Reviews tagging 'War'

Siege and Storm by Leigh Bardugo

107 reviews

creolelitbelle's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

The second book began excitingly enough, but the middle was quite a slog. I enjoyed the growth of characters introduced in the first book and watching them interact with new characters. Learning more about the world and how things operate was fun, but I do wish most outside of Ravka was incorporated into the story. Court politics and relationships amped up to the point that I truly couldn't guess what would happen next. I suspect at least part of the course of the final book with the potential of Alina's weapons, but the evolution of her power and the Darkling's magic is what I'm most interested to see. The best part of a fantasy with politics woven in for me is always the final battle of the war, and events at the Little Palace prove that will be epic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Death, Blood, Animal death, War, Toxic relationship, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Torture

matcha_pages's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, and War

12345username's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Murder, and Mental illness

jackacj's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Writing this review in the middle of Ruin and Rising because I was too lazy to do it earlier.
I liked this book! It was a good continuation of Shadow and Bone. I loved Sturmhond's character, he was such a strong addition to the series. I liked the plot and the ideas of this book. However, I have issues with the execution.

Alina is at the Little Palace for a while in the book. This is mostly glossed over. I believe this was a mistake. The side characters, specifically the ones who survive the battle at the end of the book, are painfully underdeveloped. Like, seriously. Zoya is a bully. David is basically a stereotypical autistic person (I'm sorry but it's true). Nadia exists. Genya is great and all but she's in the book for like 2 minutes. These characters desperately need some depth

. Also,

I am not sure how I feel about what this book did to Mal. I really like him in the first book where he is, well. I dunno. I am feeling ambivalent about - on one hand, it makes sense, on the other, it all feels too needless .

Finally,

merzost

is sick as fuck.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: War, Sexual harassment, and Torture

Minor: Rape, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

Enjoyed this surprisingly more than I expected 😅 I still don’t like the Alina-Mal romance, Nikolai said it right “for an eternal love, you’re both really insecure about it” 🫠 FUCKING TALK TO EACH OTHER?!!

I love Nikolai!! He was entertaining and had some great one liners. The pacing is so much better compared to book 1,

also maybe helps that book 2 is very different from the adaptation so I wasn’t as bored because I didn’t know everything that would happen and when.

I also liked Tolya and Tamar, they had more personality and we got to know them better compared to side characters in the first book. I was pleasantly surprised that I liked this more than Shadow and Bone (mostly because of Nikolai and the pacing was better)! I’m actually excited to read book 3 now 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Toxic relationship, and War

Moderate: Death and Animal death

kenzie_simone456's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

mlovationer1's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Colonisation, Death, Murder, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Injury/Injury detail, and War

e_emmaa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Grief, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Infidelity, Animal death, Body horror, Murder, War, Child death, Gore, Sexual assault, and Violence

patchedspines's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Murder, Abandonment, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Body horror and Alcohol

petradannibale's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Death, Genocide, and Blood

Moderate: Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Suicidal thoughts