Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

29 reviews

booksalacarte's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

First read (6/2022)- 3⭐️

Reread (1/2024)- 4.75⭐️ 1.75🌶️

New Adult Fantasy Romance

Book 3

Multi POV

Magic

Magical beasts

🏳️‍🌈 normative representation 

Tw: grief

This book not only sifts through Celaena’s grief, showing us the multifaceted growth of her character.

We are introduced to Manon, the 13, and what the witches are up to. I adore dragons/wyverns, so seeing the development of this side of the story was compelling, but also hefty in the back story and additional worldbuilding that is wrapped up in having a witch go from being mentioned, to being a critical part of the overarching plot.

Another introduction was Rowan, this old battered and dried up fae who helps train Aelin and her magic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Cannibalism, Confinement, Genocide, War, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Blood, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

annamary54's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

3.75

i absolutely LOVED like chap 40ish to the end! the rest was very boring for me.

i really tried to care about Manon, and i had moments where i would get into the whole wyvern story. i know in the next books i’ll find out why her story is so important, but the fact that we’re just now following some rando witch is hard to grasp. i also thought the story line with dorian and sorscha was very forced. did i cry still? yes. it felt like she was just added to create character development for dorian. maybe if we were introduced to her way earlier in the story, like when they were getting healed in the past. or maybe even waited until next book to kill her, cause her development felt very rushed in the last few chapters she was in.

i did laugh and cry, and do my “i’m enjoying this” move where i set down the book and kinda have to talk to myself about whatever is emotionally hitting me.

the killing of all the slaves really got me. usually in books i don’t cry unless it’s about deaths of specific characters, but this was horrific. it’s also maybe me reading it with the timing of Palestine being in the news constantly that really got me emotional. thinking about something that horrific and realizing it’s literally happening to mostly children in real life. oof.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Vomit, Violence, Torture, Physical abuse, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: War, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Alcohol, Sexual content, Abandonment, and Incest

firehearttt's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Emotional abuse, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Grief, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, and Death

Moderate: Slavery, Death of parent, War, and Torture

infjkiki's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Toxic relationship, Classism, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Confinement, Torture, Body horror, Slavery, War, and Violence

britwalsh16's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Omg! Did this series get REALLY good!!! Sarah J Maas seems to start her series off simple with minimum characters & world building & their good. But once she’s a book or 2 in, she like let’s loose! Quadruples the amount of characters, makes the world so much bigger, and just lets all the drama and problems unfold. & I have to say it is a brilliant strategy. You don’t necessarily get fully hooked to the story in the beginning, but she’s not throwing a lot of stuff at you at once. If I started this book without having already known some of the characters, I don’t know if I would have been able to follow along and remember who all the players are. But having been brought into the story slowly, I followed it so easy, and I am thankful for that!
This book was incredible! I can’t wait for the rest of the series & to hopefully meet even more amazing characters!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Grief, Cannibalism, Blood, Murder, Slavery, Gore, Animal cruelty, Death, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, War, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Classism, Emotional abuse, Colonisation, Suicidal thoughts, Confinement, Cursing, Medical content, Physical abuse, and Body horror

Minor: Abandonment, Excrement, and Drug use

ikiteahill's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Compared to Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight, this book was more enjoyable. There's not quite as much focus on the weird love triangle between Celaena, Chaol, and Dorian. And we learn a lot more about the witches and the fae, so obviously there is a lot more magic in this book.  There are some parts of the story that felt a little like the author was pulling at strings to get the plot to go where she needed it to go. A lot happens in this book and the POV switches between several characters. Usually this bothers me, but perhaps because I listened to the audiobook version, it didn't seem so jarring to switch POV because I was able to move through the story a lot faster than when I read text. The ending leaves you on a cliffhanger wondering what happens next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Body horror, and Grief

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Genocide

Minor: Drug use and Slavery

dalek_caan's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-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

3.75

I felt like the beginning of the book dragged a bit, but as always with sjm books the second half of the book was a whirlwind. I thought the progression of the story was interesting, and am eager to pick up the next book in the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Body horror, Self harm, Slavery, Suicide attempt, Gore, War, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Grief, Violence, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Colonisation, Death, Vomit, Misogyny, and Torture

Moderate: Incest, Deadnaming, and Animal death

cathkk's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

So good but definitely a world building book. Lots of interwoven plots and different POV. Last 150 pages are VERY fast paced and make up for the slow beginning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, War, Murder, Slavery, Violence, Body horror, Grief, Death, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Torture

The gore and death lies somewhere between a middle grade and adult fantasy novel.

a_wren_that_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, and Violence

imds's review

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Animal death, Blood, Confinement, Gore, War, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Colonisation, Death of parent, Genocide, Violence, Torture, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death, Murder, and Physical abuse

Minor: Incest