/3 of the book) just weren't engaging enough to make me want to see where things would go. I'm also generally not a fan of

dead villains/resolved challenges coming back, it feels uninspired and repetitive

. 

That being said, I really loved most aspects of Nina's storyline. It felt true to character, the pacing was good, and I loved the story. 

#ReadThisForNinaZenik

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Drug abuse, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, and Torture

Minor: Sexual violence and Rape

soph22's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, Violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Genocide, Racism, Kidnapping, Ableism, Physical abuse, Blood, Pregnancy, Death, Child death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, and Gun violence

themiscyra_anna's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Pregnancy, Murder, Misogyny, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Torture, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Child abuse, and Animal death

alyssadavis's review

adventurous emotional 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

3.5

“Zoya of the lost city. Zoya of the garden. Zoya bleeding in the snow. You are strong enough to survive the fall.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism and Misogyny

Moderate: Addiction, Murder, War, Abandonment, Violence, Child abuse, Death, and Grief

Minor: Sexual assault, Drug abuse, and Rape

aamina's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Child death, Pregnancy, Grief, Drug use, Child abuse, and Murder

Minor: Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Suicide attempt, Genocide, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Medical content, and Child death

chronicacademia's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Pregnancy, Drug use, Violence, War, Sexism, and Drug abuse

zoey_blk's review

adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

A solid read. I enjoyed Nina's pov the most and I was much more invested in her story than in Nikolais and Zoyas. I still enjoyed spending time with these familiar characters that are so dear to me. I'm hoping for Crow more references in the next book, those keep me alive. Maybe Leoni meeting Jesper, Inej meeting Zoya and the gang, Kaz and Nikolai reuniting, that would be fun. And I want Jarl Brum realizing who Nina is + a hero speech by Nina. She deserves a lil revenge. It's so random that ma boy Aleksander is back, but I'm not complaining. I know he's like evil and stuff, but I can't help being happy we get to see him again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, and Pregnancy

cecinamo's review

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

4.5

OH MY GOODNESS!!! The story continues!!! This book is a little hard to get into in the beginning, but it is amazing to finally see Zoya and Nikolais perspectives! Also how Nina’s life continues after Matthias ;-; It definitely picks up towards the end! It was a little confusing that Ninas and Nikolai+ Zoyas Plots were handled simultaneously in the book, because they had almost nothing to do with each other. Overall a good book! :> 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Addiction, Gore, Grief, Pedophilia, Blood, Death of parent, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

Minor: War, Rape, Slavery, Torture, and Vomit

prettynerdy3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Trafficking, Violence, War, and Child death

Moderate: Medical trauma, Death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Violence, Addiction, Child abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Slavery, and War

jessicaludden's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious 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

3.5

“He was not the crying child or even the drowning man. He was the forever soldier, eternally at war, unable to ever lay down his arms and heal.”

I loved being back in the Grishaverse and seeing what these characters are up to now. I loved the politics in this and there were definitely some plot twists I didn’t see coming. I really liked learning more about Nikolai and Zoya especially because we really didn’t get a lot from them in the books before. Of course I loved seeing Nina again, even if it meant hurting my heart every time she mentioned Matthias. 

But I did feel like there was some pacing issues which caused a disconnect with the characters and the plot. I just couldn’t get into it and never really cared a huge amount about the characters. It was very slow in some parts and very repetitive which often left me feeling like I was reading parts that were unnecessary to the character and plot development. But overall, I’m excited to read the next one!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexism, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Misogyny, Murder, Miscarriage, Drug abuse, Grief, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Pregnancy