Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

16 reviews

readwithsophsx's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Grief, Drug abuse, Blood, Deportation, Kidnapping, Confinement, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Death, Murder, War, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Addiction

laurenandradee's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Physical abuse, Addiction, Death, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Grief, Slavery, and Pregnancy

Minor: Violence, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Sexism, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

peggy_racham's review against another edition

5.0

Unlike the other grishaverse books, which were of course well written, exciting, full of adventure, this book is cozy. Its not lacking in exciting, adventure filled plot, but is ,in the end, friendly. Everybody is a little older, more mature and just a little settled. Loved every second

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death, Murder, Toxic friendship, and War

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Physical abuse, and Animal death

spaghettii's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Suicide, War, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Child death, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Addiction, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Sexism, Death, Drug use, and Torture

ali_debookness's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective 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: Blood, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Abandonment, Abortion, Addiction, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping

Minor: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Suicide, Self harm, Slavery, and War

aklovekorn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Death, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Torture, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Violence

megangilbert's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Racism

kimqwin's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

5 Stars

I honest to god really liked it! It was so much fun getting to see old characters again. I've always loved Nikolai, and I enjoyed his banter so much here. I love his relationship with Zoya. A bunch of reviews say that their relationship feels forced, but for me the it was really believable. They felt like an authentic slow burn, and I like the way they grew on each other. I didn't like Zoya in the Grisha trilogy, but here I got to really understand her character more, and I now like her a lot better. 

I liked the quotes about growth, grief, trauma, and healing. The writing style here was explicit. The only thing I find lacking was the connection between Nina's and Nikolai + the gang's POV. It didnt quite make sense to me as to why Nina's POVs were put in the same book? They dont even relate to each other, I couldve skipped Nina's POVs and understood Nikolai's side fine. Some people say it's a set up for Rule of Wolves, so I guess I'll give it a shot.

Speaking of Nina, I love how fruity she is here 😆 Also, I lost someone dear to me recently and her journey through her grief really resonates with me. I can't wait to see what happens next. 

I'm rating this 5 stars despite the lack of continuity between Nikolai + Nina's arcs, just because I love this world and I miss being in it :>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Physical abuse