Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Muse of Nightmares by Laini Taylor

28 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

forgettingtofly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad slow-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I’m mourning that this duology had to end, but so grateful I got to read it.  I can’t quite express it yet, but this book was deeply moving and so good.  Well-written, achingly sad, wonderfully hopeful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Suicide, Child death, and Rape

lis98's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad 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

3.75

I have mixed feelings about this one. Overall it was an excellent book. 

Pros: 
The exploration of past trauma and how it affects us in the present is done masterfully. Especially concerning the circle of revenge and violence Laini Taylor handled the topic in a way I’ve never seen before. This book is a truly unique piece of art. 
The characters felt so real and believable.  Except for Skathis there’s no real evil people in this book. Every person has such rich emotions and motivations that you can’t help but feel for them even when they do the most horrendous things. Which gives the book quite a sad undertone throughout the whole story, I suppose. 
Contrary to the opinions I’ve seen on the internet so far I really enjoyed Nova’s story line a lot, especially in the beginning of the book.

As tragic as it was, I felt the completion of her story with her committing suicide quite fitting since it was hinted at from the start.

Cons: 
This time around, since the general tone of the book was heavier than the last I sometimes felt as if the poetic writing was kinda out of place. At times it would also feel a bit corny. 
I personally didn’t like the turn the plot took. The expansion of the scale of the story felt too grand for me, I didn’t like the idea of the different worlds. 
The pacing in the beginning was extremely slow. I think that some of the scenes we spent with Sarai and Lazlo could have been cut as much (as I adore the two together) while we could have spent a little more time in the end which felt a bit rushed at times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Sexual assault, Murder, and Child death

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

chantellimus's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Violence, and Child death

Moderate: Suicide, Abandonment, War, Sexual violence, Trafficking, Emotional abuse, Violence, Slavery, Sexual assault, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, and Kidnapping

Minor: Racism, Lesbophobia, Self harm, and Sexism

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

thewordsdevourer's review

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

*dreamy, wonder-filled sigh* this book is a gift; one of depraved darkness, oppression, hatred, but also of love and imagination and redemption and a world - worlds - of possibilities if we hope for it.

still have never read anything so wondrously, boundlessly imaginative, and the eretz easter eggs are a bonus too. muse is a languid yet tension-filled story, but its plot still contains surprises. the writing is absolutely exquisite; laini can make you ache, amazed, or devastated with just a phrase or even a single word. despite having already read this once before, i was still riveted.

i wish every single person read this book; god(s) knows the world would be so much better for it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, Child death, Emotional abuse, Child abuse, Grief, Domestic abuse, and Death

Minor: Sexual assault, Death of parent, Kidnapping, War, Suicide, Sexual violence, 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