Reviews with content warning for Violence - Život svatých

I really loved the illustrations, and I feel like this is a cool supplement to the Grishaverse series. But it did get me thinking a lot about the limits of Leigh Bardugo's political imagination and world-building in the Grishaverse, especially as it comes to replicating broad stereotypes of nations and nationalities, and in recreating versions of world history, political leadership, community tension, and death that set up the Grishaverse but never necessarily get unpacked/fully addressed within it.

Content Warnings

manarnia's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark informative fast-paced

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

3.5

This book serves as a decent tie-in, but isn't particularly interesting in its own right. It's a very quick read though.

Content Warnings

isabellew6's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark fast-paced

4.0

Content Warnings

emily_mh's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

5.0

I don't know how else to describe this other than luscious - it felt just like reading a book of fairy tales and for that reason was very nostalgic too. The illustrations were absolutely incredible. I also loved seeing more world-building, especially of Shu Han!
NB: Content warnings may not be fully comprehensive.

Content Warnings

valyn_grebe's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Content Warnings

pauliina_thebookaholicdreamer's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark mysterious sad fast-paced

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

3.0

I love collections of fairytales connected to a fictional fantasy world.
The Lives of Saints is exactly that but it also includes beautiful illustrations throughout.
This is a book that would be nice and spooky to listen to as read by someone else in a small wooden cabin in the middle of the woods. It achieves the spooky-fairytale vibe pretty well!

However, many of the fairytales are <i> very </i> short and they end all of a sudden. I felt that most stories needed more work to make them intriguing to their full potential. We are given very little time to get know to any of the saints and then it's difficult to be strongly affected when awful things happen.

Let's talk about the awful things. This book has a bunch of <b> trigger warnings: </b> violence, gore, bullying, starvation, mutilation, death, drowning, self-harm inc cutting. And probably other things too!
The Lives of Saints is supposed to be a children's book in the Grisha universe and I don't really see that here. Most of the stories very almost comically violent with all the awful things happening to everyone. I felt like the violence was forced in to make sure that the reader understands how rough it is to grow up in the Grisha universe with all these death-filled children's tales etc etc. It was a bit too much and the violence didn't add much to the fairytales, I started to expect that everyone will die by the end.

Content Warnings

thedambookshelf's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional informative mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

More...