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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
3.75
However, I didn't absolutely hate this book and I actually quite enjoyed it as the positives definitely outweigh the negatives, especially in terms of the characters. This book follows Nikolai, Zoya, and Nina, the first two from the original Shadow and Bone series and Nina being from the Six of Crows duology meaning that those two series within the overall Grishaverse all collide and I love all 3 of them and each of them get to flourish in many different ways in this book. Nikolai was one of my favourite characters from the original Shadow and Bone books and here we get to see him 3 years removed from the ending of Ruin and Rising as well as dealing with the monster inside of him which is a remnant of the Darkling's power that he got in the aforementioned book. He's still effortlessly charming and he continues to have such character and screen presence that he is easily identifiable and his interactions/relationship with Zoya was enjoyable to read which speaking of: Zoya. I think Zoya is the character that gets the most growth in this book because we finally get to see more of her as well as also getting to see her perspective of the events of the Shadow and Bone trilogy and how that links to her past which was really interesting yet sad to learn about. I did quite like Zoya near the end of the original trilogy but this book managed to make her a standout character as well as properly establish her as one of the many victims of The Darkling whilst also allowing her to not be squeaky clean either as she admits her faults and the role she played in his evil.
Then, there is also Nina who I'm splitting up from the other two because she is the exact same in the actual book, split up from Nikolai and Zoya as well as most of the supporting cast in Ravka as Nina is in Fjerda following the events of Crooked Kingdom as I found her perspective to be the most mixed for me. On one hand, I loved getting more Nina content and I love how she continues her story from Crooked Kingdom in dealing with Matthias' death as well as her bout with Parem and how that makes her so resolute on helping the young women and girls kept in Fjerda that are secretly Grisha and being dosed on Parem. I loved these elements of her story and I found them to be really interesting, especially with the implicit commentary on the treatment of women and victims but I also found the middle part of her story to be quite uninteresting with Hanne as she just didn't really seem to jump out at me, especially when she's sharing the page with Nina, and so I feel like Nina's plot is the most obvious example of this feeling more like a set up than anything else.
There is also a new character that we follow for half of the book called Isaak who is called in to replace and pretend to be Nikolai after Nikolai and Zoya's disappearance and I found him to be a fine character but I did feel like he was more there for plot reasons than anything else and so I didn't find his story to be all that interesting though I feel like, with Nina's, the ending of his is going to hopefully be something much more interesting if it is carried into the second book and this was merely the setup. I also wasn't the biggest fan of where the plot turns in this book as while I'm not too upset with the 'resurrection' of The Darkling as he's not really resurrected but brought back to life in an interesting way, I'm not the biggest fan of how the book treats the rules of Grisha power as there are some choices made that did have me feeling like the previously established rules were being bent because they needed to be for the plot moreso than anything else.
I feel like my review is mostly negative but I did have a really fun time when reading the book and I really enjoyed it when I was reading it despite the slump I had that made my sit downs for it dispersed for far longer than I would have wanted them to be. I really do hope that not only will this be the last book to be affected by whatever reading slump it is that I'm in right know but that I also appreciate it more once I see what it is building towards when I read Rule of Wolves.
Graphic: Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, War, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Blood, Body horror, Torture, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Gore
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Medical content, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Genocide, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Sexism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, and Infertility
Minor: Classism, Emotional abuse, Dysphoria, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Pedophilia, Alcohol, Deadnaming, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship
ladygetslit'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
4.25
The strength of this book lies in the world itself and the complexity of the characters. In the Shadow and Bone books, Zoya is… kind of a b****, but here we see that it’s her coping mechanism for all the nasty stuff she’s been through. Nina’s dealing with her grief
Where the book falls short for me is in the pacing. Even though I was invested in the characters, the pacing in the beginning felt too slow, and I wasn’t able to feel intrigued until about 1/3 of the way into the book. Perhaps this is just the nature of a story that relies a lot on political intrigue, which requires a lot of exposition. That being said, the payoff was well worth waiting to get really into this. I read the last 2/3 of the book in 3 days because I could hardly put it down! Overall, this is one of the best books in the Grishaverse and I would read anything Leigh Bardugo writes at this point.
