Reviews tagging 'Dysphoria'

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

22 reviews

littletiramisu's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

BEST. BOOK. EVER.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Racism, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Death, War, Hate crime, Sexism, and Dysphoria

Minor: Deadnaming

faith_d's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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

5.0

For me, this book was an emotional roller coaster. Love the character development, how everything worked out in the end (in ways I never expected)! 

It left you on a slight cliffhanger where the author has the option too write where she left off if she chooses too. Amazing book, amazing series, amazing author! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Death, Blood, Violence, War, Misogyny, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Dysphoria, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Murder, and Grief

lindasoderlundd's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Misogyny

Minor: Dysphoria and Chronic illness

nightfell's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted tense slow-paced

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

3.0

This book was too long and too plot heavy for me. King of Scars intertwined plot and character in a way that told the story in an enjoyable way whilst building character arcs and telling their backstories. Rule of Wolves was mostly building plot, which was ok, but there were many storylines that I didn't feel had to be included. These storylines limited the amount of time spent fleshing out the main characters even more, which I wanted since this book is the last book (I think) with these characters. Overall, this book was ok, I did want more character focus and more scenes between Nikoli and Zoya. 

Why did Leigh Bardugo kill David? What was the reason? I've thought about it, and I genuinely don't know. I'm not even that attached to the man but why? 

I loved Nikolai, Zoya and Nina throughout the duology. I love Leigh for including a trans character in the Grishaverse (Hanne/Ilya?) - sidenote, I love him but his name is NOT ILYA WTF NOOO. Wasn't the darkling's ancestor named ilya??? 

I did like the darkling's character arc, they didn't forgive him out of obligation, and it seemed like they healed from the trauma he inflicted. In the end he did the right thing, and now we can all finally stop talking about him.

I LOVE that in the end Zoya became the Queen, and Nikolai gave up his crown for her. No other male love interest can ascend to his level of simp (apart from cardan). However, I wish that she gained her title through her own maneuvering and power and not as a result of a man giving it to her. 

I loved Nikolai and Zoya's relationship throughout the duology, I just wish they had more scenes or an arc that showed progression in their relationship. Form the beginning, I got a sense that they could have gotten together if Leigh wanted them to at any point, basically: they both seemed to want each other from the beginning, and the conflicts preventing them from being together were obviously not going to pose a serious threat to their relationship. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Dysphoria, Addiction, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Minor: Death, Confinement, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, and Rape

imcourtneymarie's review

adventurous emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Misogyny

Moderate: Death, Sexism, Murder, and Grief

Minor: Torture and Dysphoria

gayghostprince's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

this is my favourite grishaverse book, even over six of crows or crooked Kingdom. 
I am truly awestruck by how much I love this 
most importantly though: ZOYA!!!!! 
she's my fav character now I love her so very dearly 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Child death, Gun violence, Child abuse, Misogyny, Torture, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Kidnapping, Dysphoria, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Child death, Rape, Ableism, Pregnancy, Miscarriage, Infidelity, Slavery, Infertility, Suicide, Sexual assault, Chronic illness, Vomit, Medical trauma, and Genocide

there's talk of wide scale use of missiles that can destroy cities.

a city is bombed and destroyed in the middle of the night

threebluesocks's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

By this point in the series, you know what you're getting into. I was incredibly pleased with this book both in the way it followed up on previous plot points and the way it introduced some new ideas about the world and characters. I absolutely love Hanne's story, and I'm looking forward to seeing further development (alongside Nina!) in future books. The larger rule of the Shu Han is also very exciting and really works for the way the overarching story is developing with a more global perspective. It was also great to see our remaining Crows make an appearance! I'm absolutely in love with the way their intimidating reputation (which is absolutely earned!) contrasts with how every single major heist we've ever seen them pull has these giant moments where things go wrong. These kids are chronically unable to successfully execute a plan and yet things more or less work out every time and it kills me <3

Other positive aspects of this book in no particular order: dragons!!!, Nikolai being both very noble and incredibly baby, nice twin/sibling/family motif, the Fjerdan miracle thing is so funny to me, David is top tier cute in this one, the Darkling continues to make me seethe with rage and I'm thoroughly enjoying it, aaaaand putting Hanne here once more because I am in love :)

The only major issue I had with this book (and King of Scars since I'm probably not going to put a separate review on it) was the mechanics of jurda parem. Maybe it's because this book has a different strain than what we saw in SoC/CK and it just wasn't well explained, but I feel like it works completely differently in this duology than what we saw with Nina in SoC. Obviously it's not ideal to be dosed with it as a Grisha since withdrawal is likely to kill you and you'll do pretty much anything for another dose, but it shouldn't introduce any immediate suggestibility in a person until the high begins to wear off, right? 

Anyway, smaller list of bits I wasn't thrilled with: lots of characters from the Shadow and Bone trilogy that I really needed more information about up-front since I haven't read that trilogy in about 3 years, I don't think having whole chapters from the Darkling's perspective was great for his perceived threat level (when I can see inside his head he's just... a guy), I continue to wish Novyi Zem had any sort of major appearance in these books considering how massive it is especially since Shu Han finally got some attention, and I would really like to see Zoya figure out other Grisha powers a bit more (and maybe share this knowledge??? Girl, there are other people who could benefit from expanding their horizons, please share).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and War

Moderate: Death and Suicide

Minor: Dysphoria

livreaderlife's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Police brutality, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Slavery, Transphobia, War, and Xenophobia

escapismforlife's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Beyond perfect catharsis  read to continue  and finish reading the last books in the Grishaverse. I loved and wanted to hug every character. All of them had essential roles and dealt with a lot in this duology. But I loved every second of it. The good and bad moments  of this Ravka's leaders. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Grief, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Sexism, Torture, Dysphoria, and Emotional abuse

rachellewiski's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Violence, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Dysphoria, Kidnapping, Racism, and Torture

Minor: Abandonment, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence