Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

35 reviews

moonlightmadness's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

1.0

Without giving anything away I would describe this book as lack luster as I love this author this book was a build up with a disappointment. The disappointment for me was because this is the same old same old as Shadow and Bone. It's written with the same premise. The characters are very one dimensional. So many characters don't have depth and I ended up not caring. Also the even though this book is well researched there is not enough of the historical aspect to go on. I wanted more of the Spanish Inquisition historical factors. Everything just fell flat, I struggled to move on and care. I wanted to like this book. I didn't 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Antisemitism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, and Emotional abuse

edamamebean's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book so much, I don’t even know what to do with myself. It was perfect from start to finish, genuinely the best I’ve read from Leigh Bardugo. I’ll be hard pressed to read a book that tops this one all year.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Infidelity, Torture, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Infertility, Murder, Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Antisemitism, and Xenophobia

midnightrose_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

The Familiar is a beautifully told dark historical fantasy set in the Spanish Golden Age. Leigh Bardugo is a remarkable storyteller who proves with every release why she’s not only one of my favorite authors, but an auto-buy author as well!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Blood, Murder, Physical abuse, Torture, Vomit, Antisemitism, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual content and Cursing

Minor: War

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Classism, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, Gaslighting, Violence, Confinement, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Vomit, Antisemitism, Body horror, Hate crime, Torture, Dysphoria, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infidelity, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Abandonment, and Bullying

chasinggrace's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

*Update: I reread this right after finishing it and I am bumping to a 4.5⭐️ review. The prose and foreshadowing in this book are beautiful. 

Leigh Bardugo you have DONE IT AGAIN!! A dark romantic fantasy set in 1400’s Spain that features a determined girl and a cursed immortal man. The pure YEARNING from this man absolutely made the book for me. The way he phrased his love for her was beautiful - this writing was fantastic. 

This is gothic fantasy, so slightly slower and darker than epic or ramantasy novels. But I loved it just the same. Not all of the characters were likable, and many were hatable. I found myself thinking, “this is gonna end badly” so many times because I couldn’t see a way out for our FMC. 

I’m SO HAPPY that this book had a positive ending for Santangel and Luzia. I needed a fantasy book with a happy ending and they are such a beautiful couple ❤️

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Slavery, Classism, Genocide, Infertility, Misogyny, Bullying, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Confinement, Cursing, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

quiet_reader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Murder, Violence, Religious bigotry, Toxic relationship, Blood, Classism, Gore, Sexism, Antisemitism, and Torture

Moderate: Confinement, Bullying, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Genocide, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Colonisation, Ableism, Mental illness, Islamophobia, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

riththewarluid's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed The Familiar quite a bit, but I would not call it Bardugo’s best work. She shines in world building and historical research, which comes through in this book, but for me there was a disjunct between that historical world building and the effect this world had on the main characters. They felt like they were existing in this lush world but not being truly affected by it in any way. I’m think in particular about how religious belief features in the world and is presented as an important facet of the main characters identity but it never seems to really come to any conclusion and even seems to drop off in importance with no explanation. So while I enjoyed it a lot and would recommend it for people interested in a dark alternate history set in the Spanish Inquisition, don’t go into this expecting very much character development from the main two characters; also the romance is extremely rushed and not really fleshed out or explored at all, and that was disappointing. The two main characters are so different and complicated and difficult and I wanted so much more from their relationship. 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Sexual violence and Sexual content

chaoticlibrarian's review against another edition

emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Religious bigotry, Antisemitism, Death, Blood, Torture, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Islamophobia

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexism

Minor: Infertility

allyareads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Violence, Confinement, Torture, Antisemitism, Blood, Abandonment, Death, Grief, Murder, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Classism, Colonisation, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

themis_biblos's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

 I only wanted a little warmth. I didn't know what kind of fire I would start. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Antisemitism, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, Death, Religious bigotry, and Sexual content