Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

Król z bliznami by Leigh Bardugo

124 reviews

onefineelephant's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

9/10. I loved this book. I don't think I liked it more than the Six of Crows books, but that's because I'm a sucker for found family. I love Nikolai, Zoya, Nina, and Hanne. The only part that I didn't like was that it felt like I was reading two separate books - one about Nikolai and Zoya and another about Nina and Hanne. It didn't feel like the two connected or overlapped very much, so when I would read a chapter from one of their POVs, then I wanted to keep reading that story rather than switching to a completely different story (that I also liked and then the cycle would continue). I'm guessing the two stories will converge in the next book, but I think this book felt off because of the unrelated stories. Love the Grishaverse, though. This series continues to surprise me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Child death, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Police brutality, Death of parent, and War

queer_bookwyrm's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? No

4.0

4 ⭐ CW: Violence, torture, child marriage, descriptions of blood, death, addiction, forced pregnancy 

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo is book one in the King of Scars duology, a continuation of the Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows series. If you haven't read those yet, beware of spoilers for those series. I'm glad I picked this one up. I remember when this first came out people said is was slow or it wasn't good when compare with Six of Crows, but time has given me a gift. My opinions on Six of Crows is so clouded, that it impact how I feel about this book. I quite liked it. 

This time we focus on Nikolai Lantsov, the King of Ravka, after the events of Shadow and Bone. We see him grapple with the monster inside him left by the Darkling. He struggles to control the beast, and seeks a ritual to rid him of it. We get to learn about Zoya's history in this book and get her point of view. I love that Bardugo never softens Zoya, and leans into her thirst for power. Nina Zenik is under cover in Fjerda helping persecuted Grisha and testing out her new powers granted by her use of jurda parem. I love Nina so much. I could read just about her. She gets to do some amazing things! Give me more Nina. And waffles. 

I loved getting an inside look at Nikolai without all the bluster and charm he protects himself with, so we can see his insecurities and his doubts. It makes for some really great growth. As funny as Nikolai usually is, Davis stole the show with his dry, comedic timing, along with Genya. We get plenty of twists, some of which I saw coming and some of which I didn't.

Looking forward to Rule of Wolves.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Death

jazzsilvestri's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Torture, and Suicide attempt

prettynerdy3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

infjkiki's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Sexual violence, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction and Drug use

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Vomit

math_scooter's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

Leigh Bardugo er muligvis vores tids bedste forfatter fr. Jeg elskede at læse om de diplomatiske problematikker og de realistiske forhold mellem landende mere end jeg havde troet jeg ville. Mathias forevigt i mit hjerte, og Isaak vil ikke blive glemt.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Genocide, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

Minor: Suicide

jessicaludden's review against another edition

adventurous funny 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

3.5

“He was not the crying child or even the drowning man. He was the forever soldier, eternally at war, unable to ever lay down his arms and heal.”

I loved being back in the Grishaverse and seeing what these characters are up to now. I loved the politics in this and there were definitely some plot twists I didn’t see coming. I really liked learning more about Nikolai and Zoya especially because we really didn’t get a lot from them in the books before. Of course I loved seeing Nina again, even if it meant hurting my heart every time she mentioned Matthias. 

But I did feel like there was some pacing issues which caused a disconnect with the characters and the plot. I just couldn’t get into it and never really cared a huge amount about the characters. It was very slow in some parts and very repetitive which often left me feeling like I was reading parts that were unnecessary to the character and plot development. But overall, I’m excited to read the next one!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

joensign's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Drug use, Miscarriage, and Pregnancy

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

marine2907's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

mariebrunelm's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful 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

4.75

It's been almost three years since the event of Ruin & Rising (which I haven't read, more on that later) and most of Ravka and beyond is still reeling from the consequences. In the middle of it, King Nikolai battles enemies within and without, Nina is on a quest for solace that leads her to discover nefarious plans from Fjerda, and Zoya lets her armour crack.

I am in awe of Bardugo's writing. She manages to put so much heart and character quirks in an engaging narrative that kept me turning the pages. I have to admit that it took me a long, long time to really get into the book because even with careful information-dropping to fill me in on what had happened before, I could feel that I hadn't read the books in which some essential characters are introduced (mostly Nikolai and Zoya, in the Shadow & Bone trilogy).

Once I'd gathered enough info on them, however, I could completely relax into the story and let myself be carried away. I love Leigh Bardugo's writing style and character studies, it's perhaps not the most subtle but it's banter and sass at their best and it's a joy to read.

Rep: fat, bisexual MC. Disabled author. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Sexism, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Drug abuse