Reviews tagging 'Murder'

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

29 reviews

magdie's review against another edition

dark emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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

THE ILLUSTRATIONS PROGRESS ALONGSIDE THE STORY!!!! But in all honesty, I just loved it! I practically inhaled it in one afternoon after struggling to get through few pages of 3 different books the previous weeks. The genre just hit right ig. It's very whimsical but dark (it can get REALLY dark) and you can easily see the inspiration in popular fairytales, but it's not a retelling per se. They felt just right, enough fairytaleness, poetics and morals yet quite realistic characters. I also loved the tidbit easter eggs and references to other grishaverse books.

Content Warnings

peggy_racham's review against another edition

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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)

Content Warnings

infjkiki's review against another edition

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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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apalershadeofwhite's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I had already read three of the tales in this collection after binge-reading the Shadow and Bone series: Little Knife, The Too-Clever Fox, and The Witch of Duva. Therefore, I already knew I was going to enjoy this book and I was right and then some! Bardugo is great at grabbing you from the very start of anything she writes. A lot of books aim to interest a reader through the first chapter or even the first page, but no one grabs your attention from the first line like Leigh Bardugo does. She is so good at what she does. She tells these amazingly intricate and insanely creative stories in a way that is so gripping and attention-grabbing, but also in a way that just hits you completely. These stories have morals that are quite common in fables and fairy tales, etc., but she writes them in a way like no other.

I think The Soldier Prince might not only be my favourite story in this entire collection (which is a big feat considering all of these tales are stunningly written), it may also be one of my favourite beings of writing of all time. I felt myself getting to emotional reading it, which I think was down to my emotional attachment with the story of the nutcracker more than anything else, but it was still an insanely good tale. I felt so nostalgic and happy reading this that I found my cheeks feeling warm and my eyes having a slight sting at the back of them. I grew up loving the tales of the nutcracker, from movies to the soundtrack to watching the ballet when I was a little older. The story was both on the surface - via content and visuals - beautiful but it was also stunning linguistically. Overall, it was just an indescribable experience to read it.

I also adored the last tale, When the Water Sang Fire (which we can all agree is a badass title). It was odd that it was chosen to be the final story because it was the longest of all of the short stories, and you often seen the tales get a little shorter towards the end of a collection. This took nothing away from the reading experience, though, and I thoroughly enjoyed this entire book and struggled to put it down when I needed to do other things and actually be a contributing adult in society lol. I will definitely be coming back to this book and rereading it, probably multiple times. The entire collection was just written so stunningly and it was so evocative. I love it. Completely.

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oceanic_rabbit's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional relaxing sad fast-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

5.0

This is a vivid, creative compilation of short stories fashioned to be like those we would read as children. Some of the influences of classics are present and visble but this makes the new twists and turns of these adaptations into their own entirely original ideas.

It is beautiful in an almost haunting way, and illustrated clearly and cleverly with often monotone palates with occasional contrasts.

Definitely a book I will revisit for a quick read, or just to look at the pictures. Very happy to have this in my collection.

Content Warnings

green_amaryllis's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad 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

5.0

Content Warnings

anielabooks's review against another edition

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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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theespressoedition's review against another edition

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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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caitlin033's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious fast-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? Yes

3.5

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talasterism's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated

4.5

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