Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

36 reviews

ladygetslit's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

While I enjoyed the concept of the series, Siege and Storm falls victim to second book syndrome in that it feels like not much is happening. The best part of the entire book was the addition of Nikolai’s character. The worst part of the book, honestly, was Alina’s narration. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping and Torture

klsreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Alcoholism, Body horror, Murder, Violence, Gore, and Blood

Minor: Child death

emilywemily6's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-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

I am really enjoying this series as a whole, but you can definitely tell this is a middle book in a saga where most of the book is spent in inner/external turmoil and not a lot happens in the plot. The last 100 pages blew me away and I couldn’t put it down though! This book feels necessary to introduce important characters, show character development in Alina, and set up for the final conflict in the third book, but it felt slow and was a little bit of a slog to get through. Mal got a bit annoying but as Alina understood him better I guess I did too. And I somehow have a crush on both Nicolai and the Darkling (despite everything).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, and War

Moderate: Grief, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, and Bullying

Minor: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

memorykey2's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.5

Listen, its been so long since I've read Siege and Storm and Ruin and Rising that they have completely blended together in my mind. The pacing was a little off in this book and it was a little hard to get through certain parts of it. That said, this book lets you see how Leigh Bardugo's strengths are developing and leading to something amazing in the future. Still, gross age difference and gross/ possesive behavior to a minor.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, and Kidnapping

salem0's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

i love worldbuilding stuff, and this book was mainly centered around explaining more of the background of the grishaverse which was pretty interesting. the plot was pretty slow tho, and it was a little boring in the middle of the book. i liked seeing some of the characters' flaws become more prominent in this. last fight scene felt a bit rushed, i would've liked it to have lasted long. nice book overall.

also my copy came with a short story about genya, called 'the tailor', which was pretty good and quite emotional. i'm probably biased because genya's one of my favorites from the trilogy so far. but i liked it a little more than the whole of s&s.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping and War

Minor: Sexual harassment

casdelvo's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Sexual violence and Torture

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, War, Death, Confinement, Violence, Murder, Gore, Emotional abuse, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Animal death, Classism, Racism, Gun violence, Torture, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Body horror, and Stalking

Minor: Sexual content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Incest, Infidelity, Drug use, Fatphobia, Child death, Death of parent, and Child abuse

thebookaddict's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

4.5

The first book was better in my opinion. The action came early in this book and too much happened at once. The book got better as the story proceeded but I do think that some part are boring and unnecessary for the storyline.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Sexual content, Violence, War, Death, Kidnapping, Torture, Blood, Gun violence, Alcoholism, Alcohol, Cursing, and Injury/Injury detail

david_slack110507's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This book is much better than the first one in my opinion yet I feel unable to give it a 4-star rating. I feel like it's closer to a 3.5 or 3.75 rounded down but I may bump it up after I let my thoughts ruminate on it. 

I found that this book was much more gripping that the previous one which very much felt like the first book in a trilogy (Not a bad thing but it definitely had that feeling) whereas while the long chapters remain in this one (And I'm assuming in all of Leigh Bardugo's work) I found it much easier and enjoyable to get through as well as it taking me less time. I liked a lot of the new characters the obvious being Nikolai who I feel brought a lot of charm to the novel and his back and forth with Alina was probably one of my favourite parts of the novel. Speaking of Alina, this time around while she still doubts herself and has her insecurities she felt a lot more involved in the action and getting to see her utilise the Cut and her power was nice to see throughout the novel. 

I also really liked that we got to see more of the military-type operation and world of the Grishaverse/Ravka and Alina coming into control of the Second Army was really cool to see as it was a nice change of pace to have her decide to fight back against the Darkling (As briefly mentioned above). Tolya and Tamar were also a pretty good addition to the ensemble of characters even if they don't get a lot of backstory or much to do besides protecting Alina. 

I can definitely see how some may not like this book as like how I feel with the first book feeling like the first book in a trilogy the same could be said for this one which can definitely feel like the second book and middle-point in a trilogy with its main goal being to set up the 3rd book/conclusion and filling out the rest of time with character dramas and a larger focus on dialogue and development that action (E.g the main real conflicts only come at the beginning and the end and The Darkling remains out of the picture for nearly all of the book aside from the final confrontation and appearing physically to Alina throughout after her nichevo'ya bite)

Overall, I might have the unpopular opinion that I preferred this book to the first and found it to be much more engaging (Perhaps due to the first book having set up everything that the second book could easily and comfortably ease back into the world). I'm planning on trying to finish this series as soon as possible rather than taking a couple of months break in between like I did with this book and the first.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, and Death

Moderate: War, Gore, Grief, Stalking, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Cursing, Sexual assault, Animal death, Child death, Sexual harassment, and Animal cruelty

prettynerdy3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Bullying, Classism, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, War, Vomit, Child death, Gore, and Murder