Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Mad Ship by Robin Hobb

10 reviews

errie's review against another edition

tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Torture, Violence, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Addiction, Alcohol, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, War, Rape, Toxic friendship, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Misogyny, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Trafficking

poisonenvy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

Robin Hobb has very quickly become one of my favourite authors. Her prose is beautiful and engaging, her characters complex and nuanced, and her plotting is so layered and complicated that it's difficult to predict what will happen next, and yet every little piece falls into place perfectly. 

Some of her characters I love, some of them infuriate me and make me want to slap them. One of my least favourite from last book developed in such a wonderful way in this book that she might be one of my favourites now.  

The world building is brilliant: I want to learn everything I can about this Realm of the long passed Elderlings, and I cannot wait to read the rest of the books in this series. 

I listened to a large chunk of this book on audio, and Anne Flosnik is an excellent narrator, who brings a lot of character and flavour to her narration. I could listen to her read a shopping list. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Violence

Moderate: Drug abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

Minor: Sexism and Slavery

nadia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5

A great second instalment! I'm so eager to see how this all wraps up!

Some of the pacing felt off and I got a little confused with some facets of it, but soo invested!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Violence, Body horror, Blood, and Medical content

Moderate: Sexual assault

bluejay21's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Blood, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Confinement, and Misogyny

genny's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense slow-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

Guhhh.This was just excellent. The full truth about the dragons was slowly unveiled throughout the story; I already understood some of the links from the last book but everything came to light here (The Ringsgold chapter was masterful!). A+ character development, as expected...

• Malta. Never have I felt the urge to slap a child as strongly as when I read her POV - but that somehow changed and now all I want is to protect her. I actually feel bad for wishing she would learn a lesson. What?! 😆 I suspect I'll grow infinitely more fond of her in the next book.
• Out of all the "people" to be mad at, I found myself annoyed at Vivacia. And then eventually at Wintrow as well, because I hate that they're
  siding with Kennit. I understand why, but I still hate it.
  Props to Hobb for making me accept a character's motivations even though I disagree with them.
• I love all of the Vestrits, but I especially love Keffria and Ronica's brand of quiet yet unwavering resolve. This, after being so irritated by Keffria's naivety in Ship of Magic. Haha.

There's more but I don't want to turn this into an essay on every character. Suffice to say that I love reading about them all (though I can't get over the ickiness of Reyn and Malta's age gap). I'm already sad that there's just one book left - these characters have imprinted themselves onto my heart. And they're not the only good thing about the book! There's worldbuilding, atmosphere, plot threads sewn together flawlessly. 🥰 It's a long read, but not one page was wasted IMO!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury

szuum's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Drug use and Blood

podanotherjessi's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

4.25

I literally wrote an essay about this book to send to the friends I read it with, so let me parse that down to a spoiler-free review...

The pacing drags in the middle of this book, but the ending makes up for it some.
The characters are fantasic. They're all comples, and they go through such amazing growth. I've seen some of the best character arcs in this series, and there's still one more book to go.
There are wonderful themes in this book that are fun to explore and think about. Slavery is handeled from many angles in a complex way. Identity is a constant struggle, and there's a lot of elements about control in different ways.
I really loved this book, and if it hadn't been so slow, it would be rated higher. Can't wait to finish the trilogy!

Characters: 10
Plot: 7
Setting: 9
General appeal: 8
Writing style: 9
Originality: 9
Ending: 8

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death, Grief, Medical content, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Slavery

aseaoftomes's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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

May 2021 reread 

For those of you who don't know me, the Realm of the Elderlings (RotE) is a series that means everything to me. It's impossible to review something I love and adore as much as I do. Anything I say about this book won't encapsulate the overall feeling and story, so I'm not going to do my normal routine (fully).

This is the second book in the Liveship Traders trilogy and the fifth book in the overall RotE series and we continue to follow several characters, mostly from the same family (the Vestrits) with a few exceptions. This takes place in another part of the world - primarily Bingtown and we also get an added Rain Wild portion. As with the first book, it's full of feminism, pirates, dysfunctional families, political intrigue of a different kind than we had with Fitz and complex relationships of all kinds.

Every element I normally do in my breakdowns (writing, plot, characters and world building) is just phenomenal. Hobb's characters and world building in particular are some of the best I've read. It's not a simple act of reading these books, you live them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Drug use, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence

noaregine's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

Hobb's books, for all the flaws and virtues, never fail to take me to the place where books used to take me when I was twelve.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery

achingallover's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Hobb is incredible, and I love this trilogy for all of it's characters but the women really make it. So much here that you gain on a reread and so much slots into place and is set up for the final book. (more detail to follow when I have time)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence