Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Seasparrow by Kristin Cashore

30 reviews

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.5

I still think that Graceling and Fire are two of Cashore's best works, and I haven't felt that from these recent installments in the Graceling universe. Don't get me wrong, I love this world and I think it's fascinating. We get back to some of the politics towards the end of this book, which is when I think Cashore is at her strongest. Political intrigue, great characters. That's the magic for her.

Hava, the main character in this one, isn't the most likeable at the beginning, but her journey is one of reckoning with the abuse and neglect she faced as a child. Throughout, she's able to work through that, to allow herself to trust once again. It's a character arc that really works, and the addition of the foxes does wonders. The foxes were honestly my favorite part of this book!

However, I would love if Cashore focused on a different aspect of this world if she wants to keep writing Graceling books. Show me a different set of characters, with maybe a mention of those we already know. It would help build the world even more, and the world is one of the best parts of this series.

All in all, I enjoyed this, but not as much as the early Cashore books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Grief

Moderate: Death of parent, Child abuse, and Sexual assault

Minor: Homophobia, Child death, and Rape

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Drug use, Murder, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Death, Medical content, Confinement, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Addiction, Pedophilia, Child death, Rape, Torture, War, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Excrement, Sexism, Homophobia, and Vomit

Needles, nonconsensual drugging. Near-drowning, distress at sea. Urination. Frostbite, amputation.

waqupi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Pedophilia and Homophobia

bchallis's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Child abuse, Violence, and Death of parent

atthelibrarywithmegan's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

I just finished Seasparrow and I’m hoping it’s not the last in the series; although it did just come out in November. This was a 4 ⭐️read for me. There were parts that were slow; but they were on a ship, what do you expect? I feel like Hava’s character had some really great autistic representation that isn’t normally in pop culture. (Iykyk) Whether that was intentional or not, I really loved it. I can’t wait to do a reread of all 5 books in the Graceling series at some point. They’ll always hold a special place in my heart.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death of parent, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, and Sexual assault

aseel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.75

If this book was 100-200 pages shorter, it would have been fantastic. I liked the actual plot events and hava's character arc but because the book was so long and so slow, I started getting annoyed with hava and her behaviours. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Rape, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, and Blood

totallyshelfaware's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual violence

Minor: Rape and Gaslighting

gracefully_jk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Animal death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Dementia

Minor: Abandonment, Confinement, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Rape, and Sexual violence

I’m using so many tags to try and make sure I’m covering everything. Much of this is only small mentions, or failed attempts, or only spoken of vaguely or in flashback memories; most of it is handled with great delicacy and gentleness. The one thing to note is the injury detail/blood warning: there is some relatively explicitly described injury, including amputation. Specifically:

The characters find themselves stranded in an arctic-like environment; one person gets frostbite and has their toes amputated, while another person gets an unspecified injury to their leg and has it amputated. Both of these procedures and their effect on the people who received them (as well as on the main character) is described in fairly good detail, so if that sort of thing bothers you, please tread carefully. You can skip it, but it does get mentioned a few times, and the aftermath is quite evident. No one dies of these injuries.

donaghys1's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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

This book is a fantastic addition to the series! I loved being inside Hava’s mind. I especially loved the tour of every character we know and love in this book. The balance and combination of magic and technilogical advances was beautiful and intriuging. I especially love how Kristin Cashore writes gender in this series. In this book especially, the way the foxes communicate with each other and people feels like a nod in agreement to the concept of intuition and vibes. Oh, and the ship was SO COOL. It took me right back to my Semester at Sea days :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Grief

Moderate: Violence, Animal death, and Mental illness

Minor: Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Death, Addiction, Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Torture

There is a shipwreck. The characters are in survival mode from about page 150 to about page 360.

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Death of parent, Death, Animal death, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Drug use, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Confinement, Child abuse, and Mental illness

Minor: Homophobia

Nonconsensual drugging, animal trafficking, post-partum depression, food insecurity