Reviews with content warning for Violence - Gods & Monsters

TLDR Review for Gods & Monsters

5/5 stars

Made me cry, so instant 5.

Highlights:
📚 Book 3 in a Trilogy
🪟 multiple character perspectives
🇫🇷 French Setting
💔 Grief
🌱 Hope
🙅 Denile
🌀 Secrets, lies, and truth
🧑‍🤝‍🧑 Family
🔥 Oh no. (Big spoiler thing)
🔗 Forced Proximity (again)
🩸 Graphic violence
🕊️ Peace

Content Warnings

theintrovertsbooks's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional 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

3.75

Content Warnings

bzliz's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

3.5

I’m kind of bummed about this one because so many people say it is better than book 2 but I don’t think that’s true unfortunately.

Lou starts this book possessed by Nicholina and it takes the crew a while to realize it and devise a plan to exorcise her from Lou’s body. They’re still on the hunt to eliminate Morgane too so they’ve got a lot on their plate. Célie joins up with the crew with some much-needed money and civility that eases their journey more than once. Just when Lou is freed from her possession, Reid protects her from her mother by making Morgane forget her at the cost of his own memories of her and they have to find a way to stop Morgane while Lou and Reid find their way back together.

Ultimately, way too much of the book ends up with Lou possessed or Reid with memory loss and I don’t think it helped the story. There’s enough going on without those back to back hurdles. We also could have cut the mermaid plot line completely. I really like Célie’s addition to the crew and her desire to be more than what she was born into. Jean Luc is generally less likable but his inclusion showed that it isn’t impossible to change for the better. The final battle was pure chaos and so many characters that I barely remembered kept popping up which made it hard to focus on what was actually happening.

I did have a teary moment during the epilogue because

they saved a seat at the wedding for sweet baby Ansel and he got to see his friends be happy and healing and then he got to go be with his parents in the afterlife and it hurt my heart in the best way.

Content warnings:
Blood, death, injury, violence (on page):

Lots of violence, injuries, etc because of the nature of the plot. Blood witches are involved so there is plenty of blood flowing.

Fire/fire injury (on page):

Coco’s grief causes an unceasing hellfire that can’t be put out until she works through her grief. Lou and Reid are sentenced to burn to death and almost do but are rescued by their crew just in time.

Confinement (on page):

Lou and Reid are kept in a cage following their failed attempt to infiltrate the city.

Death of parent (on page):

Coco’s mother must die for her aunt to die; Morgane gets her comeuppance after a big speech about how she couldn’t really love Lou.

Sexual content (on page):

Mostly fade to black scenes between Lou & Reid. Very mild.

Grief (on page):

Everyone is still reeling from Ansel’s death but mostly Coco because her grief causes an unending hellfire that destroys parts of Cesarine.

Alcohol (on page):

Scene of Lou, Reid, Jean Luc & Beau getting drunk together and playing truth or dare. They have hangovers after.

Cannibalism (off page):

Discussion of La Voison and Nicholina eating human hearts.

Torture (off page):

King Auguste definitely green-lights torture via rat even if it isn’t explicitly said.

Content Warnings

beckyyreadss's review

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Someone tell me why I keep doing this to myself, where I think the last book is always going to be better and just because the first and second book was boring means this is going to be better, it wasn’t.

This book starts exactly where the last book left one, after an important and heartbreaking loss, Lou, Reid, Beau and Coco are bent on vengeance more than ever before and none more so than Lou. But this is no longer the Lou they thought they knew. She is no longer the Lou that captured a chasseur’s heart. A darkness has settled over her, and this time it will take more than love to drive it out. Will Lou and Reid have their happily ever after?

This book could have been a standalone considering it destroyed the other books which were considerable awful as it was. The author just took the romance and went let’s just possess them because that will make things more interesting. It just felt like nothing was happening for 75% of this book, the possession and the forgotten memories didn’t need to happen. This book could have been cut down by about 400 pages maybe more, she didn’t use those pages to recap anything, she didn’t use those pages to move the storyline along, there was just boring subplots. I struggled with this book as well because I couldn’t give two shits about Reid and Lou, this is one of those books where I was hoping it would be like Allegiant where the MC died.

I really don’t have anything positive to say about this book expect the chapters with Ansel is the reason he couldn’t have died.

This book reminds me why I read multiple books at a time, because if I didn’t this book would have put me in a reading slump.

Content Warnings

what_karla_reads's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

karelidz's review against another edition

Go to review page

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? No

3.0

Hmmm... idk if it was the story or the time of the semester that i read it in, but it just felt dragged out; like I wasnt even a third of the way in and i was already kinda over the story.
It doesnt have the same feeling as the first one did, like the novelty or momentum of it was just gone.
I think it could've easily been a duology and still have the same storyline, but for some reason its a trilogy instead.
It just kinda wasn't it for me.
I still kind of enjoyed my time reading it, but i even found myself trying to remember who certain characters were so... yeah, thats not a very good sign. The way this series progressed made me thankful that i didnt buy a physical copy of the second one because maybe i'll end up selling the first one.

Content Warnings

lexie_edmunds's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark 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

4.0

Content Warnings

kat1105's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional funny 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

4.0

Content Warnings

More...