Graphic: Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, and Violence
Moderate: Sexism, Ableism, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Genocide, Suicide, Addiction, and Injury/Injury detail
readwithsophsx'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
Graphic: Torture, Grief, Drug abuse, Blood, Deportation, Kidnapping, Confinement, Physical abuse, Miscarriage, Death, Murder, War, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Sexual assault, Gun violence, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, and Addiction
soph22'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
4.5
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Torture, Violence, Body horror, Child abuse, Genocide, Racism, Kidnapping, Ableism, Physical abuse, Blood, Pregnancy, Death, Child death, Drug use, Forced institutionalization, and Gun violence
justinekorson's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I always loved Nikolai and couldn't fathom why Alina didn't choose him over LITERALLY EVERYONE. I LOVE MAL (and loathe the Darkling) AND I WOULD'VE DROPPED EITHER OF THEM THE MINUTE THAT NIKOLAI OFFERED ME HIS HAND IN MARRIAGE. LIKE ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!?!?! HE WAS FUNNY AND SWEET AND CHARMING IN THE SHADOW AND BONE SERIES AND WAS EVEN MORE SO YEARS LATER IN KING OF SCARS. Needless to say, I love this man to death.
Zoya isn't a character I loved when she was first introduced (though I can agree her confidence and her strength is top tier) but I grew to love her immensely in this novel. She was so funny and melds so well with Nikolai that I'm surprised they AREN'T fucking in the novel like ???? Girl... please. But also... I get it, beware of men with power Zoya.
Nina was a character I ADORED in Six of Crows but during her POV I kept finding myself tryign to rush through her story to try and get to Zoya and Nikolai (and later Isaak). I really liked Leoni (and the fact that she's the girl Jesper's mom saved) and Adrik but... seeing Nina without the other Crows was a little heart breaking. She's a great character on her own but I think I loved her more within the context of the heists in the Six of Crows duology. Which is not to say that I hate her in this novel in any capacity it's just that I found the other POV's more interesting and relevant to the plot. I'm sure in Rule of Wolves Nina's plans will make more sense but this is how I feel for now.
ISAAK!!!! MY POOR BABY BOY!!!! HE DESERVED SO MUCH MORE. He was so much smarter than he gave himself credit for. Not anyone could mimic someone (let alone a King) for SO LONG and not have anyone notice. Since he was friends with Nikolai he was able to adopt his mannerisms so well and I WISH THAT HE COULD HAVE SURVIVED HIS WOUNDS JUST LIKE THE FAKE EHRI DID. His gut wound should not have killed him that fast! If they had managed to save the False Princess, it should have been easy for them to save him too...
Yuri... I wanted to wring his neck from the moment he appeared... and they should have done that too.
What I don't like (and the reason why this book is a 4 and not a 5) is that the Darkling was resurrected AGAIN. I think I would have preferred if Elizaveta was the one who had survived/escaped the fold and had entered Yuri's body (if that's what happened at the ned). It would have been more fun in my opinion. I'm tired of the boring, dusty, old Darkling. Elizaveta's motivations were similar to the Darkling's anyways and it would have been fun to know that, even if part of the Darkling had escaped as well, that Elizaveta would admit that she killed what was left of him in favor of escaping. *sigh*
Anyways, I'm excited for Rule of Wolves.
Graphic: Violence, Grief, Murder, Blood, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Animal death, and Death
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Miscarriage, and Kidnapping
Minor: Pregnancy and Vomit
kelshenka'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: Blood, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Miscarriage, Child death, Death, Addiction, and Genocide
onefineelephant'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: Gaslighting, Trafficking, Violence, Blood, Drug use, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Murder, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Sexism
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Child death, Rape, Police brutality, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and War
infjkiki'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
3.5
Graphic: War, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Murder, Sexual violence, Confinement, Blood, Violence, Gore, Trafficking, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, and Forced institutionalization
Moderate: Addiction and Drug use
Minor: Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, Sexual assault, and Rape
math_scooter'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
5.0
Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Grief, Animal death, War, Kidnapping, Blood, Addiction, Drug abuse, Violence, and Medical trauma
Moderate: Miscarriage, Alcohol, Genocide, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Suicide
jessiereads98's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Drug use, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Addiction, Gore, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Genocide, Medical content, Miscarriage, and Animal death
Minor: Alcohol, Body horror, Forced institutionalization, Gun violence, Slavery, Child abuse, Confinement, Misogyny, Sexism, Classism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, and War