Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

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

5 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

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

puttingwingsonwords's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Cannibalism, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Murder, Sexual assault, Violence, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: War

jbabbm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I truly recommend this book if you want a peak of the Grishaverse before committing to read any of the books. These stories are great and pretty entertaining. Leigh Bardugo did a great job with these retellings of classical tales from our world.

This is also a great book to read if you have previously read the Grishaverse and feel nostalgic but aren't ready to dive back in just yet.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Blood, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Murder, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

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