Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

El Familiar by Leigh Bardugo

36 reviews

keelirae113's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Grief, Torture, Antisemitism, Classism, Death, and Fire/Fire injury

blacksphinx's review against another edition

emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Antisemitism, Death, Religious bigotry, Grief, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Vomit, Mental illness, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Infertility, and Death of parent

Minor: Gore, War, Dementia, and Islamophobia

turtles555's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

4.75

The individual stories of the very unique journeys the leads embark on brings brilliantly to life the disturbing presence of patriarchal societies. Top notch. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Sexism, Violence, Antisemitism, Body shaming, Bullying, Racism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Grief, Classism, Child abuse, and Police brutality

lunsbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

This was a fairly quick book to read, with an interesting premise, where you can tell the author put in a lot of work and research. I truly enjoy Leigh Bardugo's writing and the athmosphere/setting was my favourite part. 

Sadly I just couldn't connect to any of the main characters. The protagonist was actually quite unlikable for me, which is not a problem when executed correctly, but in this case it just made me not care about her story or fate at all. I much preferred secondary characters like Valentina,

who had the best character arc in the book in my opinion

, or even Santángel. 

Overall, not a lot happened for the first 70%, and then it felt as if everything was wrapping up too rapidly in the last 100 pages or so. I did enjoy it for the most part, but I just didn't love it, as I feel like it would've perhaps benefitted from being longer, with the action scenes more evenly spaced throughout. 

The romance between Luzia and Santángel was a bit too instantaneous for me, it felt as it there was no build up and the characters went from strangers to being madly in love. I just felt there was no chemistry, and in turn it just made me not care for their relationship.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Death, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Confinement

Minor: Infertility, Death of parent, and War

mad_is_rad's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I’ve never read anything quite like this, and it stretched my brain in a way I very much liked! I just wish I could have felt more connection with the characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Injury/Injury detail, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Antisemitism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

taryn_g's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Death, Religious bigotry, and Torture

Moderate: Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Confinement, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent, Sexual content, War, and Infertility

novel_nibbles's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

As a long time fan of Bardugo I was delighted to get tickets to her recent UK event in London and pick up a  @waterstones special edition. 

I throughly enjoyed this magical standalone. I’d forgotten how much I enjoy historical romance and the addition of magic was just *chefs kiss*. I was rooting for Luzia from the start I enjoyed her transformation as she stopped hiding her true nature and personality. 

I enjoyed the romantic element but I would have prefer to experience more of the developing relationship on the page. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death of parent, Physical abuse, Slavery, Bullying, Misogyny, Abandonment, Confinement, Antisemitism, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Infertility, Fire/Fire injury, and Torture

lucyford's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This was the first historical fantasy book I’ve read, and I loved the setting so much! The magic was so well thought and it was interesting to see how it was perceived by people at the time. The plot was also very exciting.

The only thing is that I really didn’t like the ending. Like I know they were “together” in the end or whatever, but not in the way I would’ve liked.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Hate crime, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Religious bigotry, Death, Murder, Violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Antisemitism

Moderate: Classism, Confinement, Sexual content, Deportation, Police brutality, Infertility, and Emotional abuse

riaroo400's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Racial slurs, Sexism, Death, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Blood, Grief, Antisemitism, Classism, Racism, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, and Physical abuse

probablytoolate's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Infertility, Blood, Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Torture, Murder, Antisemitism, Sexual content, Sexism, Body horror, Death, and Domestic abuse