Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Rule of Wolves

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

25 reviews

aviery's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

Content Warnings

stwriter92's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional inspiring 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

5.0

When I heard that Rule of Wolves had come out, I don’t think I thought of anything apart from getting my hands on it. I read the Six of Crows duology back in 2019 and flew through the Shadow and Bone trilogy as well as King of Scars during the early weeks of quarantine. I honestly didn’t think I’d find another series that I could get so sucked into for a while, but I think the Grishaverse well and truly has my body, heart, and soul. I can’t think of a single bad thing to say about this series, which might say more about me than the book but who cares.

I have come to love every single character in this series like a dear friend (or perhaps a penfriend best kept at a safe distance) and watching their growth, their pain, their joys, their sorrows, their everything has been an absolute privilege. I am currently basking in the afterglow of finishing Rule of Wolves and I’m going to quote Romeo and Juliet here (probably because I’m teaching it to three classes of ninth graders and have had to hear this dialogue way too much in the past three weeks):

Parting is such sweet sorrow. (Juliet to Romeo; Romeo and Juliet II.ii.187)

It truly is. When I read the last lines (granted, the last lines seemed to hold a hint of a story bringing back my favorite ragtag group of schemers and sharpshooters), I had the bittersweet feeling of having truly enjoyed something wholeheartedly and all-consumingly mixed with the emptiness left behind at its end.

“In times of trouble, people tended to cling to tradition and superstition” (Nina to herself; Rule of Wolves, p. 84)

“Fear was a language universally understood” (Zoya to herself; Rule of Wolves, p. 520)

There were so many themes I have loved in this entire series, but I think my favorite one is the fact that people can change. Hatreds can be shed and love can be leaned. We learned that with Matthias during the Six of Crows duology (trilogy in the near future? Please, Ms. Bardugo!). Matthias’s entire character arc centered around him having to unlearn deeply rooted prejudices and having to go through the intense and painful introspection that comes from rooting around in your belief system to weed out the rotten parts of it.

Even Nina had to admit some hard truths about Jarl Brum, the cold witch hunter and father of her new love, Hanne. When seeing Jarl with his family, “Nina had assumed that Brum had always been a monster, but maybe he’d grown into one.” Nina has only ever known Jarl Brum as her enemy, but Hanne has only known him as her father. One quote of Hanne’s really struck me. When she was telling Nina about what it had been like when she was little and how her father slowly began to distance himself from her, she says “Have you ever seen a petrified forest? The trees are still trees, but they don’t bend to the wind. The have no leaves to rustle. He was the might Commander Brum, unyielding, the ruthless witch hunter, Fjerda’s scythe. The more he sopped up their praise, the less like my father he became.” Like Matthias, Hanne wanted so desperately to believe that there was still some good left in her father. But sometimes, the good is buried too deep. He was a man who grew to rule with and weaponize fear, just as Fjerda had for a long, long time. He was proof of the dangers of ruling and worshiping out of fear rather than out of love. While he was able to control his men, his men turned on him the minute something more fearsome than Djel’s wrath appeared before them. His need for total control came back to defeat him in the end (not that I’m complaining…).

'“Who enforces the laws?” Zoya asked softly. “Rich men. Rich men who do what they wish. Power doesn’t make a man wise.”’ (Zoya to Nikolai; Rule of Wolves, p. 145)

"Why is it always the innocents who suffer most, when you high lords play your game of thrones?” (Varys to Ned Stark; A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin)

There were so many times that the difference between large men making large decisions and the smaller men set out to carry them out (often to their own demise) was brought into play. It was seen during the battle between Fjerda and Ravka. It was seen throughout the entire series when the Darkling weaponized his Grisha. However, it was shown most prominently, disturbingly, and heartbreakingly through

the khergud, Grisha in Shu Han that were put through painful transformations to add appendages such as wings and extra arms, stripping of their humanity, torturing them, dosing them with the highly addictive parem, all to create the perfect weapon to hunt for more Grisha. One of the character’s whose point of view we were able to see in this book was Mayu. She was put into the position of taking the princess’s place during King of Scars, acting as a sacrifice in order to save her brother, Reyem, from becoming a khergud. In reality, the Taban (ruling family) never intended to free her brother at all. They merely saw the twins as pawns to move around in order to weaken Ravka further.

This book showed what happened when the pawns stole their power back from the Queens, Kings, and Bishops that seemed to keep them under their control. It showed what happened when the thirst for freedom of a people whose freedom has been ripped from them one too many times is finally quenched. Watching every single horrible leader toppled was honestly one of the most satisfying things about this book. They were written so well and each one was so complex, so watching them being brought down was that much sweeter.

“There was nothing else to do but keep moving forward. You chose your path. You walked it. You hoped to find a way home again.” (Nina to herself; Rule of Wolves, p. 347)

“Zoya, do you know why the Darkling lost the civil war? How Alina stopped him?…Because he always fought alone. He let his power isolate him. Alina had us. You have us. You push us away, keep us at arm’s distance so that you won’t mourn us. But you’ll mourn us anyway. That’s the way love works.” (Genya to Zoya; Rule of Wolves, p. 473)

“The past lay shattered and bleak, torn by trenches, thick with mines. But the future was rolling hills and untouched forests, an open sea, a fair-weather sky.” (Nikolai to himself; Rule of Wolves, p. 576)

While some might think it an overdone theme, I think it is a theme that is worth repeating and shouting from the top of every building. The darkness will pass. We are not alone and we should not act like we are. This, I think, is what I connected to personally. I have never been good at allowing people to help me. Like Zoya, I have always kept people at an arm’s length (at times, I even do this with my family). Why do we fear love and connection? Why do we fear happiness? Why is it that happiness must be tinged with the promise of some future sorrow? Of course it is. Sorrow will always come. But so will happiness. As there will be dark times, there will be times of light and love and goodness. The clouds must give way to the sun at some point. But, will we be there to enjoy it or will we remain stuck under our beds and in our closets, convincing ourselves that the sun is a passing myth? I hope I will continue to look towards a better tomorrow, rather than being caught tangled in the thorns of the past and I hope, if you have bothered to read this at all, you do, too.

Just read this series.

Just do it.

Content Warnings

yavin_iv's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-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

libbyhb's review against another edition

Go to review page

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

Okay, I lied before. THIS is fan service at its finest. Name a character from the previous series, they're here in one way or another. I LOVED that this became primarily a Zoya book - I want nothing but the best for her so I was down with everything she was given in this.

Dragon Queen! All powerful! Can be both the ruler as a Grisha and also be with Nikolai I guess! Whatever it's fine!!

Nina's storyline was WAY weirder than the last book and at times I felt like she had really diverged from real Nina. Like, don't get me wrong, I've been rooting for her and Hanne since the last book, but

NINA, married to the future KING of FJERDA??? HUH?? And both of them completely tailored for what, the REST OF THEIR LIVES???? I don't get it.

Loved getting more Tamar and Tolya in this book, they've both been really interesting and slightly under-utilized in the verse but had some really interesting things to do in this. David and Genya got basically nothing real to do in this, and

his death was so pointless to the plot. It affected almost nothing except making Zoya more energized and Genya so sad.

Loved that we got some fun time in Ketterdam with the Crows, no complaints there! Curious to see if this is really the end of the series or if she'll come back for more.

Content Warnings

totallyshelfaware's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-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

Content Warnings

More...