Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Seasparrow by Kristin Cashore

11 reviews

noetical's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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, Grief, Violence, Dementia, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Death of parent

imds's review

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Violence, Abandonment, Vomit, Child abuse, Grief, Sexual violence, Death, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Child death, Trafficking, Bullying, Suicide attempt, Pedophilia, Drug use, Pregnancy, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, and Panic attacks/disorders

lizziaha's review against another edition

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

4.25

My main qualm with this book is that survival stories just aren’t really my thing. Luckily for me, there were other parts to this book. I particularly loved Hava’s relationships with Jacky, Linny, and Giddon. Something about the way that Hava is always expecting to be ignored or rejected and then someone (usually Giddon or Linny and sometimes Bitterblue) comes along and proves her wrong is so compelling. I love that even though there’s a broad cast of characters, each one feels distinct, and their personalities are complex, even if they don’t play a huge role in the book.  The blue foxes are such a wonderful addition to the story and the way the audiobook narrator voiced them just made them so adorable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Abandonment, Murder, Animal cruelty, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Death of parent

Moderate: Kidnapping, Blood, Gore, Trafficking, Drug use, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Grief, Homophobia, and Rape

Minor: Sexism, Misogyny, Torture, and Classism

erimore's review

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

I’ve been in love with the Graceling books since I first read them in high school. Always so happy to go back into this world and this book doesn’t disappoint. I hadn’t thought much about Hava before this book and now I can’t stop thinking about her. Hava takes us through the struggles of grief and anger that comes from trauma (and piled on trauma) and that understanding it isn’t linear. Such cute and lovely moments among the struggles.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Grief

Moderate: Vomit, Animal cruelty, War, Sexual assault, and Rape

sonshinelibrarian's review against another edition

5.0

Wow. This was just as good and just as rough as Bitterblue. Cashore continues to deal with the trauma and PTSD and emotional baggage and damage caused by King Leck, this time with Hava. In a lot of ways Hava seems younger than her 20 (21?) years, but it's so clear the ways her growth has been hindered by everything she's gone through. And Cashore lets her grow without glossing over anything. Hava literally has to relearn how to think about herself and about others, to find a way to move forward while realizing and acknowledging that the past will always affect her in some ways. I pretty much cried straight through the last third of this book. I'm ready to cry just writing this review.

Trigger warnings abound for this book, but Cashore handles everything with a sense of hope that keeps it from getting too dark. This book destroyed me in the best possible way and, like with Bitterblue, I'll be thinking about it for years to come.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Animal cruelty, and Grief

Moderate: Rape, Murder, Abandonment, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Child abuse and Pedophilia

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Drug use, Murder, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Pregnancy, Death, Medical content, Confinement, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Domestic abuse

Minor: Addiction, Pedophilia, Child death, Rape, Torture, War, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Excrement, Sexism, Homophobia, and Vomit

Needles, nonconsensual drugging. Near-drowning, distress at sea. Urination. Frostbite, amputation.

zachtrotz's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Murder

Minor: Rape

laurel_19's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny 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

5.0

Kristin Cashore does it again! I honestly can't wait to reread this one, after I make it through the cycle again. The exploration of trauma and the human soul are unparalleled. The way the characters seem to leap off the page or sing to you—wow!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Sexual assault, and Murder

atthelibrarywithmegan's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.0

I just finished Seasparrow and I’m hoping it’s not the last in the series; although it did just come out in November. This was a 4 ⭐️read for me. There were parts that were slow; but they were on a ship, what do you expect? I feel like Hava’s character had some really great autistic representation that isn’t normally in pop culture. (Iykyk) Whether that was intentional or not, I really loved it. I can’t wait to do a reread of all 5 books in the Graceling series at some point. They’ll always hold a special place in my heart.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Death of parent, Mental illness, Animal cruelty, and Sexual assault

gracefully_jk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Animal death, Gore, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical content

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Dementia

Minor: Abandonment, Confinement, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Rape, and Sexual violence

I’m using so many tags to try and make sure I’m covering everything. Much of this is only small mentions, or failed attempts, or only spoken of vaguely or in flashback memories; most of it is handled with great delicacy and gentleness. The one thing to note is the injury detail/blood warning: there is some relatively explicitly described injury, including amputation. Specifically:

The characters find themselves stranded in an arctic-like environment; one person gets frostbite and has their toes amputated, while another person gets an unspecified injury to their leg and has it amputated. Both of these procedures and their effect on the people who received them (as well as on the main character) is described in fairly good detail, so if that sort of thing bothers you, please tread carefully. You can skip it, but it does get mentioned a few times, and the aftermath is quite evident. No one dies of these injuries.