Reviews tagging 'Grief'

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

8 reviews

bcvitalwrites's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore, Misogyny, and Grief

thaliareads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

While this may have been an incredibly dark book, the bright beams of hopefulness shined through. Puck was admirable as she attempted to do everything within her power to save her family's house - even if it puts her in immense danger and could be the death of her. I also appreciate how Sean never resented the water horses for their nature and how that lead to the death of his father. He spent all of his efforts devoted to training and ensuring the safety of the water horses they brought into their facility. 

The dual POV was really nice and left the story feeling very balanced. I absolutely anticipate a re-read in the future. After reading so many of Maggie's other books I can't believe the horse girl in me didn't pull this off my TBR earlier. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol

Like I mentioned in the review, this book is pretty dark. The water horses are carnivorous and predators. This leads to some very graphic injuries/gore from situations involving them.

nikki_haug's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Grief and Death of parent

starreddust's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Death

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Cursing, Sexism, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism

Minor: Body horror and Gore

stars_of_kyber's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? No

5.0

This book is a love song to horses and the ocean. It’s such a soft lovely story that makes your heart pound and you can’t put it down. The characters are amazing and you can’t help but love them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Sexism, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent

carys_ene's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Gore, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

a horse gets injured and a character's boots are peed in as a way to humiliate them

marieketron's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-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

3.5

I was expecting the plot to take a pattern similar to the hunger games, with the races taking place around the mid point. As instead the race only happens at the end, I felt like the plot dragged a bit. But in the end I also feel like the slow village life and romance made for proper worldbuilding and atmosphere setting, so if you’re into that this may be the book for you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

lizziaha's review against another edition

• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I fucking love everything about this book.

Reread 2024: Just realized that this book is about a stubborn second child, mad at her older sibling for not loving their family in the “right” way. Much to think about. 
I also think this book is just a masterclass in character motivations. Every single character, even minor ones, have some driving action behind their actions that is clear in the text without it being overexplained. The whole crux of the book for every single character is “What do you want and what are you willing to do to get it?”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Infidelity