Reviews tagging 'Death'

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

139 reviews

filipacmiranda's review against another edition

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4.0

After Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows, King of Scars presented an opportunity to return to the GrishaVerse, and revisit the kingdom of Ravka, as well as some of my favorite characters from the original trilogy. 

Regarding characters, the book fulfilled its promise, bringing back pre-existing dynamics (such as Tolya and Tamar or the Triumvirate), and it also expanded on the reader's knowledge by introducing new relationships/alliances. I was really happy that Nina Zenik was also present in this book – once again, bridging the various series. To be able to continue seeing her evolve and accept the new version of her Corporalki power was one of the highlights of this installment. 

On the other hand, I was curious to see how Bardugo would design the consequences Nikolai would have to face after his experience as a nichevo’ya. I did not expect the plot would follow the path chosen by the author at all, which I applaud. Unfortunately, I still felt this part of the plot fell a bit short of my expectations. I can’t quite point out why.
It was either the pace of the book (much slower than in all other ones in the universe) or the fact that, in the end, I felt the Darkling’s return was unnecessary. 


Despite how I felt about this first book, I will soon try to read Rule of Wolves

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kate_arts's review

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adventurous 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

I love how Leigh Bardugo can create such multifaceted characters that feel real. The way they think and feel and act feels very real to me and is nice to see in the fantasy setting. I don’t necessarily love all of the plot points she puts these characters through. Especially how they are increasingly more impossible of situations that everyone comes out of mostly unscathed. That being said she is good about having the consequences of her character’s actions stick around and change the trajectory of the story.
I loved the first half of the book, but the second half, particularly when Zoya and Nikolai were in the saints fold I did not like. I had a hard time suspending my disbelief for this whole section of the book. I mostly enjoyed Nina’s POV, but I don’t feel ready for whatever her and Hanne have going on. I do appreciate that she is given time to mourn Matthais’s death, but like literally the moment after she buries his body she stumbles upon a new love interest. I also don’t completely know how I feel about the darkling coming back. Like yes he was around forever and had great power so it shouldn’t be so easy to kill him, but also I want these new POVs to have their own struggles and bad guys. I guess we’ll see how this all plays out in the next book.
All that being said I really did like the book and it’s probably one of my favorite out of the grishaverse despite some of my misgivings of the plot. 

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jess_garner's review

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adventurous funny 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

3.75

not a masterpiece, but very good! 

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laurenandradee's review

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

4.0

This book was on par with Shadow and Bone but definitely not as good as six of crows (but maybe I just love a heist with a solid found family plot). But if you liked shadow and bone (which I definitely did) you will like this as well ! I do highly recommend that you read both series - shadow and bone followed by six of crows - first since there are multiple returned characters and some context is assumed knowledge. Also there are huge spoilers for both series in this book so you will be ruining the previous series if you read this before those. 

This book has a slow start (similar to shadow and bone and six of crows) since this is multiple POV book and not only that but there are also multiple plots
(three to be exact)
happening simultaneously (it's never confusing or hard to remember what is happening) but at about the halfway point once the stories really kick off this book is SO engaging and its fast paced, like chapter to chapter I am on the edge of my seat and Leigh Bardugo does the classic end of chapter cliffhanger followed by a POV change - there was a lot of "Oh nonono don't end here....wait never mind, thank god we are back to this POV" happening for me towards the end.
The slow build ends up being really nice since you really get an understanding of the plot and each of the characters are well fleshed out for me.

Overall I just love Leigh Bardugo's imagery, the horrible horrible things that happens within this book
like the women in what is essentially a human factory farm being forced to breed children under the influence of highly addictive drugs that they are originally force fed with the sole purpose of keeping the women addicted and therefore pliable, and to keep them breeding more addicted children even though the women clearly don't want to but need to, to continue to have access to this impossible to get drug otherwise they die from withdrawal. So essentially these women are slaves kept in a single windowless room, they are starved, live in squallor and forced to endure rape and forced pregnancy because they are so addicted for the sole purpose of breeding more grisha. and one women was unable to conceive but was still raped and forced give birth multiple times only to hold her multiple still born children after each pregnancy and then having to do it again and again or die - yeah that is BIG nightmare fuel. Also the imagery of Elizaveta flying at Zoya with locusts spilling from her mouth is not exactly the same brand of nightmare fuel but still pretty gross
are handled in a way that is still appropriate and are not overly gruesome or horrific for the shock factor which I liked. It was just enough that you got the horror of the situation but it wasn't drawn out and horrible to read. 

Overall, I really enjoyed being back in the grishaverse and who doesn't love a whole books worth of Nikolai-wit. 

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emilywemily6's review

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

4.5

I adored this book. While I like the idea of the multiple POV’s, I didn’t like Isaak’s perspective because I knew something bad would happen (call it foreshadowing). I also didn’t feel like Nina’s perspective was as needed in the entire plot. I still enjoyed all of the perspectives and seeming where the story went- lots of twists and turns so I didn’t know where the story was going, which was fun. And man, that cliffhanger!!

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justagirlwithbooks's review

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3.75

"Most of us can hide our greatest hurts and longings. It’s how we survive each day. We pretend the pain isn’t there, that we are made of scars instead of wounds."

I really ended up enjoying this book! It was nice to see where all the characters ended up after Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows. The only thing is that this book felt a bit slow in parts and Nina's plot was disconnected from Zoya and Nikolai's plot. All the six of crows references made me so happy though. AND THAT ENDING. OH MY GOSH. That ending was so surprising.
Isaak, my boy, you deserved so much better. AND THE DARKLING??? HE'S BACK??? OH BOY-

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soph22's review against another edition

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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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giorgiagale's review against another edition

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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? Yes

4.0


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seforana's review

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adventurous challenging dark 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

3.5


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caelfind's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5


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