Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

35 reviews

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

Continues the strong character development and worldbuilding that Maas delivered in Heir of Fire, with some satisfying plot twists and emotional breakthroughs for various characters. 

This is also the first book that starts to get properly horny.

Many of the descriptions  are starting to become repetitive - there are only so many times that I can read that someone was "covered in black blood" or had "eyes lined with silver" (just say they're filled with tears jfc). Also the way that Maas describes territorial Fae males is already exhausting, and the lack of nuance between familial vs romantic territorialism makes a big middle chunk of the book seem uncomfortably incest-y.

Overall this is stronger than the first two entries in the series and makes me excited to continue reading, but imo, a small step down in quality from Heir of Fire. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Body horror, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Murder, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, War, and Vomit

Minor: Incest

sreilly1's review

adventurous dark hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

Lot of plot happenings, setting up for some good romance 😋 but I can definitely see myself forgetting what happens in this book later on 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Miscarriage, Genocide, Gore, Pregnancy, Vomit, War, Confinement, Child death, and Death

annamary54's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? Yes

4.75

i will give a full review later, mostly gave it a 4.75 cause i didn’t care about the witches until the last quarter of the book

it’s later: 
honestly reading these back to back i can’t remember what was heir of fire and what was queen of shadows, but i’m gonna try my best. in the last one i struggled to care about the witches at all, and the first 3/4 i thought were very slow. this one definitely moved a lot faster from the beginning. i did start to care about the witches in this one, but like i said it took me until the last quarter to really care about that whole story line. all of the books before this one felt like exposition and this one actually had some action in it. i gave it such a high rating because i really was engaged and didn’t want to stop reading basically the whole time. (except the witch chapters, i’d usually use those as a stopping point)

I did NOT see adieon father reveal coming, but that spices stuff up for sure.

i also shouldn’t have read acotar before this cause now the romance is so pg to me, i’m like COME ON LETS GET TO IT, but whatever i’m still reading kicking my legs behind me and twirling my hair. it’s hard to write anything about this book cause so much happened, and so many story lines. loved the development in all the characters. and i’m excited to see more of the ones that haven’t fully bloomed.

VERY happy about the Lysandra redemption arc because i kinda loved her from the start…although i do have a problem loving villains. (arobynn…for a lil bit, and lorcan when he was still in bad guy mode)

overall, i rate based on how engaged i was with a book, and i was VERY engaged except the witch chapters for the first 3/4 of the book. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Gore, Body horror, Torture, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Violence, Murder, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Pregnancy and Miscarriage

Minor: Sexual content, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Alcohol, and Excrement

yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

Oh I loved this book. There was so much emotion, so much growth and so much heart.

So many characters developed. I love all of them. They all have loveable qualities and witty banter. (Chaol is eh. He was pissing me off in the beginning). The women in this story are absolutely amazing. Aelin is so smart and cunning. Kaltain’s story was so sad and beautiful. Lysandra really surprised me and I love her. Manon is an absolute icon. Asterin made me want to cry.

I can’t wait to see these characters win this war.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Grief, Physical abuse, Slavery, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Violence, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Miscarriage, Body horror, Child abuse, War, and Torture

Minor: Pregnancy, Sexual content, Vomit, Emotional abuse, and Genocide

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

---

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

ashleynp24's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

This book was easily my favorite so far in the series. The relationships built between characters was so good.

Lysandra is definitely one of my favorite characters, and I loved getting to learn more about her specific history in this book.

Manon and Elide’s relationship was another one of my favorites, and Manon’s character arc was really fun to read.

The ending was so many emotions and I’m so excited to try the tandem read next. 

I absolutely screamed when I found out they perrington is the overarching villain this whole time and that manon helped Aelin. I’m so interested to see if Elide finds them and what happens to Chaol and Nesryn. I’m wondering if they will run into the girl that Aelin helped to become a healer back in assassin’s blade!!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Vomit, War, Violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Child death, Body horror, Grief, Physical abuse, Confinement, Murder, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Suicide, Pregnancy, Blood, and Slavery

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! 💜 

---

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

dalek_caan's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

This book had me on the edge of my seat. The last one in the series was a little bit slow to read, but this one was moving from start to finish. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, Gore, War, Death, Torture, Suicide attempt, Slavery, Sexual violence, Self harm, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Murder, Miscarriage, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Confinement, Colonisation, Child abuse, Body horror, and Blood

Minor: Ableism

ktmcd26'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

Coming fresh from just finishing this book, all I can really think is “Lordy be this book would never end”. The main conflict of the book arrives and concludes, then I have to read about 15 chapters that all could have been the final chapter. There were 3 crucial things that happened in these chapters the rest felt like drawn out filler that needed to be edited down. 


Before that however I really enjoyed this book. It felt like many pieces that have been dispersed through all of the books before had finally come together. There is a clear picture of the current state of the world, the next ste of problems, and who is going to be facing those problems. 

We were able to accompany the characters on journeys of discovery and confronting who they were and who they want to be. And for some of these folks, thank god it finally happened because I have been waiting for it since the first book. I do think that things worked out a little too nicely in some cases, so interesting to see if that plays out for the remainder of the series. 

This book does cross some uncomfortable lines in terms of relationships leaning romantic/sexual when they shouldn’t. Nothing explicit ever happens but weird atmospheres are certainly created.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Miscarriage, Emotional abuse, Violence, Sexual violence, Vomit, Death, and Body horror

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

ana_maria5's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Murder, Torture, Blood, and Body horror

Moderate: Grief, Physical abuse, Vomit, and Slavery