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david_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
xaaamyy'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
4.75
Only reason it's not 5 stars is cause I normally despise long book hahaaa
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Gun violence, Blood, and Pandemic/Epidemic
egwilk28's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Moderate: Rape, Slavery, and Racism
Minor: Ableism and Gore
_ami_'s review
- 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
bookish_cam27'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
[SPOILERS AHEAD]
My only note would be that some of the kiss scenes in this book were so out of the blue and jarring lol. There was no build up. However, I will credit Leigh with one of the most intimate, romantic, and non sexual scenes I have ever read. (This was not a kissing scene, however. It was something else entirely due to the nature of the characters. Iykyk.)
Anyway, I’ll be recommending this series to anyone who likes fantasy and high stakes adventure.
Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Death
Minor: Sexual assault
seforana'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
Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Grief, Physical abuse, Body horror, Murder, Child abuse, Gore, Medical content, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence
beetroots'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 loved this sequel and felt that it really tied up the story for me, though I would love to have another one just to see what everyone does next!
- Fast paced, picked up pace faster than the first book (possibly because I already knew the characters and already loved them)
- The character development over the 2 books was so enjoyable - no character ever becomes perfect which I really enjoyed as it felt realistic that they didn't just suddenly become good, they were nuanced and considered
Moderate: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Drug use, Torture, Death, Grief, Slavery, Kidnapping, and Trafficking
axel_p'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
4.0
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Classism, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Grief, Pregnancy, Ableism, Blood, Gun violence, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Sexual violence, Stalking, Trafficking, Violence, Addiction, Body horror, Slavery, Xenophobia, Death, Eating disorder, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical content, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, Religious bigotry, War, and Torture
3crowsinatophat'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
4.75
While everyone in the book is paired off in a relationship (something I usually wouldn't like) none of them feel forced and just as much importance and growth is put into friendships and romantic endeavors.
Kaz and Inej will always be an incredibly written romance to me with both of them not just getting over their trauma for eachother but wanting to and prevailing because of it.
I thought the way this book writes women is brilliant, especially in a sex trafficking and war context, and has themes around sexism, but yet the main cast of charactors do not treat eachother differently based on gender. The bisexual representation of Nina and Jesper felt slightly forced to me and I didn't like how they fit into the stereotype of "I'm a wh*re and flirt with everyone". That being said they were both well developed charactors which were not represented entirely by their sexualities, in fact they were only briefly mentioned.
Chapter 26 of this book is the height of it and absolutely broke me. It will always be a fundamental moment of my psyche and my writing ability.
There was a scene right at the end of the book that felt kind of rushed and "too perfect." That made me very sad because I wanted the happy ending to be written well if it was going to be there.
I felt like Mathias' death was very rushed and unnecessary and I found myself not really caring
Moderate: Gore and Sexual violence