Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J. Maas

71 reviews

sarahmcg's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

I really enjoyed the first installment of the Crescent City series! I know a lot of people say the world-building is a lot, but once I got the hang of the different species, it was pretty easy for me to follow. Bryce might be one of my new favorite FMCs of SJM. She is stubborn, brave, loyal to a fault, and smart. Of course I love Hunt and Ruhn too, but how about Syrinx and Lehabah?! Characters that do not get enough hype 🥲❤️ anyway, the last 100-150 pages were wild and I could not stop until I knew what happened. I hear the next book is even wilder.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Violence, Grief, and Drug use

Moderate: Slavery and Bullying

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and War

elledanie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

Had to give 5⭐️ since it made me cry so much! Will be thinking about this one for a while…SJM does it again, a mastermind 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Self harm, Suicide attempt, Torture, Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Grief, Medical content, Animal death, Murder, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, War, Abandonment, Alcohol, Violence, Car accident, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Gun violence, Vomit, Addiction, Death of parent, Drug use, and Gore

kshertz's review

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Wow that was a journey! I’ve been wanting to read this forever but it’s so many pages! But it’s true that once you get into this world, all you want to do is read and keep going. I definitely got invested. In fact I’m much more invested in the side characters actually. I’ll just keep on reading these books! They’re excellent. I can’t give it 5 stars because there was no sex. What the heck?! I was bummmmmed. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Violence, War, Cursing, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Slavery, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Addiction, Drug abuse, Gore, Abandonment, Classism, Death, and Grief

localjoy34's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying and Suicide attempt

cady_sass's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

4.5 ⭐️ rounded up 
To think I almost DNFed this after 50 pages!!! Which is why I deduct half a star. The first few chapters are really hard to read, they’re nonsensical, lazy world building and make almost zero sense to the point where I felt compelled to put it down. Some friends convinced me it was worth the push so I started over and pushed through part 1, at which point I absolutely *devoured* the rest of the book. I didn’t guess any of the twists, I fell in love with all the characters, my heart broke and pieced itself back together and broke over and over again. Loved this. ACOTAR who? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Alcohol, Racial slurs, Medical content, Vomit, Slavery, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Torture, War, Blood, Classism, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Body horror, Child abuse, Sexual content, Sexism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Cannibalism, Cursing, Death, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

laurenbcorwin's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.5

The beginning is an information dump. Once it really gets into the story, it’s hard to put down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Violence, Alcohol, Murder, Slavery, Death, Drug use, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Sexual content, War, Violence, and Torture

Minor: Blood and Classism

lea_talisa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Slavery, Vomit, Violence, Death, Bullying, War, Confinement, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Drug use

readsbymoonlight's review

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

4.5

Damn, this book made had me crying multiple times near the end! I AM REELING. Yes, this book is longer than I think it needs to be but I enjoyed it even though there was a lot of info-dumping especially in the beginning.

There are so many things I loved about this book. 1) The world building was really impressive and fleshed out. It felt like every character had their own backstory and the history of the world beyond the scope of the main story felt real and like there was a lot more to learn about it. 2) Lots of lovable characters. And Bryce is just fucking awesome. 3) The themes of friendship, love, and grief were beautifully portrayed in the story. 4)  The banter between Bryce and Hunt is great. And the slow burn!! *fans self* Let’s just say I’m running out to get book 2 immediately (for…ahem…reasons)!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Alcohol, Gun violence, Gore, Violence, Bullying, Panic attacks/disorders, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Body shaming, Suicide attempt, and Slavery

liliana_b's review

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Death, Bullying, Grief, and Violence

essie__reads's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I screamed. I cried. I gasped. I fell in love with these characters and their relationships with one another. If there's one thing SJM can do it is portray loyal, loving friendships. This book had some heavy topics surrounding grief and loss (see CWs) but they were handled so well. The world building took me a bit to get into but then I was hooked after the first 100 pages haha. This might be one of my favorite SJM books now (having read all but CC2 at this point). It wasn't as romance heavy as the ACOTAR series but the flirting, banter and the beginning of relationships was all present (hopefully some of these will continue in CC2). There was still some smut present and this is definitely not a YA book. I thought the pacing of this book flowed smoother than ACOTAR or TOG making it easier to digest. The plot is basically a murder mystery and I didn't find any of the major plot points to be predictable. I highly recommend this book!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, Violence, and Slavery

Moderate: Drug use and Bullying

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Panic attacks/disorders, Death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, War, and Medical content