Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

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

15 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

tropico98's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing tense fast-paced

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

5.0

One of my favourite 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Bullying, War, Animal death, Murder, Animal cruelty, Violence, Body shaming, Torture, and Emotional abuse

rafacolog's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Body horror, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

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

casdelvo's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, and Alcohol

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

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

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

poisonenvy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

This is my second anthology of my year of "read one short story a day."

The first thing I have to say about this book is that it's gorgeous. Just breathtaking. The art really brings the stories to life, and it definitely netted this book an extra star or two.  It's really very stunning. 

This is a collection of myths and fables from various locations in the Grishaverse: Zemini, Kerch, Fjerdan, and, unsurprisingly, Ravkan, which has the most stories.  I'm a little disappointed that no stories from the Shu made it into this collection. 

Most of the stories are inspired by myths from our own world, either a mix of multiple stories, or just a retelling of others. I had a lot of fun each morning figuring out where the inspirations for each tale came from.  So, without further ado, my reviews. 

Ayama and the Thorn Wood This was a fun tale, and a mash-up of Greek mythology, Cinderella, and Beauty and the Beast. It shouldn't work, but it did, and it ended in a far more satisfying manner than I had originally anticipated.  The stories that Ayama tells are far more authentic than the ones that she heard, and I can appreciate that, would have appreciated it even as a child.

The Too-Clever Fox I've been looking forward to reading this tale pretty much since Nikolai was first introduced in <I>Shadow and Bone</i>, and I finally snuck it in ahead of time while I was reading <i>Rule of Wolves</i>.  While I saw the ending happening fairly early on, I still <i>loved</i> this story a lot, and it really is a tale that suites Nikolai.

The Witch of Duva I actually didn't see the ending coming, and that was a pleasant surprise.  This was a retelling of <i>Hansel and Gretel</i>, and it was fun, if not darker than the rest of the stories in the collection. 

Little Knife I loved the ending to this story.

I'm all about sapphic water nymphs.

But other than that, I didn't love it as much as the other stories.  I still enjoyed it, but it seemed a little route.  The final illustration for this story though is probably my favourite out of the whole collection.

Soldier Prince To me, this seemed like a mash-up of The Nutcracker and Pinocchio, but looking at the author's note at the end of the story, I see that the Velveteen Rabbit was the inspiration for this one.   It was very well told, with a theme along the lines of "you can't become real without first wishing for something." To be human is to want and to dream, it's true, and the story tells that excellently.

When Water Sang Fire I think this is the longest story in the collection, but I haven't actually confirmed that, so don't quote me on that. I was nearly late for work though, because it was longer than I expected, haha.  

But it was really good. It's emotive, and the ending was really well done? I'll confess that I didn't see where the story was going, but once we got there, I was quietly stoked.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, and Pedophilia

Moderate: Child abuse

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