Reviews tagging 'War'

The Girl in The Tower by Katherine Arden

23 reviews

kukazashi's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Confinement, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, and Sexism

Minor: War, Grief, Rape, and Fire/Fire injury

bookycnidaria's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, War, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Slavery and Kidnapping

mary_stormageddon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

I didn't enjoy this one as much as Bear and the Nightingale. However, I still liked it and am excited for book 2

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Slavery, Body horror, Pregnancy, Blood, and War

skelleybean's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, War, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Pregnancy, Grief, Violence, Misogyny, Body horror, and Alcohol

olivia_piepmeier's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-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

4.0

Like the first book, this is a great winter read - so easy to fall into the world that's also in the midst of winter, and oddly comforting for the bitterness of winter to be relayed in what you're reading. I'm also rather impressed I didn't feel like I was missing anything having read the other book nearly a year ago. Folks that think "winter fairy tale in medieval Russia with some gender commentary" sounds good will dig it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Sexism, Misogyny, Child death, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Gaslighting, Medical trauma, War, Kidnapping, Slavery, Murder, Gore, Confinement, and Violence

Minor: Death of parent and Vomit

sas_lk's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

So incredibly good. So close to a 5 star, it just did not give me a 5 star feeling, but I absolutely loved it. Highly recommend this series, can't wait to start the 3rd book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexism, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Moderate: War, Miscarriage, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Animal cruelty, Vomit, and Slavery

magicsarah's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Blood, Violence, Child death, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Death of parent, Trafficking, and Animal death

basil_touche's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

I'd say that this is even better than the first book. No word is wasted here, yet it paints such a vivid and clear story of a girl fighting for her freedom in a period that denies her that, while also trying to keep what family she has left in Moscow safe from those who seek to use her to gain power. 

Also learned some things about Medieval Russia, the whole narrative feels very well researched in that regard.

It was also quite neat to see more of the mythical beings of Russian Folklore in this, but I feel that they don't appear as much as in the first novel. However, with this story leaving certain threads unanswered, I feel that the last book of the trilogy will feature more of them while also revealing what has been hidden under the surface the last two books. I eagerly anticipate reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Murder, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, and War

Moderate: Xenophobia, Grief, and Self harm

Minor: Slavery

kaiyakaiyo's review

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

3.5 stars rounded up! 

I liked this sequel, and I liked that we saw some failure from Vasya. She seemed to miraculously know most things last book, so seeing her have to put pieces together and realize that everything won’t be handed to her added more depth to her than she had before. She makes hasty choices and they have consequences, and seeing her deal with that made her feel much more real.

I was not into how much this book leaned on assault and objectification to strike fear into Vasya; bodily harm (because yknow, war & magic battles) without rape threat and violent misogyny would’ve been sufficient. Staying historically accurate doesn’t require focusing in on details like that. The Game of Thrones school of dealing with misogyny in history should be burned to the ground, but I digress 

I was afraid this book would bore me because it verged on political intrigue, but honestly those parts were easy to gloss over to get to the magic bits. I love the balance the author found there. I don’t care about palace life beyond how it directly impacts our characters, and I don’t enjoy reading about political machinations. This book gave me just enough context to continue making its point about gender & power dynamics in this time period

Overall fun, but I’ll be honest in saying that I hope the next book is far from a palace. I also find myself ready for a conclusion, so I’m glad this is a trilogy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexism, Misogyny, and War

Moderate: Sexual violence, Vomit, Violence, Child death, Child abuse, and Pregnancy

toriffic'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Sexism, and Death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Miscarriage, Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, War, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Pregnancy, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Self harm