Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo

10 reviews

albyalbyalby's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? No

5.0

 Leigh Bardugo never disappoints with the Grishaverse, and the delightful and subversive takes on classic fairytales she gives in this book are underrated by her fans. The stunning descriptions give wonderful visuals that any reader will enjoy. Not to mention the beautiful illustrations throughout. Overall, highly recommend! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, Cannibalism, Violence, Death, Body horror, and Gore

Moderate: Sexual assault, Confinement, Child abuse, Incest, Child death, Blood, and Animal death

Minor: Pedophilia, War, Toxic relationship, Bullying, and Xenophobia

rory18's review against another edition

challenging dark inspiring mysterious 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

A masterfully crafted collection of dark yet inspiring cautionary tales. There's no unreality trigger warning, but if there was one it would certainly apply for The Soldier Prince (heavy themes of grooming in that one, too.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Blood, Xenophobia, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, Drug abuse, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Child death, Alcohol, Homophobia, and War

icy_queen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Death, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

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

Minor: Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, War, Bullying, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, and Child death

wrinnola's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Blood, Confinement, Child death, Violence, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Classism, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Self harm, Body horror, and Bullying

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Addiction

jaye_birde's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

My favorite book of original and retold fairytales! Gorgeous artwork and stories that will haunt me for quite some time. Appropriate for High school or older readers 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Child death, Animal death, Body horror, Gaslighting, Cannibalism, Blood, Murder, and Bullying

peggy_racham's review against another edition

4.5

Six childrens stories that the grishaverse characters probably grew up hearing. They were all unique, interesting and diferent even when taking inspiration from some of our stories. 
(TWs are mostly of page and mention only, but these are stories similar to grimm original)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Murder

theespressoedition's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

I won’t be rating this one as a whole because each story received a different level of love from me - but I will say that it was all brilliantly written. Not that I’m surprised, considering it was Leigh Bardugo. All hail the Queen.

[update] After much discussion with my other reader friends, I've decided to rate the individual stories within this book!

Zemeni:

Ayama and the Thorn Wood - I was completely entranced by this story. So much so that I flew through it and it was done before I felt like I'd even really started. Such an interesting tale and it gets 4 stars.

Ravkan:

The Too-Clever Fox - This story was really creative, though slightly predictable. I was pretty sad while reading it as well because of all of the animal deaths. It gets 3 stars because of that.

The Witch of Duva - I was absolutely disgusted by this story and felt myself making a repulsed face throughout most of it. Someone told me that the witch in the wood is supposedly The Darkling's sister? That part is intriguing, but I was still too grossed out to give this one any more than 1 star, unfortunately.

Little Knife - What a great story! I was fascinated by the river and the way it took on a character of its own. Plus, the true ending was surprising in the best way possible. This tale gets 4 stars.

Kerch:

The Soldier Prince - Another one that had me flying through. I just had to know what happened next during every moment. I also loved that it brought in elements of The Nutcracker! I wished that it never ended, which made me realize this was definitely worth 5 stars.

Fjerdan:

When Water Sang Fire - This gave me Little Mermaid vibes while also being mildly terrifying and gruesome. I wasn't sure where the story was going and I loved that about it. It wasn't nearly as predictable as some of the others and the ending was quite powerful, as well as completely heartwrenching. It was another one that I didn't really want to end, so again, this one gets 5 stars.

I definitely want to purchase this book now that I've read the library copy. The illustrations were astounding and I loved how they told the tale just as much as the writing did. I can definitely see myself reading these short stories again and again (aside from The Witch of Duva, of course).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Death, Sexual assault, and Torture

emily_mh's review against another edition

dark mysterious relaxing fast-paced

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

4.5

Leigh Bardugo knows how to write fairy tales SO WELL. This was creepy and atmospheric and often tragic. It was the perfect autumn read (even though it's spring where I live). My favourite story was probably the Witch of Duva. Docked a half star because I thought the first and last stories dragged a little. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Incest, Pedophilia, Murder, Death, Violence, Self harm, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore, Domestic abuse, Child death, Medical content, Blood, and Cannibalism

Minor: Pregnancy, War, Alcohol, Ableism, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Vomit, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Torture, Drug use, and Suicidal thoughts

krows_ink's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

A very beautifully written collection of fairy tales.  All inspired by childhood stories, yet new and refreshing.  Somehow this book makes the flushed out world of the grishaverse even more real and enchanting.  Reading it felt as though I was stepping foot into Alina's childhood, listing to cautionary tales.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Incest, and Sexual assault

blakethebookeater's review

adventurous dark hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious fast-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

4.0

My ranking of the short stories:

1. The Soldier Prince (5/5)
2. When Water Sang Fire (5/5)
3. Amaya and the Thorn Wood (5/5)
4. The Witch of Duva (4/5)
5. Little Knife (3/5)
6. The Too-Clever Fox (3/5)

Overall, I think that this was a beautiful collection and I loved the way Leigh subverted fairy tale tropes to create stories that feel so unique and dark and magical. This is definitely worth your time! Breakdown of thoughts on each story below:

Amaya and the Thorn Wood was such a beautiful and strong start to this collection. I loved the message of this story and it had some very strong imagery. Leigh knows how to write a good fairy tale.

The Too-Clever Fox was a good tale, classic animal fable, but it felt a little too short for me to really care and I feel like I saw the end coming.

The Witch of Duva was a VERY dark story and I loved it. It was very inspired by Hansel and Gretel and Leigh took it and twisted it into something so different and weird and it was great.

Little Knife was an overall strong story but I feel out of all of the stories, this one felt the most predictable to me. It’s not a bad thing, but when most other stories subverted or at least tried to subvert expectations, this one just fell a little flat in comparison. Still a good story!

The Soldier Prince is so good. Sooooo damn good. It surprised me by how much I loved it and the FEELINGS I got from even this short little tale made me love it all the more. This and Water Sang Fire are the tale that I feel like NEED to be adapted to the screen somehow because they are just that amazing.

When Water Sang Fire is the last story in this collection and the one that packs the most punch. It feels like a novella because of how long it is, and because of that this story definitely has the best character development of the bunch. This is even better when you realize it’s a loose adaptation of The Little Mermaid and it’s so dark and amazing. Great way to end this collection!

Now the only bad thing is that there aren’t more stories. So Leigh, please, I need another book of Grisha fairytales please because this was awesome.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Death, and Confinement