Reviews tagging 'Cannibalism'

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

9 reviews

barbarianmissy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

WE ARE HOME, BABY! HELL YEAH TESSAREN! 

Wowee that was quite the epic tale! 

Felt a smidge slow at the start but the last 200 pages were crazy af in usual SJM manner. 

Here are my thoughts on the characters for this book:

I’m so flipping HAPPY that Dorian got freed, poor sweet summer child, he didn’t deserve to be possessed for so long! BUT ALSO! Every single person just frickin left him to run a country on his own???? After he was tortured for months?!??! Like Aelin and her court all left to go North, and Chaol and Nesryn are going south! Who’s going to watch our battered and bruised lil king?!?! I don’t trust any of these Adarlan jerks to treat him right! But something I’m hopeful for is that I feel like Manon and him may become a thing????? That’d be quite the dynamic! Can’t wait! 

Manon you’re sick af and a rockstar queen. Keep rocking, girlie! Hope Elide doesn’t get lost in the woods or break her other leg after you just left her there. 

Also Lorcan was a fun lil addition, I don’t like him but I think he’s fun! Saucy lil guy! 

I hope Lysandra and Aedion get together, they’d be really cute especially since she can scare the shit outta him. Good for her. She’s becoming one of my favs. 

Aelin, I love you and Rowan together but I really wish it wasn’t established that you are blood relatives. I don’t care how distantly related you are, the fact that you can say “let’s go visit our aunt” is WEIRD. But long live the QUEEN! 

Chaol, buddy, you really were pissing me off this book. Sorry about your lil leggies and I hope you get them back but you need to drink your “respect women” juice and treat Nesryn right pls cause I am getting real sick of your antics. 

Now, ONTO THE TANDEM READ! LETS GOOOOOOOO

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Medical content, Rape, Miscarriage, Grief, Incest, Vomit, Genocide, Physical abuse, War, Bullying, Drug use, Abandonment, Blood, Pregnancy, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, Cannibalism, Violence, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual assault

anguawolf's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, Genocide, Sexual harassment, Gore, Blood, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Physical abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Cannibalism, Self harm, Classism, Cursing, and Hate crime

Minor: Stalking

booksalacarte's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

First read- 3⭐️
No Written Review

Reread- 4.5⭐️ 1.5🌶️

Multi POV
Slow burn
Found Family
Mythical Creatures
Magic
War



Tw: discussion on infant loss

This series is a lot. There is always a lot going on, but the multi POV shifts solidly enough that you don’t feel jostled all over the place. Every character has an important viewpoint and unique voice. 

I do think that some of the characters had kinda big personality shifts from the last book to this one. Mainly Chaol and Aelin. No maybe they aren’t endgame… but all of a sudden finding out that Chaol was having an illicit affair the summer before the champions competition and acted in a way that he had quickies in alleys??? I don’t buy it.

And Aelin while I appreciate the grief that was focused on in Heir of Fire… in Queen of Shadows she was working well below her standard badassery. As if her entire personality became dependent on Rowan.

And what is up with the “he seemed to say” and “she seemed to say” conversations?! Full blown, detailed conversations all with facial expressions. I bet they looked like absolute idiots to the people around them when they happened………… so weird. Just make them telepathic already. 


Starting the story with Dorian’s POV was so important to see his depression and mindset since his situation was the last we read about in Heir of Fire. It definitely put in some tension and anxiety when it came to no one else knowing what was going on.

Knowing everything definitely makes the reread fun and heightens my ratings… but I am definitely not blowing through them on a binge the way I did on the first read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Confinement, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Death

infjkiki's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Suicide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Gore, Violence, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

britwalsh16's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense 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? Yes

5.0

I could not put this book down! Omg! It was sooooo good!!! 
Watching Aelin become who she was always meant to be & fight for her loved ones & what is right, is inspiring! The growth she has had since book 1 is in incredible! 
And the bromance between Chaol & Dorian is like my favorite bromance ever! Coming in second only to my bat boys. 
All the characters have incredible growth in this book! & I could go on about how much I love them all, but then this will get really long, so I won’t. 
But my favorite character is Rowan! & having him not being in the first third of the book gave me serious withdrawal! My heart just leaped out of my chest when he finally showed up! I was so ecstatic! I can’t wait to read more of him, & more of his relationship with Aelin! My heart! 💜 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, War, Classism, Death, Child abuse, Colonisation, Grief, Physical abuse, Slavery, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Cannibalism, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Abandonment, Alcohol, Bullying, Child death, Genocide, Cursing, Medical content, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, and Excrement

Minor: Miscarriage and Pregnancy

dlsmk's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Violence, Torture, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, and Suicide

mhairi_reads's review against another edition

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

4.0

Sarah J. Maas is in a league of her own. Honestly, I can’t even. She has such a talent and can make you fall in love with characters you entirely dismissed originally.

We seen Aelin really grow as a character in Heir of Fire and now she really does lead her court as the ‘fire breathing bitch queen’ she truly is. We really see a lot of character growth here and see Aelin stand on her own to feet and come into her own. Plus Mr Territorial Rowan - yes please!

Manon and Abraxos were definitely another two favourites of mine. Manon is another female character that gives of major badass vibes and Abraxos is just too much! I can’t wait to see how Manon and her Thirteen develop in the next book. I can definitely feel a massive shift happening here.

Elide, Lorcan and Lysandra are three more characters I’ve got my eye on moving forward. Elide, I think has the potential to bring some badass female energy to her story, Lorcan could go either way here but Lysandra surprised me. I’m interested to see where these three come into their own moving forward.

Queen of Shadows wraps up the start of this series and it’s almost as if we have a totally new hoard of characters to follow moving on. But the finale!! Give me more - right now! I love how everything is lining up for the no doubt, insane battle that we’re encroaching on. A battle of epic proportions that will decide the fate of all the characters we have come to hold so dear.x

This book is filled with plot points. We see many plot twists, epic battles and many new character introduced who become pivotal to the rest of the story. This is definitely climbing the ranks for me. I can’t wait to see where Maas takes this in the next instalment of the ToG series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Slavery, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Violence, War, and Murder

Moderate: Confinement, Alcohol, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Genocide, and Stalking

Minor: Cannibalism, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Bullying, Torture, and Vomit

kat1105'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Cannibalism, Classism, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Stalking, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, Vomit, Excrement, and War

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

tiredtori's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence

Moderate: Mental illness, Death of parent, Gore, Torture, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Pregnancy, War, Confinement, Death, Vomit, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Ableism, Grief, Miscarriage, Child death, Trafficking, Abandonment, Kidnapping, Bullying, Cannibalism, and Child abuse