Reviews with content warning for Slavery - Shadow and Bone: Collector's Edition

Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Shadow and Bone: Collector's Edition by Leigh Bardugo

66 reviews

anielabooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Honestly, I really liked this book. I finished it in about 5 days, and I’m very excited to start the next one. Definitely a book that got a lot of gasps from me towards the end. The world it is set in seems so interesting that I already see myself falling in love with it. Although I was a little late to reading this series, I don’t doubt that it will live up to the hype.

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liminalnotes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.75

I might have come into this with bias knowing that these books aren't that great or at least, not as great as the SOC duology. But yeah, this was a bit difficult to get into. The contrast of coming from SOC and its extremely lovable characters to this with its 'meh' characters was too much. Still, having watched the Netflix adaptation made it easier to read through and it was interesting to see the differences from the show. I did like maybe one or two characters and I was intrigued by some of them, but not to a great extent. Still, did I enjoy reading this? Of course. I loved getting to know more about the Grishaverse and while I might take a break before continuing the series, I'm still looking forward to reading the rest of the books.

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wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Decidedly on the okay to meh spectrum..

The world building and magic system is interesting (if not semi-lazy with the quasi-Russian culture) but the characters are flat and one dimensional. I was waffling on whether or not to continue the series but the idea of what comes next from the main character's POV doesn't thrill me so I'll probably look up what happens instead.

It's bizarre that the main character starts out as an orphan from war (roughly 8 years old), and seems mature beyond her 17 years by the time the main story arc starts (she is an apprentice cartographer in the army), and then regresses into angsty teenager drama full of petty, juvenile, and shallow plot points because of a chosen one trope?

Lastly, the romance was bad. Both dudes are controlling and manipulative, want to possess her, don't actually care what she wants. Think of any high school romance drama and you will understand the tropes thrown in this book. There's literally a glow up/makeover scene (multiple times actually because they want to emphasize how much she's changed from the 'skinny-but-not-in-a-hot-way' person she was before).

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njcarnevale's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

A lot of the plot of this book is similar to Harry Potter. Main character has powers she didn't know about and gets taken somewhere to train in these powers to face this impending danger. There are few differences, but it's your typical fantasy plot. The groups of characters in the book and the powers they have are unique as well, much like Harry Potter houses. There are plot holes that could've have ended the book much sooner, but overall the book is well structured and written.

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