Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat

38 reviews

spooderman's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Torture, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Death, Classism, Murder, Emotional abuse, Blood, Violence, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Confinement, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Pedophilia, Xenophobia, Racism, Trafficking, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexism, Infidelity, Incest, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Sexual assault, Self harm, Slavery, Outing, Child death, Child abuse, and Abandonment

lilifane's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

This book broke me. So if this sounds appealing to you, and you read it based on my review, please don't complain afterwards. 

The start was very promising, but then there was a lot of world building and getting to know characters for like 30-50% of the book. Enough action and plot twists to keep me interested, but also very few bread crumbs of what I really wanted to read about to make me impatient. The second half is just a wild ride.
It is supposed to be YA and I recognize the typical tropes coming with a YA fantasy books. But most of them have a spin or are resolved in a new way, which I really loved. You expect things to happen, and then they do happen, but in unexpected ways to mess with your head. In fact, I truly believe, the author just wrote this book to mess with my head specifically. Especially with the ending, which makes me question everything I thought I knew about myself. 
Anyway, this book also seems a little too brutal for YA? The stakes are definitely higher than usual, and the author isn't afraid of showing it. 
The world building is interesting, and the mysteries are intriguing, but what I loved the most were the intense and intimate scenes between the characters. I held my breath so many times I lost count, tbh. Thank goodness, the sequel is coming out next month. Can't wait to get my heart ripped out and trampled on again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, and Violence

mallorypen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I wanted to love this book. It had the feeling of a great epic! It had a haunting, dark vibe to the storytelling! It had unexpected twists! The characters were compelling and formed a broad cast!

But … it was boring? 

The pacing was very odd; in some parts, tons of things happened in quick succession and in others, the story lagged. It also didn’t help that multiple of the narrators were untrustworthy - Will especially - but in a way that made it obvious that the only reason they were was to preserve the twist at the end. And though the twist was interesting, if not altogether unguessable, the fact that Will knew almost at the beginning of the book (and certainly at the midway point) and didn’t “tell” the reader was annoying, not mysterious. His character felt inconsistent - first, he’s being self-sacrificing and doing the right thing despite overwhelming odds - and then he’s utterly convinced of his own downfall into darkness despite himself. 

The way Catherine was used in the story - and ultimately fridged - was obnoxious and disappointing. And the queer relationships all seemed insidious, which was doubly disappointing and honestly kind of disgusting.

The concept of the Stewards and Lions were well done, and again, the cast of characters was enjoyable. I don’t know if I’ll keep with the series, though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Animal death

kal517's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, and Death

Moderate: Torture, Blood, and Slavery

Minor: Racism and Animal death

khargaotte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-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

5.0

I was expecting to love this book as I've been very into anything Pacat has written so far, and was not disappointed! It does have all the things that make her "signature", including plots that involved big brothers, but also twisted, delicious codependent relationships that no doubt will explode in drama in the next volume. This was a fairly dark read, but one that engrossed me nonetheless! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Animal death and Death of parent

green_amaryllis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Blood, Violence, Animal death, and Murder

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Vomit

dreyy's review

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Physical abuse, Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Animal death, and Abandonment

jeyjeyyy's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

4.0

 Though it did have some inconsistencies and some stuff that didn’t quite make sense (still don’t know what exactly are lions), it is easy to lose yourself in the story. The plot twists had me gasping, the story is overall very well put together, the characters and their relationships are interesting and complicated in the best way, the world-building something not quite like anything I’ve ever seen. Loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: War

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

letiross's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Death of parent

Moderate: Torture, Blood, Slavery, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Animal death and Racism

arobear's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

Slow to start, but worth a read. I enjoyed the worldbuilding and mystery of the bigger picture and the war. After

the big twist

I waned to throw my book across the room, which seems to be a theme for books I read by  C. S. Pacat (in a good way). I'm interested to see where the story goes in the next book. If you enjoyed the political intrigue of Captive Prince you'll enjoy this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Violence, War, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Xenophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Blood

Minor: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual assault, and Abandonment