Reviews tagging 'War'

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

128 reviews

ladygetslit's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

There's a lot I could say about this book that wouldn't make sense if you haven't read the rest of the Grishaverse, so I'm going to keep this review short and simple. 

The King of Scars duology is about confronting our darkness, our demons. Every major character has to come to terms with the worst parts of themselves, but at some point that darkness is actually what saves them and others they care about.
Nikolai is terrified of everyone discovering that (a) he's a bastard aka not a "true" king and (b) he's got this whole demon thing inside him. What he discovers is that he has to make himself vulnerable, allow everyone to see his dark side, in order to save everyone he cares about and protect his country.
This is such a powerful metaphor for something I've been thinking about a lot lately: sometimes the scariest, most broken parts of us are exactly what people need to see to come to terms with their own messy parts. 

I docked this book half a star because I'm honestly a little dissatisfied with the ending.
Bardugo spent three books really building up the villainous nature of the Darkling, and I honestly didn't want him to come back at all, but I definitely didn't want him to get a redemption arc.
Overall, this duology was such a satisfying end to the world that started with Shadow and Bone. I truly hope Bardugo eventually revisits this world in the future! 

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emilywemily6's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

4.25

I enjoyed this book, I enjoyed this world! But the story was a little convoluted and had lots of moving parts, and my love for Nikolai waned throughout this book (not for any particular thing he did or didn’t do, but I lost my connection with him because of everything else going on). I loved the twists and turns at the end of the book because I really didn’t know how it would work out, and I like that the ending is open-ended for another duology/trilogy in the Grishaverse in the future. This book was definitely a culmination of the books that are already out and you see glimpses of characters (good and bad) from the other books in this book. 

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jess_garner's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

3.75

the writing’s not great, but the characters and the plot are brilliant 

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gohan's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful tense 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? Yes

4.5

Rule of Wolves is another fast paced, well written addition to the Grishaverse. At 588 pages, it is a longer book but it’ll keep you reading until the last page. 

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justagirlwithbooks's review against another edition

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3.75

"Some people were built for love and some were built for war. One did not lend itself to the other."

I don't know how I feel about the ending of this book. The plots and characters finally intersected and the battles were great, and seeing the Crows again was great. The ships felt a little rushed in my opinion. All in all, the Six of Crows duology is still my favorite, then it's this duology and then Shadow and Bone. I can't believe I've read the Grishaverse in the span of a few months (it was 6 months or something) but here we are! Next big universe to tackle: Shadowhunters. 

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gillianengelbrecht's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark 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? Yes

4.5


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killianshea's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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

I think something I tweeted about this book sums up how I feel about Leigh Bardugo's books:

"It is a truth individually acknowledged that if a major story moment is going to happen while I'm listening to anything by Leigh Bardugo, it will happen just as I park my car as I get to work."

Six of Crows, Crooked Kingdom, King of Scars, and now Rule of Wolves, have all managed to send me into work in a state of shock at least once - occasionally still crying.

There are plot lines in here that I don't think were needed, but they weren't enough to take away from the rating or change the fact that I loved this one. I have a friend (hi Drew) who said this is probably his second favorite Grishaverse book (after Six of Crows) and I have to agree. 

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nova123's review against another edition

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  • 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

4.25

leigh bardugo really tricked me into thinking that she
killed off nina's love interest for the second time.. I was so angry lmao

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caelfind's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

3.75


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madisonstarkov's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75


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