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litliz's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Bullying, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, Abandonment, Ableism, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Medical content, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, Slavery, Stalking, Torture, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Violence, and Vomit
aly_27's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Child death and Addiction
Minor: Vomit, Slavery, and Abandonment
nineinchnails's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
i love that the romance is a subplot but for one of the relationships specifically it did end up a little vague - that doesn't bother me since i didn't read this for the romance but just a disclaimer for anyone expecting typical romance-style HEAs for everyone! the characters did start to feel a little caricatural after a while but it didn't help that i read both books one after another whilst watching the show adaptation and i found it pretty endearing if anything. it isn't often that a series offers so much representation without giving me the impression they were written to tick off a box and i am genuinely sad it's the end of these characters (outside of nina + some cameos in KoS/RoW) for now :(
Graphic: Gun violence, Confinement, Death, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Torture, Trafficking, Addiction, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Xenophobia, and Panic attacks/disorders
Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Stalking, Vomit, Death of parent, Rape, Ableism, Sexual assault, and Racism
Post traumatic stress disorder, Loss of appetite, Starvation, and Prostitution/sex workdavid_slack110507's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
I absolutely love the Crows and their dynamics with one another. It expanded on them even more from Six of Crows, particularly with the relationships of Kaz and Inej, Jesper and Wylan, Jesper and Kaz, Nina and Inej etc. It was so fun seeing all of the characters continue to flourish and to expand upon their already established relationships as well as build new ones and it was one of the main things that kept me coming back even with my reading slump in full force. I liked the endings we got for our Crows as they felt both satisfying and open-ended enough to allow for a sequel or for them to show up in other stories like Nina in the King of Scars duology.
The plot, while I don't think I loved it as much as the Ice Court heist, was still very interesting and was not what I expected going off of the ending of Six of Crows and where this book started off as the plot twists felt cleverly planned out and implemented without feeling like they were done to simply progress the story lazily. The last part of the book - Part 6: Action & Echo - was extremely interesting and one of my favourite parts of the boom because the chaos flowed very nicely to make it an unpredictable, fun, and memorable reading experience. Matthias' death was unexpected and while it wasn't extremely emotional for me as Matthias is one of my lesser favourite Crows (though I do still really like him as a character), it was still effectively done and I'm interested in seeing how this will affect Nina's story going into King of Scars.
Overall, I really liked this book and while I do feel like reading this through a reading slump affected my opinion on the book, though to no fault of the book, I think it was very successful and met my expectations on how to end this duology yet left it in an interesting place to open up into another book to make it a trilogy, which I would not be totally against. I'm most likely going to continue on with my Grishaverse binge and read Nikolai's duology with Zoya and Nina, King of Scars, next as well as hopefully soon rewatch season 1 of Shadow and Bone as well as finally watch season 2 for the first time as I've been waiting until I finished this book as I have been unsure whether or not they included elements of this and Six of Crows into season 2 or not.
Graphic: Grief, Blood, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Kidnapping, Murder, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, and Torture
Moderate: Misogyny, Terminal illness, War, Sexual violence, Child death, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexism, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Pandemic/Epidemic, Confinement, Mental illness, Racism, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Abandonment, and Gun violence
Minor: Vomit, Ableism, Pregnancy, Cursing, Eating disorder, Police brutality, Sexual content, Alcohol, Bullying, Classism, Drug use, and Drug abuse
_ami_'s review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Rape, Gore, Murder, Violence, War, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Death, Slavery, Torture, and Trafficking
Minor: Vomit, Ableism, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Pandemic/Epidemic
entityj's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Violence, and Gore
Moderate: Classism, Death, Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, Addiction, Drug use, Trafficking, Torture, and Alcohol
Minor: Grief, Gun violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, and Vomit
little_white's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Chronic illness and Addiction
Moderate: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Trafficking, Slavery, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Drug abuse, Xenophobia, Domestic abuse, Torture, and Genocide
Minor: Death of parent, Child death, Vomit, Pregnancy, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, War, Rape, and Pandemic/Epidemic
sginnaw's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Addiction, Blood, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Vomit, and War
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Pandemic/Epidemic, Slavery, Torture, and Trafficking
Minor: Child death, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, and Rape
mary_do_12's review against another edition
- 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
This book quite literally clenched my soul, wrenched it, and threw it out of the window. I don’t have any words to describe how amazingly this is written, not to mention the brilliantly created plot line. Leigh Bardugo, you have all my respect and admiration. And the way you not only created an incredible story, but brought this incredible sense of humor in it, is simply unbelievable.
