Reviews tagging 'Death'

Das dunkle Herz des Waldes by Naomi Novik

141 reviews

ohno_joreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual content and Vomit

Minor: Alcohol

kefredriksen's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

I adore this book so much. I really liked the mature fairy tale vibes it gives. I found the characters to be well developed, interesting, and lovable, though, I would classify this as a plot-driven story mainly. The writing style is stellar. It uniquely balances the line between easy-to-read and what I consider more 'classic' fantasy prose. I got super sucked in. Loved the world building, loved the dynamics between the characters, and loved the ending!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Sexual content

Moderate: Death, Sexual assault, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

callitz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Death

Moderate: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism

Minor: Body horror, Bullying, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Kidnapping

sehenry20's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? No

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault, Grief, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

camiandkitread's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

It reminded me of an adult version of Hannah Whitten’s “For the Wolf,” but I did find that book more enjoyable. 

It’s clear Nokik is a talented writer, her descriptions are lovely and evocative. However, I was uncomfortable with the attempted sexual assault near the beginning of the book and couldn’t really move past that since it was unnecessary to the plot. 

Her characters were well written but were boring and took their sweet time to do anything. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

silversparkles50's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This was hard to get through for me.  I didn't like the fact the main character was instantly the best at magic, I hated the verbally abusive love interest, there was a sex scene that came out of nowhere that seemed out of place,  the story was too complicated.  I liked the premise and some of the writing,  but it was way too long. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

freyagame's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

2.5

I read this when I was 15 and thought it was aggressively mid, came back to it and am a little horrified that my opinion hasn't changed. 

Overall nice world building and scenery but never really decides if it wants to be high fantasy and I think it really suffers as a result. It is clear that Novik is a very talented writer, the prose is really great but is let down by plot structure IMO. Not helped by the MC being incredibly annoying in the first half of the book with some weird development leading into conclusion.

We are never told why she is able to do magic that no other wizard can, there is seemingly no reason.

Most of the plot is driven by what's happening with her best friend who we are told is very amazing but who is actually very boring and sleeps mostly until she needs to swing a sword around. Their relationship is really bizarre: a few moments early on that lead to some great conflict but these threads are all dropped.

However, the final chapter was incredibly sweet and did bring it back a lot for me, I'm a sucker for a village boogie.

Romance and magic system a bit nonsensical and underdeveloped (interesting age gap!) I really do think you could squeeze the entire romance plot into the content of about 5 pages, it never really goes anywhere: he's written entirely out of the second act and receives next to no development as a result. A travesty honestly. Also an instance of sexual assault that is kind of brushed under the rug once the plot get rolling, dissapointing. Random very slow 100 pages or so in the middle that get very political, a bit of a standstill that doesn't gel fabulously with the first section of the book. Generally good vibes if you don't think too hard about anything and just roll with it. If looking for fun fairytale is a great pick but a bit of a shallow fantasy otherwise :// 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Sexual assault, Murder, Sexual harassment, and War

beanaroni's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, and Sexual content

Minor: Sexual assault

thekissballad'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I found this to be highly immersive and I really enjoyed it.

It can drag at times, but I didn't mind it as much as I usually do.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

melofsteele's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? No

5.0

Although I was unprepared for the amount of fighting and gore of this book, it was one of the best fantasy adventures with a splash of spice and romance I've ever read. I'd recommend this to all fantasy adventure lovers! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail