Reviews tagging 'Violence'

House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J. Maas

252 reviews

thebookishbinder's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Mental illness, Addiction, Blood, Death, Grief, Physical abuse, War, Abandonment, Body shaming, Torture, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Confinement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Slavery

unboundbooklover's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

The ending was a redeeming quality and made me want to rate it higher. I loved the book, but some parts were extremely long and repetitive. Sometimes Bryce kept thinking the same things, which I guess is realistic, but I wasn’t the biggest fan of her in this book. I feel like she’s a bit of a hypocrite with disliking “alpha-holes” and associating them only with males, when her personality is very similar. Hunt was kind of dull because he let her walk all over him. She messed up a lot of things and instead of there being character growth, she kept being reckless which was frustrating. I’m trying to be vague, but her entitled personality and her hating that a certain thing occurred made not sense to me and she seemed very dramatic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Death, Gun violence, Grief, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Murder, and Sexual content

knittingceliac's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

Incredible and all consuming, couldn’t put it down and by the end had my head spinning with all the emotions

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Violence, and Slavery

yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

4.0

This was SO good. I really enjoyed it and I was STRESSED for a good portion of the read. Many of the plot twists and reveals were shocking/surprising. I found myself constantly torn on who was a rebel and who was not. I did feel like the characters were making reckless decisions but also that’s their personalities. The ending was CRAZY. I was so surprised to see that and I’m curious how it will play out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Blood, Cursing, Grief, Sexual content, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Bullying, Alcohol, and Gun violence

Minor: Torture, War, Drug use, Infertility, Infidelity, and Child abuse

indusnm's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

So this is 3 stars for me, and a realization I'm just not that much of a sarah j maas fan. The book was much better paced from the beginning, but I hate the main character and found her to be the epitome of white tears and privilege.

There's a lot to unpack here, but I thought this book was great for world-building. I had some issues with the first one, which felt like way too much information too quickly, but this one was better paced for me in terms of information dumps, action, and character development. Our main characters felt somewhat superficial to me; I know there was something there, but I couldn't see it. And thankfully a lot less slut-shaming being used as a device to make the main character seem a victim to the readers. 

Well, I see it now, and I have to say that I have a better handle on Hunt and like him more. I felt the same way for most of the characters, especially Ruhn and Ithan. I liked Therion more in the first book but in this one he mostly came of as a hot mess. I really liked Cormac; where the others feel like they're playing at helping "lesser" Fae, he actually works for it. But Bryce? Still loved by everyone though she manipulates them and uses them constantly, with the worst main character syndrome and a ridiculous amount of power and ability to do anything. It's so annoying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Slavery, Colonisation, and Genocide

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, and War

the part that i find completely tone-deaf is that our main characters are basically telling people that they are terrorists for stealing slave-owner tech to use against them, but more than happy to use those terrorists and tech to save the souls of people who died hundreds of years ago. It takes an insane amount of privilege to care more about the dead than worry about slavery and arbitrary execution in this world, and it's not unnoticed that any human (marginalized) advantage is seen as immoral while non-human is seen as natural and therefore good. Given all that is going on, this part made the author seem ignorant

cawilliams29's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

A good follow up to The House of Blood and Earth, effectively explores characters further and expands the plot and world building (though not too much, worldbuilding is not a focus I would say), a typical thrilling/shocking end from Sarah.JMaas and I am anticipating enjoying the third installment even more! In comparison to the first book I did find myself a little less interested in the plot itself and the focus seemed to be on character relationships, some already established and some rushed into in this book in my opinion. Overall, enjoyable and if you're a fan of the authors other workds I would highly suggest you pick up the series or continue through this book! 
The first book of the series I found to be my favourite of her works. The plot was insanely interesting, a bit of a mystery to solve and complex characters to follow with great relationships, found family and of course Lusty romance!
Since this is an adult series there are more explicit topics explored, though most of this authors works would prepare you well for her adult novels.
Definitely recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Sexual violence

specifically ACOTAR* fans will love the ending of this book, looking forward to character we know and love joining in on this series

_alyssar_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Grief, Murder, Slavery, Violence, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Gun violence

Minor: Sexual assault, Torture, Child abuse, Alcohol, Sexual violence, Drug use, Physical abuse, Medical content, Rape, Colonisation, Infidelity, and Addiction

cdoubet's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Kidnapping, Hate crime, Death, Alcohol, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, War, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Colonisation, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Blood, Confinement, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Sexism, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Medical content, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Torture

Minor: Pregnancy, Death of parent, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Infidelity, Rape, Abandonment, and Child abuse

aliciareadsit's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Sexual content

onceuponaballad's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Addiction, Violence, Torture, Trafficking, Slavery, Sexual content, and War

Moderate: Gun violence and Child abuse