Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

112 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

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

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

thebooknook180's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

4.25

I love the characters and world building. The magic was interesting and there was enough of a mystery and draw between the characters ever changing relationships to keep you turning the page. I did find the plot (especially with all of the characters) a bit hard to follow at times. Although we knew a decent amount about each character, I still found myself having to intently think about and remind myself who was in the scene and what relationships they help to one another. This started to impede my reading experience after a bit of it continually seeming to happen. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture and Violence

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Death of parent

smileynat04's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Torture

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

sashajust4you's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

5.0

An amazing read. The language is beautiful and the characters stole my breath away.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Antisemitism, Religious bigotry, Death, and Torture

zozibelle's review against another edition

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Sexual content and Torture

Minor: Infertility