Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Winter by Marissa Meyer

23 reviews

msradiosilence's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

3.5

TLDR; 3.5 rating, killed by the power of ugly (apparently), and just a lukewarm end to something that started off really well.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)

Listen, Levana was wrong. She was bad, she killed LOTS of people, and she deserved retribution, but the way they defeated her was just horrible. So she

has burns, because Cinder’s mom pushed her into a fireplace, but we’re supposed to believe that

we’re allowed to throw Levana’s looks in her face, and ultimately kill her, but Cinder should be celebrated for overcoming the same injuries?

What the fuck? Very double standards, I hate it a lot. I’m not saying they should have given Levana grace, but the way she went out defeats the whole characterization of everyone.

This book is also like 200 pages too long. The rest of them just kept running and hiding and separating and it kept happening. Twice is redundant, three times is annoying, and four times is fucking ridiculous. Talk about tedium. 

And somehow, even with the book being too long, Winter and Jacin’s relationship was too rushed. How can a book be too long and have the main romance be so quick? Yadda yadda, that’s how. Those 200 pages of the same shit could’ve been dedicated to building Winter and Jacin’s relationship. 

The one thing that we had a decent time of was the setting, at least. Meyer did a grand job describing the moon and its colonies, which…if you could do it well in this book why didn’t you in literally all the other books? Ugh. 

Rating: 3.5
Would I recommend? Not really, unless you enjoy hypocrisy, 16yo moon queens, and long drawn out action sequences.

Content warnings: Genocide, Medical content, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Classism, Car accident, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, War, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Grief, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Bullying, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ameydireads's review against another edition

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

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

5.0

 "Selene. She was meant to die thirteen years ago, yet here she was disastrously alive. And just as Levana had feared back then, she would take everything from her. Everything that Levana had worked so hard for."

The revolution has started and damn, what a nerve-racking story. Nobody expected it to be easy and they had to endure a lot! They get separated from each other so many times. I really enjoyed how Marissa Meyer has brought the story from so many different perspectives. Winter is based on Snow White and we see many aspects of the fairy tale returning in this story. I loved most of the characters! Cinder is just badass and she and Kai are perfect together. Iko and Thorne are the funniest and somehow manage to lighten the mood. They might be my favorite characters. 

"Her eyes suddenly rolled up into her head and she collapsed onto the floor. Kai jumped back. "What happened? Did I hit her power button or something?" Frowning, Cinder took a step closer. "Iko, what are you doing?" "Kai hugged me," said Iko, eyes still closed. "So I fainted."

"Did you see any rice in there? Maybe we could fill Cinder's head with it." Everyone started at him. "You know, to … absorb the moisture, or something. Isn't that a thing?"

But Cinder also has her funny moments!

"When she catches you," the guard snarled, "my queen will eat your heart with salt and pepper." "Well," said Cinder, unconcerned, "my heart is half synthetic so it'll probably give her indigestion."

And it was so cute to see Thorne and Cress’s relationship. The only character I am indifferent to is Jacin. He does a lot of good but also brings Cinder’s mission in danger many times. His relationship with Winter is very strong, just like Scarlet and Wolf’s bond, but I was less invested in it. And oh my gosh, Adri and Pearl return in this story and their behavior towards Cinder is still disgusting!

Cinder eventually was very generous toward them and until the end they did nothing to deserve her kindness. 

 
I did like Winter, although I didn’t fully understand why she chose to not use her Lunar gift every now and then. This would have kept her safe from Lunar sickness. Like Scarlet mentions, she could have just used it to change the color of her dress. Her reply to this is somewhat acceptable, but not fully satisfying. 

I expected her to never use it but in the end she did it to save Jacin and it took a big toll on her mental health. If only she used it every now and then….?

 
But she did make a very good point with which I fully agree!

"Let's not be cruel. One should never save cake for later when it can be eaten now."

All in all, an easy read even though the book itself was so big. I wouldn’t have complained if the book was published in two somewhat smaller parts because I think I sprained my wrist by just holding the book. But definitely worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Child death and Abandonment

marenm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny sad 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, and Gaslighting

vendy_kha's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

This book is one of the most satisfying wraps to a series... Each of the main characters has enough space to finish what they needed and honestly it felt so familiar joining that journey- you get dragged in even further and let me tell you, these girls have had enough! And it shows...

So I've loved them all from the moment they were introduced... Well but Jacin who's kinda the most normal there... Loving him takes the time but he's so sweet in the end. The boys are absolutely marvelous, to get that out of the way... Kai grows balls in this one (reminded me of Dorian Havillard so much), Thorne grows up and I couldn't love him more... Wolf getting mutated even more was one of the hardest things to read, for some reason - even though his Alpha couldn't care less. He deserves all the tomatoes and loving, especially after he lost his bio family AGAIN. The girls take on another level of badassery. I especially love how we see the bonds form and cement and how it's focused on their mental issues and dealing with them and life- empowering!!! Each and every one of them is created to get you through the day.

It reminded me of Hunger games so dam much... Fire is catching... And the girls brought some gas. The writing is so calming and it has a nice flow. The humor is TOP and the friendships are to die for. If you had any doubts about this series, it's one of my most favorite now and will stay a comfort read for sure. 

REREAD NOTE- man do I still love this series

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual assault

sleepywhippetbookclub's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

tiana_king's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.75

The beginning is slow but once Cinder’s plan gets going there is none stop action. You will be on the edge of your seat for most of it and the ending is pretty much everything you hope it will be. But do bring some tissues. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Gun violence, Self harm, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Terminal illness, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Gore, Suicide, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

theteamsreader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

4.5

The conclusive book to the Lunar chronicles (apart from the short stories), this is the final struggle to reclaim freedom for humanity.  And this book goes off with a bang!  Now that the entire cast of characters has finally been collected, the story somehow manages to unfold in the space of a week, despite its imposing length.  Full of nonstop action, romance and political intrigue, the heavy conclusion you've been waiting for is here to grace your bookshelf.  Recommend to anyone who loves the series, a massive found family, high stakes and tensions, a group of underdogs, battles on the moon and high science fiction political intrigue.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Slavery, Torture, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Abandonment

Minor: Child abuse

nrogers_1030's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Forced institutionalization

anielabooks's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted 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

I don’t even know where to start with how amazing this series has been. I was so invested in the characters throughout the entire book. This set of characters will definitely stick with me for a long, long time. I normally am not able to finish books as long as this one without being bored but I never got into a slump. I’m very satisfied with the way Meyer ended everyone’s stories, and I’m beyond excited to read the collection of novellas.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Gun violence, Torture, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

maria_pell's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Fire/Fire injury, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal death