Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

32 reviews

anneroza's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Grief, Rape, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Murder, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Death, Sexual assault, Trafficking, Xenophobia, Slavery, Death of parent, Confinement, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, Pregnancy, Mental illness, and Kidnapping

doodeedoda's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Pregnancy, Violence, Death, Confinement, Grief, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Child death, Mental illness, Trafficking, and Child abuse

Moderate: Domestic abuse

Minor: Blood, Death of parent, Sexual content, and Self harm

nytephoenyx's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? No

5.0

 As with Stranger the Dreamer, I was enamored with Laini Taylor's writing, which blossoms like orchids on the page. The story is good - there are a lot of exciting elements and complex characters - but Laini Taylor's writing steals the show. She may be a bit flowery for most, but she steals my heart and weaves gossamer threads through it, and I am in love.

There were a few things that were too easy, especially redemption arcs and resource acquisition, but I'm willing to forgive all of it. However, I lament that Muse of Nightmares felt like a middle book, and I'm crestfallen at the lack of continuing adventures.

Altogether well-worth reading and a breath of beauty and joy in this otherwise dismal universe. An easy five-star because Laini Taylor has a gift for weaving magic in her worlds and creating characters of all shapes and sorts that the reader can't help but love. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicide, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Torture, Child abuse, Rape, and Trafficking

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, and War

sealbrecht's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Grief, War, Blood, Death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Torture, Trafficking, Rape, Sexual content, and Slavery

bethy_joy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gaslighting, Racism, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Death, Blood, Emotional abuse, Stalking, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Abandonment, Death of parent, Murder, and Bullying

Minor: Emotional abuse, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicide, Confinement, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

msradiosilence's review

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.0

Tldr; Minya gets a story, but so do other characters that were entirely unneeded. For an almost 600 page book, it was pretty boring.

Read my full review here: https://www.rainyreader.com/single-post/muse-of-nightmares.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Blood, Murder, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

nicole_rietveld's review against another edition

adventurous emotional relaxing 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

Conștiința ei se rupsese în bucăți, iar în urmă rămăsese o rană. Bucățile nu formau un întreg, ci erau niște bucăți însângerate: părți loiale familiei sale de odrasle ale zeilor și părți care înțelegeau că și oamenii erau victime.

Nu am fost sigură dacă merită să îi dau o șansă acestui volum, deoarece primul a fost foarte greu de parcurs și m-am plictisit în timpul lecturii, dar mă bucur că am decis să îl citesc.

Ce mi-a plăcut:

- trimiterile la seria Născută din fum și os;
- are în comun cu seria citită anterior faptul că ultimul volum are mai multă acțiune și este mai bine construit, față de cele anterioare centrate mai mult pe povestea de dragoste;
- modul în care sunt portretizate personajele negative, faptul că li se oferă o vindecare;
- lumea frumos construită;
- relațiile dintre personaje.

Ce nu mi-a plăcut:

- am avut probleme cu stilul de scriere mult prea poetic;
- condiția de fantomă a lui Sarai nu e convingătoare pentru că poate fi atinsă de cei din jur, iar deseori autoarea face referire la părțile corpului ei (piele, obraz, etc.).

În concluzie, cred că voi continua să citesc și alte cărți scrise de Laini Taylor. Acest volum este cu siguranță printre romanele favorite ale anului. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Slavery and Rape

sawyertaylor's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Rape and Slavery

oddduck's review

mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.0

I have mixed feelings about this book. Like, I liked it, but there was a lot that was not at all where I expected this to go, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it.

Let's start with the things I unequivocally liked. I really appreciated that the pace in this book was faster than the previous one. It was still slower than I would have preferred, but more happened in the present and there were fewer interruptions (flashbacks, exposition). I also really appreciated that Minya got more page time and development. I was very interested in her in the first book, so learning more about her was appreciated. I really liked both of her dreams that Sarai went into, and it was delightful to see Minya choose Sarai over her army. In general, the character development in this book was very good and exactly what I was hoping for, especially for Minya and Thyon Nero (I was so happy with his development).

I also loved the new bit, about Nova and Kora. At one point I had to skip ahead because I had to know what happened in their test on the ship. It was so interesting and tense. It also demonstrated that Laini Taylor can write short, succinct backstory that's interesting and conveys all the information we need to not be confused later on. 

Now then. What I’ve got mixed feelings about. 

For starters, Sarai and Lazlo's relationship was cute, but I do wish the timeline on it had been longer. It was very instalove in the first book, and the way it's written in this one felt as if they'd known each other and been together for a lot longer than they really were. And I get why Laini Taylor did that, since almost the entirety of Lazlo's motivation for what he does after Sarai's death is to protect her ghost, but it still was a little hard for me. I would have preferred Lazlo have multiple motivations and not essentially just Sarai. Still, they're a cute couple, at least until I remember how long they've known each other.

I’m not sure how I feel about the multiverse being introduced. In hindsight the whole “not of this world”/alien metal and mesarthim in general do kind of hint at this, but because magic exists in this world, I was not expecting the multiverse to be the answer to “where did the mesarthim come from”. I do like the end, when they go off to explore and find the other godspawn. But otherwise, it was not at all what I was expecting. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it can be difficult to adjust expectations without enough warning.

I'm also not sure how I feel about the way the plot was executed. The Minya-villain arc was mostly resolved because a bigger threat was introduced, and then the last of it was cleared up when Minya had to make a choice. I really liked that Sarai was trying to help Minya through dreams, so it would have been cool to finish the plot that way. And that's kind of what happened, but it was with Nova instead, so it didn't feel quite as meaningful to me.

This duology was a little outside of my usual reading, which was nice, but it did remind me why I don't usually read this genre. They were certainly enjoyable and a good change of pace though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Death, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, and War

Moderate: Rape, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, Slavery, and Trafficking

Minor: Animal death

escapismforlife's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

This was a wild ride. It's full of new self-discovery  for each of the characters. But also for the city of Weeps evolution of a better future. It took several  turns and I loved every second  of it.

Also I read  the Daughter of Smoke and Bone triology before this and was so excited  to see how this duology  world intertwined in this series. 
Also how cool Sarai's, Sparrow, and Nova's gift are after they change for better or worse.
Not to mention the fact that  Kora is Korako. Not to mention Rook, Warren and Kiska who are the most badass characters  reveals ever.

 This is one of the best  sequel  fantasy  books ever. Laini Taylor is a fantastic YA  author.  I felt a whole lot in the second half of February  reading this and wish I'd  done it sooner. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Violence, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Grief, Torture, Blood, Child death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Bullying, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Self harm