Reviews with content warning for Mental illness - Das Lied der Krähen

Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Das Lied der Krähen by Leigh Bardugo

122 reviews

shaylee_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

Ratings:

Plot:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Writing:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Characters:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Romance:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Diversity:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Overall:⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

Sadness:💧💧/5

People had told me that this book was good but nobody told me that it was THAT GOOD!! This book was fantastic and I am so angry with myself for how long it took me to pick it up.

At the moment I can't think of one thing that I disliked about this book so here is a list of all the things I loved.

This book was such a 180 from The Shadow and Bone Trilogy in not only its writing but also the plot. The plot was so well thought out and was so well done. This book was such a rollercoaster with all of its twists and turns and I loved every minute of it! A Lot of people said they had a hard time getting into this book but I did not have a problem. This book had me by the throat from the first page and did not let me go! Bardugo does a great job at keeping your attention.

I'm someone who normally love's character and romance driven books and this book definitely did that. I fell completely in love with all of these characters and got excited whenever I saw anyone's name at the beginning of each chapter.

One thing I think you have to praise this book for is it's diversity. Inej and Jasper are both people of color, almost every single one of them is dealing with trauma, especially Kaz who has severe PTSD. Kaz has a physical disability and it is a point in this book that no part of him is broken and he isn't less strong because of it. Jasper and Wylan are part of the LGBTQIA, Nina is a plus size girl who is shown as beautiful, wanted, and someone who is able to seduce men and as someone who is on the bigger side this was really appreciated.

I have ADHD and dyslexia and in this book even though it isn't explicitly said, I'm 100% Jasper has ADHD and Wylan has dyslexia and here's why. Jasper is said to be very talkative and to have a lot of energy, after a fight he is shown to be very jittery and he can't seem to stop moving, he himself says that he has a lot of restless energy, which are all clear signs of ADHD. Wylan is clearly dyslexic, he is shown to be very smart but his one downfall is read. The sentence that made it very clear to me that he was dyslexic was "Music. Numbers. Equations. They're not like words. They… they don't get mixed up" and if you don't know that is what happens with dyslexia, words get mixed or letters flip. The thing I loved the most about Wylans story throughout this whole book was that he wasn't shown as dumb he was actually shown as someone who is extremely smart, Jasper even says that he's probably smarter then all of them combined. I actually cried at the scene with Wylan father and the fact that he didn't care if his son died just because he couldn't read and called him a moron and he sent him letters to mock him because I understand how it feels to feel like you aren't good enough or smart enough because you don't process information just like everyone else.

I honestly loved the relationship between Nina and Mattias. There's was actually my favorite and I absolutely loved both of their points of view. I just love how much angst their relationship had and how their relationship grew and how they were able to get past their differences and I loved seeing how Mattias grew and how his opinions about Nina and the grish changed. I think him and Nine are my favorite characters from the book so far.

I know that Kaz and Inej are everyone's favorite and believe me I love them too! And I can't wait to see their relationship grow in the next book.

All together I absolutely loved this book and it has made it onto my favorite list.

Content Warnings

carys_ene's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted mysterious 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

Content Warnings

erin_and_eyebags's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

5.0

Content Warnings

s0mertall's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny 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? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

cleo_wylde's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.25

Content Warnings

bookishanemoia's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious 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

This is one of my favorite books. There’s lots of action and is fast paced. Each character has their own flaws, but it’s not focused on pointing the flaws out.

Content Warnings

icyjuban's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

Content Warnings

leona's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

This book was supremely better than the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and Bardugo's growth as a writer is very clear. Despite my hatred for pretty much all of the characters in her previous work, (other than Nikolai), I think the character work was excellent here. I was recommended this book by a friend, but I tried the first few chapters and didn't understand anything that was going on, hence I decided to read Shadow and Bone first. I would recommend reading the trilogy first, however I don't think you need to. (To be honest, I didn't really try that hard to get into the book when I first started reading it.) Also you will see some mentions and cameo's of a few of the characters, but Six of Crows is very much separate and it's own entity. I think the first two or three Chapters are a bit confusing and draggy, but once the characters start to become more developed, the book is brilliant.

The plot was better than the previous books in my opinion, but I also thought it just felt a bit too long. I think this book was a lot stronger in its character work than its plot. The heist was interesting and I don't think I ever really found myself bored, it just felt like there was something missing to me, despite all of the characters having their moment to shine and show their abilities. The world building I think was pretty excellent, seeing a completely different side to the Grishaverse, the dirty, crime-ridden streets of Ketterdam. Bardugo really managed to create an atmosphere with this darker setting.

I've already mentioned the characters a couple of times but here I will go into some more detail. The characters we follow are very much morally grey and even anti-heroes. They are criminals doing something pretty good that will hopefully benefit the world, but for all the wrong reasons *cough* money *cough*. A lot of people disliked Inej, but I actually really liked her for the majority of the book. I have to say 'that' scene

about Kaz's armour or some shiz

did p*ss me off quite a bit though, because

Kaz is clearly a deeply traumatized character. Inej had been concerned for him in the prisoner wagon when he feinted, and bringing his gloves back for him, but then completely turned on him? I was just confused.

I didn't really care about Nina, Matthias and Jesper that much at the start but Jesper did grow on me. Him and Wylan are hilarious. Matthias really annoyed me throughout the whole book but

I think his redemption was good enough for me, I sort of trust him now.

There are lot of character backstory moments in the book (maybe like a fifth of the book is backstory), which I'm not the hugest fan of, but I do think I got used to it eventually and it really helped to develop the characters a lot better. Especially considering that was one of my major problems with Alina and Mal in Shadow and Bone, there wasn't enough backstory for me to actually root for them. Anyway Kaz is definitely the most morally grey character, because his main motivations seem to be revenge and money for the majority of the book. Also he does murder a couple of people.

Yep, this book is quite dark if you haven't gathered that already. I would say it is on the upper end of YA and there were a couple of gory moments which did shock me a bit at first because I'm not really good with that type of stuff but it wasn't too bad once I got used to it. The worst moment was (not a major spoiler)

a short paragraph in which someone is maimed with an X slit across their face, and then their eye is clawed out. The person is then tipped over the side of the boat.

I think it is almost YA grimdark, but others would disagree. I'm not an expert on fantasy sub-genres. Also it was just quite weird that the characters were teenagers. I understand this was an effort for the book to stay YA, but the intelligence of these characters is crazy. I'm slightly younger than them and could never imagine plotting a heist. To be fair, I got used to it and this is definitely not a reason not to read it. Romance was also pretty minimal in this book, these are some of the most slow burn romances I have read. I did really appreciate this in comparison to how Alina latched on to dudes in Shadow and Bone (honestly there was practically a love square in that trilogy), but I do think that a more present romance could have made the book a bit more interesting in some of its slower parts. Anyway I loved the characters, even with their moral greyness.

To conclude, I rate it 5 stars, as I absolutely loved this book despite my complaints. It is really very character driven, gritty (for YA anyway) and I would definitely recommend giving it a chance even if you are a bit put off by the social media hype or from hating Shadow and Bone.

Content Warnings

dejanira's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

4.75

The definition of a must-read.
Bardugo dives deep into the goth-steampunky aesthetic as she takes you along on a very unconventional triple date and the greatest fantasy heist to ever be pulled-off.

Content Warnings

klyanovska's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

Content Warnings

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