Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

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

16 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

meredith_still_likes_dragons's review against another edition

It's a collection of short stories so I just took a break

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Cannibalism

Moderate: Sexual assault

Minor: Pedophilia

It's like Grimms fairytales but for a novel series. One of the stories is about a bad man who gets tricked and he's a child predator so it surprised me

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

estheralmeida55's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Cannibalism, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Kidnapping and Pedophilia

infjkiki's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, Murder, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Blood

kingspite618's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious 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

This is hands down one of the best folklore books I've ever read. Its diverse characters, plotwists and connections to the Shadow and Bone world was simply fantastical. These tales are a perfect mix of a disturbing, mysterious and fascinating plotline and endearing (or terrifying!) characters that are difficult to forget.
Definetely a must-read if you're a fan of the Grishaverse series! 
Do beware of triggers and very disturbing themes, though. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, and Child abuse

lislicorne's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

anielabooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

5.0

This book was absolutely beautiful. The cover and illustrations were gorgeous. The stories were captivating and reminiscent of classic fairy tales. I particularly loved “Ayama and the Thorn Wood” and “When Water Sang Fire.” The lessons taught in these books are very relevant and important for kids to learn but please read the content warnings before introducing them because some stories have dark scenes. I thoroughly enjoyed the way it connected to the world of the Grisha, as the S&B books slyly mention some of the folk tales outlined in the book. Overall amazing read and I recommend even those who haven’t read other books from the Grishaverse to explore this one.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Self harm, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment

Minor: Incest, Infertility, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and War

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