Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

3 reviews

jstar1's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Blood, War, Bullying, Torture, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, Animal death, Violence, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Murder, Self harm, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Death of parent and Sexual content

onefineelephant's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

7/10. I think the magic system and even the political system are interesting. However, I usually hate love triangles and this is no exception. I typically love the friends-to-lovers trope but Mal kind of sucks at the beginning. Like, who would sleep with a ton of girls when you're actually in love with your best friend the whole time?? I like Mal more by the end. Also, them confessing their feelings wasn't satisfying at all and fell kind of flat. I think that the character of the Darkling is super fascinating and complex, which I love. I am not a fan of Alina which is really unfortunate because she's the main character - but this is because she is TOO MUCH of a main character. She just wants to fit in when she clearly is unique, she is a peasant in high society, she only has one friend and doesn't get along with other girls (aka she's not like other girls), and she won't kill when it is absolutely necessary. The dialogue is kind of so bad that it's good. Like it's very bad but most of the time it made me laugh because of how bad it is instead of making me say "this is stupid." The ending was awful, in my opinion. I know there are more books in the series but the events of the last 50 pages made me say "what the f is this?" about 8 times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Genocide, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, and War

Minor: Sexual harassment, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Self harm and suicidal ideation are mentioned but not acted on. Also, there is an attempted sexual assault but it does not progress further.

amberinbookland's review

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts