Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros

30 reviews

laleh_eve's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Physical abuse, Bullying, Death of parent, War, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Toxic relationship, Torture, Suicide, and Animal death

Minor: Classism, Death of parent, Blood, Murder, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Infidelity, and Death

amelievonzeisig's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, War, Vomit, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Blood, Animal cruelty, Violence, Torture, Sexual content, Death of parent, Cursing, Death, Colonisation, Body horror, Chronic illness, and Animal death

michelle_rachel's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Exciting and addictive as you enter a world of dragons and their riders. Perfect for any fans of Harry Potter (though it is an older readers book due to graphic intimacy)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, and Grief

emsavors's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

Rebecca Yarros really sat down and wrote a book which includes every possible trope ever. Manic pixie dream girl, not like the other girls, i’m no longer attracted to my best friend but i am attracted to the guy who wants to kill me. You’ll find all these and more. Also the ending is just the hunger games: catching fire.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, War, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Colonisation, Blood, Child death, Gore, Animal death, Ableism, Cursing, Grief, Murder, Death, Genocide, Bullying, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Torture

bookswithlauren's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Body horror, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Child death

court_reads_it_all's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

I was hesitant to read this book because of the hype however this has become one of my favorites. Definitely a book I would recommend to friends. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Misogyny, Medical content, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Body horror, Grief, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent, Medical content, Animal cruelty, Medical trauma, Body shaming, Ableism, Body horror, and Death

Minor: Vomit

prairieraven's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

3.25

Doesn't live up to the hype but it is a cute,  simple read for something that is military school for teens with dragons. The dragons are neat. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Death, Animal death, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Bullying, Animal cruelty, Abandonment, Ableism, Cursing, Confinement, Child death, Violence, Police brutality, Genocide, Stalking, Sexual content, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Murder, and Misogyny

wickedgrumpy's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

While I understand why people would enjoy this book, I am unfortunately one of the ones that couldn't turn off the feeling that I was reading a YA that was aged up to include sex.

I could not read the word badass without cringing.  The world building was positively wild.  It's in a more historical fantasy setting where they write with quills, use weapons, crossbows were a big deal, people who wield magic have access to smaller abilities like locking/unlocking doors, making mage light, etc.  There lots of wooden shit, but that also translated to having wooden exercise equipment to essential get swole in a modern fashion, rather than bodyweight exercises.  There's a brief mention right at the beginning about shoe sizes which means they have standardized them?  And the whole riders quadrant can get married before everyone else when the graduate....  At age 23?  That's early for this society?  And the focus of sexual relations was just pervasive.  The talk of raging hormones...  The convenience of fertility suppressants getting a brief mention before boning down.  Oh and gods are worshipped, but not by dragons.

There was some disability rep that I think was decent considering that it was a fantastical setting with healers, and the character didn't want to "look weak" and would refuse treatment to speed the healing process.  There was some LGBT+ rep as well, but mostly on a surface level for side characters.

Honestly, it was fine but the romance had me putting the book down regularly and made finishing this book difficult.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Abandonment, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Cursing, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Gaslighting, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Sexism, Stalking, Classism, Drug use, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, War, Violence, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Chronic illness, Misogyny, Body shaming, Death, Grief, Torture, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death of parent, Genocide, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Physical abuse

ktdakotareads's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Violence, Animal cruelty, Child death, Death of parent, Bullying, Classism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and War

mattiedancer's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

4.0

Writing: 3⭐️/5 

The writing was there. I’m a big quote person. Generally, I write down at least one quote from every novel I read, one line that just felt so beautiful and powerful I can’t resist putting it in my notes app to look back on it later. I don’t have a single one for this book. And that’s not to say it’s poorly written. It’s more of the opposite: it was well-written, but unremarkable. It existed to serve both the plot and the characters and, while that means there was nothing terribly wrong with the writing, it was not the book’s strong point either. 

Beyond that, I believe the novel started at maybe the worst possible start. I either needed more of Violet’s life before joining the Riders or less. I had a sliver of it, and it served only to push back the action without doing any concrete service to the characters or the plot.

Characters: 4⭐️/5

Alright. Xader is amazing. Love him. Perfection, don’t change a thing. Our main character, Violet or Violence: she’s very awesome, but I felt like her inconsistencies as a character were pushed off as ‘character growth.’ I saw no scribe here, despite everyone’s insistence that there was one. I saw a nerdy girl with a love of reading, but not a scribe, and it bothered me for the first half of the novel, despite loving the strengthening and self-improvement of our MC. The side characters felt forgotten at times and well-fleshed out at others. And Dain. He’s believable to a point, but I really had a hard time taking him seriously after a while because he was too easy to hate. I wanted a bit more out of him. But also, I had fun with the characters, and I’m pretty sure most fantasy-novel lovers would, too.  

Plot: 3.5⭐️/5 

A world with a strict government that is allowing the death of many innocents. A girl who is exceptional in her powers, despite looking small and weak. A rebellion alliance that is gaining traction. A love interest who is forced upon our main character. It’s a lot of things I’ve seen before, and a lot of things I’ve seen before together. That’s not to say I didn’t have fun reading the plot, but I found myself often a bit bored with the tropes and overused plot points. At one point I found myself wondering why we can’t have a functional government in fantasy novels. After all, it is fantasy. And the fact that I spent a portion of the novel daydreaming is probably not the best evidence for a fully engaging and exciting plot.

World: 4.5⭐️/5

Can’t help but add a whole category to my review process in order to tell you about this world. I was intrigued and enthralled by this world. I loved the dragons and, even more, I loved that the dragons rule this world. I enjoyed the powers, the explanation of the academy, and the vibrancy of the processes the dragon riders had to undergo. I tired a bit of the exceptionalism of the world – I don’t need an explanation of fertility suppressants, personally. We can just call birth control, birth control – but otherwise, I found it fun, exciting, and intriguing.

Who Should Read This Book? 

• Fans of ACOTAR & TOG
• Fans of dragon-centered books
• Readers not deterred by a few tropes and predictable plots
• Someone looking for a fast and fun fantasy read

Content Warnings? 

• Death, sexual content, death of parent, grief, torture, murder, fire/fire injury, blood, ableism, violence, war, bullying

Post-Reading Rating:  4.25⭐️/5

Will read the next book; however, I am not excited for us to pretend to be mad at the main love interest for the first bit.

Final Rating: 4⭐️/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, War, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Vomit, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cursing, Genocide, Grief, Murder, Bullying, Child death, Classism, Death, and Gaslighting