Reviews with content warning for Torture - The Familiar

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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smileynat04's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

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lunsbooks's review against another edition

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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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sashajust4you's review against another edition

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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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zozibelle's review against another edition

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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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chime_detroit's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

4.75

Write more stuff like this.

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vagrantheather's review against another edition

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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? No

3.0

Had trouble getting into this one. Picked up in the second half.

It feels a little wrong to me that the MC never acknowledges her religious background, even when she is on the verge of execution. Seems like a thread left untied.

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natalieba's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

This was my first book by Leigh Bardugo, and I could certainly see picking up another by her. This is historical fantasy with ties to real historical events and figures along with fable, myth, and mysticism woven in. I found the two main characters interesting and complex and their love story believable and compelling. The side characters did seem a bit flat (or perhaps rushed/not as well-developed), but that didn't bother me all that much. I enjoyed this reading experience so much and found myself reaching for this book even when I only had a small sliver of time free - it was great! I don't read a lot of fantasy and felt this had just enough magic to fit into the genre but not so much that the world-building needs to be overly complex or drawn out (which is what oftentimes causes me to struggle with fantasy). Overall, I would recommend this book to those interested in this time period (the Spanish Inquisition) or who enjoy light fantasy with smart women at the center.

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