Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

69 reviews

sarahsbooklife's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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? Yes

3.5

Honestly, I wasn't really sure what to expect going into this book. I knew very little, just that it was set in late 16th century Spain and a woman could do magic. And I'm glad that I didn't have any expectations going into this book.
It has a bit of a slow start. When I was reading it, it felt like it took longer than it actually did for characters to be introduced and for the plot to actually start. The overall pacing of the book is pretty slow. Maybe that's because I never felt like there were particularly highstakes for the characters. I was pretty sure that the main couple would get a happy ending even if no one else did. Although, towards the end I did begin to doubt that. 
I wouldn't say that this book was amazing. It was good and I enjoyed reading it. But it's not one that I would recommend to everyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Antisemitism, Blood, Classism, Physical abuse, Confinement, Islamophobia, Misogyny, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Murder, Sexual content, Death, Torture, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Excrement, Slavery, Suicide, Vomit, and War

shrumpscompi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Probably the most quotable book I’ve ever read. I want to read it again and write down half of it to repeat in conversation.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry and Xenophobia

Moderate: Death

Minor: Sexual assault

hcgambrell's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Torture

Moderate: Death of parent

kristinallard's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Sexism, Death, Sexual content, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Torture, and Forced institutionalization

lilyg2704's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

“they were words battered and blown to all corners of the map, then returned to her, as the people who spoke them could never return.” 
leigh wrote a beautiful jewish historical fantasy book and i loved every minute of reading it :’)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Antisemitism, and Classism

Minor: Body horror and Physical abuse

keelirae113's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Grief, Torture, Antisemitism, Classism, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

blacksphinx's review against another edition

emotional inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Antisemitism, Death, Religious bigotry, Grief, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Vomit, Mental illness, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Infertility, and Death of parent

Minor: Gore, War, Dementia, and Islamophobia

zolifetimebookaddict's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

All though a slow starter this really gathers pace as the book moves on. More world building in the middle of the book would have been amazing! I enjoyed it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, and Body horror

Minor: Genocide, Cursing, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Religious bigotry, Confinement, Death of parent, and Death

turtles555's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated

4.75

The individual stories of the very unique journeys the leads embark on brings brilliantly to life the disturbing presence of patriarchal societies. Top notch. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Sexism, Violence, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Bullying, Racism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Grief, Classism, Child abuse, and Police brutality

lunsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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

3.5

This was a fairly quick book to read, with an interesting premise, where you can tell the author put in a lot of work and research. I truly enjoy Leigh Bardugo's writing and the athmosphere/setting was my favourite part. 

Sadly I just couldn't connect to any of the main characters. The protagonist was actually quite unlikable for me, which is not a problem when executed correctly, but in this case it just made me not care about her story or fate at all. I much preferred secondary characters like Valentina,

who had the best character arc in the book in my opinion

, or even Santángel. 

Overall, not a lot happened for the first 70%, and then it felt as if everything was wrapping up too rapidly in the last 100 pages or so. I did enjoy it for the most part, but I just didn't love it, as I feel like it would've perhaps benefitted from being longer, with the action scenes more evenly spaced throughout. 

The romance between Luzia and Santángel was a bit too instantaneous for me, it felt as it there was no build up and the characters went from strangers to being madly in love. I just felt there was no chemistry, and in turn it just made me not care for their relationship.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Death, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Confinement

Minor: Infertility, Death of parent, and War