Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

58 reviews

readwithde's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

Empire of Storms feels like the start of a sequel series: the stakes are so much higher, and the setting stretches across the continent. The cast of characters grows, and I found myself excited for different POVs.

I felt like Aelin's path was so jarring and chaotic at the beginning of the book, but by the end

after seeing her "fetch quest" of speaking with Brannon, securing Skull's Bay, and seeking the Lock and Elena

her journey made much more sense.

Lysandra, Elide, and Manon shone brightly in this book; I was happy to see each of them step fully into their potential.

Elide and Lorcan had some of the best action and storylines. Every time it cut back to them, I had to keep reading.

As nice as it was to have so many other POVs, I would have loved a bit more Aelin. She controlled many of the plot twists, and I would have loved a bit of extra foreshadowing or even just getting to see her thought process. 

I did read this in tandem with Tower of Dawn; I feel like both books benefited from that system, getting extra action in this book to balance the extra lore in Tower of Dawn. I highly recommend reading these together. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Cursing, Murder, Gore, Blood, and Death

Minor: Alcohol, Confinement, Slavery, Animal death, Physical abuse, War, and Suicide attempt

theoceanrose's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content

maggies's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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

5.0

I read Empire of Storms and Tower of Dawn in tandem, so I cannot separate them. And I don’t have words. Aelin is a frustrating heroine, but the cast of characters around her more than make up for that, especially Lysandra, Manon, and Elide. That ending. My goodness.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Violence, Gore, Death, Murder, Blood, and Toxic relationship

rafacolog's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Genocide, Murder, Racism, Violence, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Death, Sexual harassment, War, and Blood

ashleynp24'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
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loooooved reading this in the tandem read. It really helped to keep both stories chronologically and helped to break up some chapters.

My favorite part of this book was all of the connecting plot lines finally coming together. We got to see a lot of previous characters resurface and see how they mesh into the story.

Absolutely thrown by the fact Aelin and Lysandra prepared a scheme knowing she’d die and that she’d be pretending to be Aelin. The other one that got me is that Maeve???? The VALG QUEEN???? I already knew that Aelin and Rowan had to be mates but the fact Maeve created everything with Lyria was crazy it was like she was playing chess.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Cursing, War, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Blood, Kidnapping, Violence, Death of parent, Grief, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail

britwalsh16'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? Yes

5.0

I read this in Tandem with Tower of Dawn. And I am SOOO glad I did! If I had to read TOD between this book & KOA, I would have died! & not enjoyed TOD, cause I’d be obsessing over what’s gonna happen with the characters in this book!
This book was sooo good! I love being able to read from all the different characters POV’s. 
I love all the couples & am so thoroughly enjoying them to settle in with eachother. The dynamics between the different couples are just amazing!! But Aelin & Rowan are still my favorite! 
But, all the revelations at the end, I AM NOT OKAY WITH THEM!!! This story really can’t end the way it’s leading to!! There has to be another way! I am not okay with that! 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Death, Murder, Torture, Violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Blood, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Death of parent, and Gore

Moderate: Child abuse, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, and Confinement

lisavandonselaar's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Gore, Violence, Blood, Sexual content, and Torture

Moderate: War

cranberry101's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

3.0

(full review maybe coming soon but these are my initial thoughts once finishing)

again. aelin is doing all of this and no one puts 2 and 2 together. i think ms. maas wants us to think that aelin is some sort of super genius for all of this, but it just makes me think that everyone else is an idiot.

also fireheart this fireheart that, is aelin the leader of thunderclan? is rowan her graystripe or her sandstorm? too many questions.....

this is honestly so ridiculous and unbelievable how is she doing all this. next thing is harry potter is gonna apparate in the next book and say that he owes aelin a life debt too.

  also kinda shitty of lorcan to do that but he's hot so i would maybe forgive him. 

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: War, Vomit, and Torture

undecidedpersonality's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Death, Ableism, Abandonment, Sexual content, Body horror, Death of parent, War, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Colonisation, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual assault, Genocide, Child death, and Rape

val_theburrowofstories's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Vomit