Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

39 reviews

noxygens's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Physical abuse, Grief, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Slavery, and Torture

Minor: Animal death and Child death

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death of parent, Murder, Animal death, Confinement, Grief, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, War, Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence

david_slack110507's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

I feel highly conflicted about this book, it has its good and bad aspects. I really liked the journey we get with Alina throughout the book, her character development is excellent, and I hope she'll only get better in the next two books in this trilogy. I also found the main plot to be interesting and the mythology/lore of the world was extremely interesting. 

However, my negative thoughts outweigh the positive ones I have such as the formatting or more specifically the chapters. The chapters in this are mostly 15-20 pages long each which makes it difficult if I want to go and read for a few minutes as I prefer to complete the whole chapter to avoid any confusion as to where I am the next time, I pick up the book. The first half of the book is excruciatingly slow and difficult to read on through because it focuses heavily on setting up the enormous world of the Grishaverse and that was why this took me nearly 2 months to complete, alongside it not being as interesting compared to the other books I was reading at the same time (which may have been an issue on my part tbh)

Another issue I had was that despite the extremely in-depth and fascinating lore and mythology of the Grishaverse, it can be very daunting, confusing, and sometimes hard to understand/remember what was what which made me struggle to continue the book at parts. I also didn't feel too strongly about many of the characters in the book with probably Baghra, The Darkling (Disregarding the kind of boring romance between him and Alina), Alina herself and possibly the real MVP: Genya being the standouts but nearly everyone else just didn't capture my interest and/or enthusiasm. 

Overall, a mixed start to the Shadow and Bone trilogy. A start that I can only hope improves as it continues as I do feel invested enough to want to continue reading the trilogy.

⭐️⭐️⭐️ ~ Good but not great

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Death, Animal death, Gaslighting, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Death, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Sexual content

Minor: Cursing and Death of parent

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.

makenna_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny inspiring mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Toxic relationship, Gore, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Torture, Slavery, Murder, and Grief

Minor: Sexual content

stllyltc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

The novel never failed to provide that thrill and keep readers on their toes about what was going on, despite showing a roundabout and rough process of character development, which mostly consisted of the book. The heroine's training, physically, mentally, and emotionally, was far too difficult, and every step she took made you root for her, as it also traversed with various feelings—one of which I mostly find bothersome—confusion, but very much needed for the plot. I've only gotten halfway through the series adaptation, and I decided it would be better if I started with the book and came back to it later, which resulted in a satisfying decision. And, in terms of world building, having seen its physicality in film with the series has helped weave the image along the lines of the writing that flowed easily, which I loved.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence

katievallin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Medical content, Racism, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Torture, Alcohol, Body shaming, Gun violence, Slavery, War, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child death and Death of parent

kat_andherbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

it's 6 in the morning, I haven't slept and I'm bawling my eyes out over Mal's letters. given that it was written in 2012, I'll cut it some slack, but Alina is wayyy too predictable for my liking. I hate the typical love triangle with the best friend and the bad guy, she's giving off big pick me energy. I love Mal, he's really sweet and he definitely deserves better. Alina's narrative is too tiring for me, her inner monologue seems repetitive and it's tiresome. 
I'm not as eager to get into the next book as I'd thought I would be :/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Torture, and Grief

Moderate: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Abandonment, Animal death, Classism, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Murder, and Slavery

Minor: War, Violence, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

anielabooks's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Honestly, I really liked this book. I finished it in about 5 days, and I’m very excited to start the next one. Definitely a book that got a lot of gasps from me towards the end. The world it is set in seems so interesting that I already see myself falling in love with it. Although I was a little late to reading this series, I don’t doubt that it will live up to the hype.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Classism, Animal death, War, and Death

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Toxic relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Slavery

Minor: Abandonment, Confinement, Rape, Grief, Excrement, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Death of parent