Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Kingdom of Sweets

This piece had me reeling! I devoured every word. Some instances are not explained, so it made me think about possibilities, but i always enjoy a book that includes me and my thoughts.
The woes, darkness & betrayal were prominent; but lightened with hope, forgiveness, and the courage to accept ourselves, and life, in all their forms.

Content Warnings

kbratty's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

4.0

beautifully written and fascinating reimagining of The Nutcracker. pacing was a bit off during intense moments and the plot went a little astray toward the end but it was still one of my favorite reads this year and a great book for the holiday season.

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lauren_shilling's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.25

I want to start off by saying that this book is beautifully written. The writing is absolutely gorgeous, and very very immersive. However, that was really the only thing I really enjoyed about it. I felt like the plot was kind of all over the place. If the plot had only been the first half of the book, I would have probably given this 3.25 stars, but everything that came after the halfway mark bored me to tears. I also really couldn't stand the main character. She was very thoroughly an "I'm not like other girls' character, and in a way that put down other women, particularly Clara, who enjoyed things like collecting dolls and who cared and enjoyed caring about her appearance. Natasha, the main character, kind of made it seem like these were bad things and her lack of interest in them made her better than Clara, which bothered me. By the end of the book, this is supposed to have been changed and show that Natasha has changed as a person, but it felt almost lazily done, and it wasn't good enough for me. The reason I kept reading was because, as I said, the writing was gorgeous, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

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sleightofdance's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

A quick and easy read despite being dark, mysterious, and challenging. All-around intriguing. Would read again.

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liamliayaum's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

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thereadingllama's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

2.5

So so dark. Hard to get through if you are a fan of the magic of the Nutcracker. I also felt like parts were reaching quite far without backing it up with storyline.

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partiallyanika's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-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? It's complicated

2.0

I just decided that there is actually not a long review left in me because I am so done with this book. It tries to do too much.

Why was there so much half hearted political subplot in the last third? Why was Rasputin suddenly there??

I cared for none of the characters and frankly I find the story confusing at best.

The "nutcracker retelling" element really only matters for the first third of the book and there are absolutely no christmas-y feelings to be gained from it. Also the main character is very much a "not like other girls" girl and there is a strong femininity shaming undertone to all of it.

I will give the author one thing and that is that her writing is very vivid. She does know how to craft scenery but the entire time I was reading it I thought that maybe she should try writing an art-house horror movie instead of whatever this wanted to be at the end.

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