Reviews tagging 'Torture'

The Crown of Gilded Bones by Jennifer L. Armentrout

43 reviews

geminisoul's review

adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The plot.... emaculate. The romance...... enticing. These things really make this book a five for me. Just like in the second book they really make up for some of the writing that can start to pull me from the story. Sometimes some of the ways characters choose to say certain things seems off for the setting of the book. And I understand...... she has questions but why is it brought up AND responded to every 2 minutes. Occasionally is funny but after a while it can be too much. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Torture and War

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

glddstwmn's review against another edition

adventurous funny sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

This would be camp if it wasn't sincere. 

I feel like there was so much potential for a good story and it was completely wasted. 
I enjoyed the basis of the plot and the conflicts I felt made sense to the story line, but good lord, the dialogue is some of the worst I've ever read. Genuinely  Ive read ao3 fanfics written better than this. Everytime I started to think the story was getting good or it was redeeming itself, the dialogue ruined it. 

Idk how Casteel puts up with Poppy but honestly he is just as insufferable. All the characters personalities are flat, Poppy is "nOt liKe oThEr GiRls", a huge pick-me, and everyone just eats it up??

It took me until a few chapters into this book that there are two guys "Malec/k", I thought she was misspelling the name the entire series. Also both opposing queens names are too similar and it was confusing. These are all side characters that are only talked about we don't really meet them throughout the story so I felt that made it more confusing. 

The ending was a cop out, imo. once the twist happened in chapter 46, I just skipped ahead to the last chapter and read from there. 

I was really hoping that since they were married now, there would be some good smutty scenes but there was like 3? 4? and they were mid at best. 

Tbh, I think I'm avoiding this author from now on. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Infertility, Sexual content, Torture, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Self harm, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

bvanness428's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, and War

jennipea382's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and War

Minor: Cursing, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Trafficking, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Classism

vettechmama3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.5

This has been my favorite read of this series so far. Once again there were some parts that dragged out and I had to trudge through to finish, but the things that come to light and discoveries that are made had me sitting on the edge of my seat excited to read and learn more. Poppy is still a freaking badass. Casteel and Kieran are just 😍 I do wonder each book just how much more Poppy is going to have to deal with. Poor girl needs a break 🥺🤣 I am following an alternative reading and am jumping to Flesh and Fire book 1 and am excited to dive back in!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Sexual content, Blood, and War

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Physical abuse, Terminal illness, and Pregnancy

infinity7211's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

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

3.25

This book was very slow to get into. It wasn’t until the last 100 pages or so that I was really hooked. However, the twists and information that we end with is very interesting. I’m curious to see why there are two more books in this series and what the spinoff series is about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual content, Torture, and Murder

thelongroadtosanity's review against another edition

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? Yes

5.0

""You,” he said, his voice thick and tone reverent. All I ever need is you. Now. Always"

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Heart-pounding, gut-wrenching from the first chapter. So much lore, history, and backstory has built up to such a crescendo with an epic conclusion to this book. I am desperate to know what happens next. My heart is not okay. (03/2024) 

5 out of 5 stars 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Child death

mari_books's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.75

This book…I wanted to hold out and wait for it to make sense but…aside from some of the spicy scenes and clever dialogue I really can’t find many things I enjoyed about this book. The world building and lore are so confusing and frankly bizarre, it’s almost like AI generated dark romance. The pacing seemed way off most of the time, with pages of scenery description but rushing past meeting core new characters or action scenes. I also found

all the sex during or after violence/ threatening violence to be whiplash inducing and again pacing was so off

I can’t say I’ll read any more of this series - I’ve kind of seen all I need to see. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Sexual harassment, and War

lysstea's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.25

These books are so painfully slow for me, I’m just not sure if I’ll make it through another. I'm curious about the characters and how things will pan out. There's plenty of twists and turns. It's just taking me ages to get through each one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

Moderate: Child death and Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity, Physical abuse, Torture, and Blood

_shreyasharma's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.25

The series started off pretty strong, but this book dragged on quite a bit. A lot of unnecessary descriptions, like why did they have to describe a shower for a whole chapter. Poppy and Cas were a whole vibe up until this book, but they got kinda cringe in this one. Love Kieran and the other wolven though. Some pretty good plot twists, which was the only reason it didn't go straight to my dnf pile

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, and War