Reviews tagging 'Self harm'

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

71 reviews

briski's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Ugh I’m conflicted because the espionage/puzzle/mystery elements of the plot were fun but god this book was at least twice as long as it needed to be. Plus BB as a character isn’t super interesting most of the time. She has her moments and is more interesting toward the end but there was a lot to slog through. 

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qrschulte's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

AHHHH! I didn’t want to put this down! I just NEEDED to know all the secrets! And there were some very lovable secondary characters added ❤️

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guessgreenleaf's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad fast-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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jentrythelibrarian's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective 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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imds's review against another edition

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  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.25


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amethyst_knight's review against another edition

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2.0


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shinysylveon's review against another edition

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mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.75

If I were to break down the structure of this book into 6 parts, for me this amounted to 1 part mystery, 1 part romance, 1 part self-discovery, and 3 parts epilogue for Graceling and Fire.

The entire premise of this book is Bitterblue navigating being Queen in the aftermath of her father’s tyrannical reign. How do you rule a kingdom where everyone is suffering from PTSD?

On paper, the concept seems cool. Instead of just a paragraph or a few pages summarizing “what happened after”, you get a full book. The problem with that is it’s boring. It felt like there was too much happening and therefore nothing got the focus it really deserved. But on that same note, it also felt like nothing was really happening? It’s very bizarre to describe. 

It just didn’t feel like Bitterblue’s book, or her story. It felt like an epilogue to Katsa’s and Leck’s story. It felt like a side character fumbling around trying to figure out how to be a main character, while the actual main character is off having another adventure. Bitterblue was more intriguing as a child in Graceling, and even in the flashbacks than she is in present day. 

Po was still fun in this for the most part. Katsa, however, was extremely annoying and immature. Though to be fair, immaturity is part of her character, it is just more acutely apparent without the aid of her internal monologue cushioning it. It also didn’t help that the Audiobook narrator gave her this weird Scottish accent that no one else has and that Katsa didn’t have in the original audiobook.

This was definitely riding off the coattails of the other two books. The parts about Leck and discovering all the horrible things he did were extremely interesting. Everything else? Meh. My original rating of 3 stars was super generous, changing it to 2 (which is still generous). Here’s hoping the next one is better. 

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_rosy_'s review against another edition

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emotional tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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ceceleininger's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.75

favorite characters: Po, Death, Thiel 

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ksykes's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

I love this book; a very close second to Fire in my eyes. Kristin Cashore has never done me wrong. 💗

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