Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Siege and Storm

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

50 reviews

rangerwing75's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-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

2.5

Started off strong, got really boring during the middle, picked up again near the end, but I was so close to putting it down. The political stuff was fun, but Alina and Mal’s relationship problems quickly killed any joy I’d had at the start with Nikolai and his crew. Shadow and Bone was great, and I wonder why this didn’t follow suit.

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talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

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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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theblushbookworm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.5

The sequel did not disappoint! I felt so much for Alina throughout this book. Even if she is the Sun Summoner her struggles are always incredibly relatable. I’m always rooting for her; time will tell if I root for her and Mal as couple though. Still highly recommend!

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mythian's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-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

3.75

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themiscyra_anna's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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sarahek716's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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louise_outthere's review

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

It took me 9 months to get through the first half... It's very long to read, Alina is boring... why is Mal still alive? Thankfully by the page 300 it became interesting. If it wasn't for Nikolai I'd rate the book 2 stars only. Nikolai is by far the only one that kept me reading. Maybe developing a bit more Vasily's character would have been a great idea.
The first book was amazing, I'm kind of disappointed by this one. Still want to read the third one I heard it was way better!

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trintrin's review

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adventurous medium-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

NIKOLAI LANTSOV!!!!! How does your back feel after carrying this entire book, sir? I know I cannot legally give any book featuring Nikolai Lantsov less than 5 stars but Mal is starting to annoy me so points taken off :(

I love that Alina is becoming a much stronger character but she still kinda relies on men to feel like she matters and I hope she changes in the next book. It's so refreshing to read about her not-so-moral thoughts ~~like her firebird cravings for example~~. I still have hope for Mal to change but he's really insecure and that gets on my nerves. Tamar, Tolya and Zoya are super cool and David too ig. I wanted to see more of the Darkling and Genya but they barely got any scenes ;-;

Let's talk about Alina's love interests. Okay I admit Darklina is hot but nahhh ain't no way I'm gonna ship them that dude is an ancient fossil and he's evil on top of that. Nikolai seems too good to be true and even though I love him, I don't think him and Alina would make a good pair. There was a part where I thought Leigh was gonna kill Mal off (maybe even hoped that would be the case) but that didn't happen and I'm not sure if I like it or not. Because out of the options Mal would be the best fit and they're most likely gonna end up together but I still wish things were a little different. Maybe if Mal was just a little more likeable or maybe if Alina and Nikolai fit together a little better but oh well.

Some parts of the book felt like it's repeating scenes from the first one. ~~like the sea whip or the Alina v. Darkling at the end and the way she tricked him sort of??~~ The middle part dragged a little but over all I think I like this one more than the first. Leigh's writing is as beautiful as ever and it's a page turner for sure.

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saj04's review against another edition

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adventurous sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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cherru's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

This book gave me so many feelings. At the end I was so mad that it took such a turn, and not in a good way but in a bad…

There were like one or two big reveals which you could guess pretty early on.

One of them was Sturmhound’s identity and the other was about the twins being part of something more…

The pacing of the book is so much different than the first book. The first had such a good world building and it was action packed. This one had around 35% into the book some of action and then it was until almost the very end full with Alina’s thoughts. And no, they aren’t interesting at all and I didn’t care. This is so much slower than the first book, but in a bad way.

I stopped caring for Alina and Mal. Alina keeps changing her mind and has become such a dislikeable person. First she feels strong and feels the power and then suddenly she says that people put too much faith in her and that she can’t change anything. She keeps going from feeling strong to feeling weak and nothing special. That made me so mad. Also the author made her power hungry, which changed my perspective on her and changed the dynamics of the relationships.

She even wanted to harm people more than once… is it because of the Darkling or did she become so stupid suddenly?

Also let’s not get started on the amplifier… does it do something, because she is as weak as the beginning and she doesn’t have any power ups. She is portraying herself as feeling the power rush to her etc but at the end of the day, she still can’t do anything about everything…

Then Mal and the romance. The worst part of all.

Mal is suddenly like a baby needing all the attention from Alina and sulking when he doesn’t get any. I mean he was working all day in Novyi Zem and couldn’t see Alina that much anyway. It feels like he just hates Grisha and the rich people for no good reason. He didn’t even try to make it bearable for himself. He made his mind in the beginning that he was going to hate it and he didn’t stop hating the Little Palace. Aren’t their quarters like private and couldn’t he have slept with Alina or spend a bit of time together before her meetings? Only the twins would have known. They didn’t even try that… Suddenly they had the most cliché argument. He felt her changing and he wasn’t spending enough time with her etc and just because she flinched from his kiss he got mad and kind of broke up with her??? I would see that as a break up because not long after Mal decided to kiss Zoya and Alina saw everything. Oh and Alina almost kissed someone else too. You don’t do that if as they said “you cannot live without that person” and “he/she is my home and where I belong”. I believed that they meant those words. I thought their love was strong. But no, it was just a childish romance. Needless to say, I stopped rooting for them. I would love for Mal to just go away with Zoya and Alina doing her own things. They don’t need to be together if they can cheat so easily.

At one point Alina’s and Mal’s relationship became as toxic as the series “After (we collided)”. And I hated those books and the dynamics the couple had. This wasn’t needed at all. I feel like the author did this because she couldn’t fill the second book anyway.

If it was me, I would have made it spicier and made the relationship of Nikolai and Alina blossom in a very slow way. They would have fallen for each other in a natural way and Alina would have known that she wasn’t actually in love with Mal but just clinging on him, because he was all she had before, but not anymore.

The last thing I disliked was Sturmhound’s romance. Was it really needed? It felt really forced. Why does every single man have to have feelings for the main character… But Sturmhound as a character made the whole story more bearable. At least he didn’t act like a kid, unlike a certain protagonist and her lover…

I hope that this book is more for YA, because it’s filled with clichés that my younger self would have loved.

The only reason why I didn’t give this book a lower rating even though it deserves it, is because of Nikolai and because I like the world. It makes me biased.

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