As someone whose native language is not english, this was hard to read at times. I usually don’t have problems with english books, in fact, they’re all I read, but the vocabulary in this series was just a little different. This is something that I discovered in the Shadow and Bone series too, but I think that‘s a sign of the greatness of the writing. There is so much happening in these books, it’s hard to comprehend for me sometimes. And I think I’m not smart enough (or at least I wasn’t putting enough effort in) to fully understand every move they were scheming. Goodness, how could I, these people are brilliant. The world Bardugo managed to create is undoubtedly one of the greatest ever and I can’t get around being so grateful for being able to spend some time with these amazing characters.
We don’t even have to talk about
Kaz, he’s simply a genius. Much more than that, he’s a character you cannot help but sympathizing with, despite his questionable actions. Just like the other characters, he is neither fully good nor fully bad but I think that makes him even more lovable. Seeing more vulnerable parts of him, especially in this book, shifts the readers perspective a bit and helps to see what is behind that clever boy that managed to not only change but almost reign certain parts of his world at such a young age. Seeing his trauma and how he had to deal with it makes me admire him even more.
Inej. My beloved Inej. The amount of strength she has is out of this world. Her character is one of the best written ones I’ve ever read about. The way she described fear holds so much power, dang it, she holds so much power. I love that she was the first one directly involved in their plans and the way she was so close to Kaz from the beginning. Now some may say Kaz never trusted anyone fully and yes, even she didn’t know all about him, especially in the beginning. I feel like both of them were still loners, even when they got closer. But considering that Kaz was always really cautious about who he trusted, the fact that he himself said that he trusted her speaks so much more. The way they cared about each other even as independent thieves and fighters melts my heart. Also, the scene where he helped her with her bandages was just- AEKGDJABABSB
Sorry. Had to let that out. Those two human beings have my whole heart.
Nina is straight up a badass. She was from the very beginning and not only I admit that I wish to be like her, the others did too. I love when they talked about something they were not super good at and said they wished to be as good as another character. I love how in her relationship with Matthias, she was being the more dominant one at times and I love her bravery and how she stuck with her values even when he had different ones. Her rescuing him even though he was really freaking mad at her shows just how much she stands by her promises and beliefs. I mean, do we even have to talk about their relationship? The banter, the anger, yes, maybe the toxicity, but DANG they did that shit so well.
Matthias. Oh goodness, Matthias. I like how they author gave everyone different opinions and values, I like that Inej and and Matthias believed in a god and that even though the others didn’t agree with them, they still respected their beliefs. I have to admit, Matthias had questionable values to me at the start but I love that because it makes me develop a kind of respect for him and not reducing him to his opinions.
Jesper. I feel like he has similarities with Kenji from Shatter Me and I don’t know why. I mean, they don’t have the same sense of humor or whatever. Maybe it’s his connection to Kaz. Him being the only one who had contact to his loving father made him different from the others. I like that he thought he was kind of spoiled because of that, even when it’s definitely not true. He went through so much, too. I like his flaws, the fact that he tried to hide his gift and made it seem like he was fine to the others. He was stronger than he thought.
Wylan. Wylan was just the innocent little guy that somehow got caught up in a dangerous heist and wasn’t able to get out of it after. I like that he was kind of an outsider in the group because he really didn‘t like doing bad stuff but I also like that he changed and somehow became a little bit more morally grey. Still, his innocence stuck with him and made him different. My view on him really changed during this book as I saw more of what his father had done to him. That poor guy.
Summed up, this book was perfection. No arguments. Go read it. Right now.
Graphic: Gun violence, Addiction, Murder, Violence, Blood, Physical abuse, Death, Drug use, and Panic attacks/disorders
Moderate: Torture, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Child death
Minor: Vomit, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, and War
rory1387's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Violence, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual violence
Minor: Gun violence, War, Torture, and Vomit