Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

134 reviews

bergha1998's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny sad 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

What an excellent book, and hopefully (probably) not the end of the Grishaverse. Just getting more of everyone was such a great. I didn’t expect the Crows, so I was practically giddy. Zoya, Nikolai, and Nina are just such terrific characters. 

Found Family, Romance Subplots, LGBTQIA+

“Maybe the gift of being human is that we do not give up—even when all hope is lost.”

“She wanted to believe there was more to life than fear and being feared.”

“If you would try, if you would be willing to fail, you would learn. It’s good to do things you’re not good at.”

“Because I am greedy for the sight of you. Because the prospect of facing this war, this loss, without you fills me with fear. Because I find I don’t want to fight for a future if I can’t find a way to make a future with you.”

“But love wasn’t a spell, some kind of benediction to be whispered, a balm or a cure-all. It was a single, fragile thread, which grew stronger through connection, through shared hardship and honored trust.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Addiction, Blood, Mental illness, War, Xenophobia, Gun violence, Cursing, Death, Kidnapping, Bullying, Murder, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror

Minor: Child abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

frantically's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.5

While overall a great ending to the Grishaverse with appearances from many beloved characters (a certain introduction towards the end had me screaming), the way certain things are portrayed and resolved makes so much of the Grisha trilogy feel worthless — why did I read and love that trilogy just for its antagonist to get this ending in the end? Still not the biggest Nikolai fan but Zoya has my heart and the gender historian in me is satisfied.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Murder, Death, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Misogyny, Violence, and War

Moderate: Addiction and Sexual harassment

Minor: Racism, Confinement, Pedophilia, Grief, and Rape

themiscyra_anna's review against another edition

dark emotional tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, War, Alcohol, and Drug use

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Medical trauma, Gore, Dysphoria, Rape, Child abuse, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Minor: Miscarriage and Religious bigotry

brekker_by_brekker's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.75

this book is SOSOSOSOSO close to a 5⭐️  

DAVID 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 chapter 20 broke my heart

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, and Death

abitbetterbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Sexism, Murder, Physical abuse, and Death

Moderate: Addiction and Medical trauma

Minor: Child abuse, Rape, Pedophilia, Slavery, Child death, Sexual violence, and Trafficking

aliyachaudhry's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Domestic abuse, War, Misogyny, Torture, Addiction, Blood, Death, Racism, Drug use, Xenophobia, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Gun violence, Gore, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Body horror, and Slavery

Moderate: Rape and Miscarriage

Minor: Colonisation, Adult/minor relationship, and Sexual assault

kiwij96's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

My heart is so full after finishing this book. It honestly broke me at times but it has also brought me so much joy. What an excellent way to end a series - with a finale, but with scope for so much more.

The characters I fell in love with from the start of their respective series' all returned in some way, shape or form and their stories overlapped so perfectly I am in awe. I laughed, I cried, my heart was broken and was filled with joy and love. 

This is a 5-star story for me, however, I found my version of the book was riddled with pre-print typos (specifically words that had accidental spaces in the middle of them, and one or two words missing letters) and that took me out of the story a bit which is disappointing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Violence, War, Fire/Fire injury, and Death

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Addiction, Drug use, Alcohol, Rape, and Suicide

eguare's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

3.75

I enjoyed this more than the original Shadow & Bone trilogy, not as much as the Six of Crows duology. This book was a happy return for beloved characters, but I wasn't always happy with where they went.

While I loved hearing more from Nina, I was heartbroken that the found family of the Crows broke up so thoroughly after Crooked Kingdom and didn't find themselves back together by the end of this duology. It was also too soon after Matthias to enjoy Nina's new relationship with Hanne. Though I adore that Nina is canonically bisexual and Hanne canonically trans, I don't personally feel that Nina would be happy living forever as someone else in a country that wasn't hers, away from her friends.

I loved seeing Nikolai and Zoya continue to develop as characters,

both independently and together

.

Personally, I could see the ending piece as either a cliffhanger, or as a happy goodbye to the audience, making it clear that our beloved characters will live on and get up to all kinds of shenanigans together, even if we aren't there with them to experience it with them. I do strongly hope that we're there with them, though! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, War, Grief, and Addiction

shalladin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, War, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual violence, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Torture, and Violence

sissiemilia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

3.75

What a glorious book. Full transparency: I hated king of scars in many ways. Rule of Wolves? What a redemption. The more the story progressed, the better everything became. My worries after reading kos were solved.

Also, HANNE???? My god I adore him. If we get a third crow book (which we better do, have you read the ending?) I demand to see more of him.

On that note though, Nina feels off in her ending. She shouldn’t become queen of Fjerda. No. She should have embraced her new power, instead of abandoning it in a way. She and Hanne could have had an ending together without them having to live a lie.

That is my only big issue with Nina’s ending. I feel like she changed in a way that wasn’t natural to her character.

Once again, Bardugo also made me sob. I just feel like she got the hang of it again, after kos. She gripped my feelings and soul the way kos failed to, but the other books in the series also do. I’m so happy she bounced back.

Rule of Wolves isn’t Bardugos best in my opinion, but it absolutely is up par with the rest of the Grishaverse (besides kos, which was saddly dissapointing). The only technical problem I have with this book is that

we weren’t shown them finding David’s body. I feel like that would have been a really important part to show but I’m willing to look past it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, and War

Moderate: Sexual harassment