Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

21 reviews

kiwij96's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.75

This was a super easy read: well-paced chapters and full of plot points that all eventually come full circle at the end. Engaging plot in that sense, especially when the twists come in.

Not super in love with the idea that Karou was potentially being groomed by Kaz as it mentions in the beginning that they had been a couple for a while before their break-up and he is now 20 while she is 17. I also felt super uncomfortable with the Akiva and Karou romance plot too given the age gap there too.

I was also worried at one point that he was her dad.

However, the plot all comes together at the end and boy did it.

My only other gripe is Chapter 22. It felt massively out of place and I had to reread the chapters either side of it to figure out how it fitted in with it all. Felt like an afterthought but misplaced in the sequencing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Genocide, Gore, Grief, and Slavery

Minor: Islamophobia, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

savvyrosereads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad fast-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

4.5

If you’ve spoken to me in the last couple weeks, you’ve probably heard me screaming about how much I love this series! I think it’s an absolute CRIME more people aren’t talking about it. I also had the absolute best time buddy reading these with my fave feral five (sorry for imploding the buddy read when I just couldn’t stop reading, whoops).

Mini reviews for each book are below, but the main takeaway: READ THESE BOOKS!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (4.5 stars): The world building was incredible and the characters pulled me in! Also the ending absolutely BROKE ME into a million pieces.

Days of Blood and Starlight (5 stars): Possibly a hot take but this was my favorite of the series! I absolutely loved it, start to finish, and literally could not put it down.

Dreams of Gods and Monsters (4 stars): An amazing conclusion to an incredible trilogy! It wasn’t my favorite ending and I could probably nitpick a lot of things, but overall SO emotional and captivating!

Night of Cakes and Puppets (5 stars): An absolute DELIGHT of a novella spotlighting Zuzana and Mik, who might be two of my all time favorite secondary characters.

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Suicide and Murder

Minor: Sexual harassment

cosy_armchair_reader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-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? No

4.75

A tremendous book. So well written. It was honestly magical. Laini Taylor took her time to write this book and the result displays the incredible penmanship and effort she put into this story.
It is such a mysterious tale which really drew me in and made me want to stay.
The only complaint I have, which really isn't that much of a complaint and more of a personal preference, is that when we take a look back on Akiva and Madrigal's memories it feels very slow and slightly dreary and I would rather get back to the action that had been carved so wondrously in the previous chapter.
I loved the element of magic, love and wishes. And hope.
 So beautiful. Top marks for Laini Taylor.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, and War

Minor: Abandonment

jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious fast-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? No

4.0

I love this series already with all my heart and cannot wait to read the rest. Karou and her skills are unmatched and her relationships with zuzana and discovery of Akira are amazing.  

I truly didn’t see the twists and turns coming and was sat with my jaw dropped to say the least.  Dived into the next one already 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, War, and Death

moonchild_cos's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Abandonment, Torture, Genocide, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Sexual content, Medical content, and Trafficking

scarlett_f's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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: Death, Animal death, Grief, Murder, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, War, Fire/Fire injury, and Gore

Minor: Toxic friendship, War, and Sexual content

doodeedoda's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Death and Violence

Minor: Slavery, Rape, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Grief, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

kayelina's review

adventurous hopeful relaxing medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Blood, Sexual content, Torture, Murder, and Violence

donatio's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

So... overall I liked the book.
I liked the characters as well as the world-building but some things didn't sit right with me. 

I'm a big animal friend and I'm intrigued by the concept of opposites, how something cannot exist without an opposite, but the depiction here failed sometimes. The fact that the angels basically colonised the world of the chimaera often fades into the background and the chimaera are still often described as the villain(monsters) because the angels make no appearance except for Akiva's "rightness" and so on; the balance it was probably supposed to be... Is just not there. Even though it is said that the chimaera are intelligent and feeling beings this behavior isn't shown, there is no tender love in Eretz in the chimaera capital described. That makes them seem cruel even though the angels are the "real" enemies. 
Furthermore I had a problem with some comments made in the book I can't recall specifically now and the fact that everyone seems to be beautiful (ly thin) in some way upsets me.

Still the story managed to draw me in, to care about the characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Slavery, War, Classism, Animal death, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Child death, and Torture

whatsophsreading's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Confinement, Death of parent, Death, and Abandonment