Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Daughter of Smoke & Bone by Laini Taylor

9 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

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

kirstenf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Murder

Minor: Torture, Slavery, Sexism, Infidelity, and Confinement

charliebriggs96's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

“Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there's no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️.75/5

This book was so close to a 4⭐️ that I could taste it, but as usual I had some issues with it. But first, the positives. What a way to start a series! For one thing, it’s a great opener of a book. The first in a trilogy, it’s sometimes hard to grasp the readers attention like this book did. The characters, for the most part are cleverly crafted, full bodied and memorable. Some did lack in the background, or didn’t age well in terms of readability in the last 10 years since it’s initial release. Which did knock a little half point off of the total score, blame the mc’s friend, not me. However, I immensely enjoyed Karou, she was funny, kind, intelligent although sometimes naive. She and Brimstone and the other Chimaera held this book in place, which made the plot twist all more bittersweet. The reason why this book wasn’t a 4⭐️ was: pacing, the pacing started off strong, then went EVERYWHERE nearing the middle and end. Some of the characters, like I mentioned, haven’t aged well. And I am NOT a fan of ‘insta-love’. Even with the plot twist, it’s still instalove. And I hate it

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Slavery, Torture, and War

gingerale06's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

3.25

there's insta-love 🤢

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

nickoliver's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.75

This is a hard book for me to review, because on the one hand, I found it very beautifully written and enjoyed the story itself and the plot twists it had to offer; but on the other hand, I just severely disliked Akiva and the romance from beginning to end. Which didn't really make me enjoy the book anymore. It was a struggle at times, tbh. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Grief, Slavery, and Torture

Minor: Rape