Reviews with content warning for Death - Rule of Wolves

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo

184 reviews

nightfell's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted tense 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? No

3.0

This book was too long and too plot heavy for me. King of Scars intertwined plot and character in a way that told the story in an enjoyable way whilst building character arcs and telling their backstories. Rule of Wolves was mostly building plot, which was ok, but there were many storylines that I didn't feel had to be included. These storylines limited the amount of time spent fleshing out the main characters even more, which I wanted since this book is the last book (I think) with these characters. Overall, this book was ok, I did want more character focus and more scenes between Nikoli and Zoya.

Why did Leigh Bardugo kill David? What was the reason? I've thought about it, and I genuinely don't know. I'm not even that attached to the man but why?

I loved Nikolai, Zoya and Nina throughout the duology. I love Leigh for including a trans character in the Grishaverse (Hanne/Ilya?) - sidenote, I love him but his name is NOT ILYA WTF NOOO. Wasn't the darkling's ancestor named ilya???

I did like the darkling's character arc, they didn't forgive him out of obligation, and it seemed like they healed from the trauma he inflicted. In the end he did the right thing, and now we can all finally stop talking about him.

I LOVE that in the end Zoya became the Queen, and Nikolai gave up his crown for her. No other male love interest can ascend to his level of simp (apart from cardan). However, I wish that she gained her title through her own maneuvering and power and not as a result of a man giving it to her.

I loved Nikolai and Zoya's relationship throughout the duology, I just wish they had more scenes or an arc that showed progression in their relationship. Form the beginning, I got a sense that they could have gotten together if Leigh wanted them to at any point, basically: they both seemed to want each other from the beginning, and the conflicts preventing them from being together were obviously not going to pose a serious threat to their relationship.

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britgirlreading's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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reading_mermaid's review against another edition

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medium-paced

3.0

I have so many feelings and problems with this book, I don't know where to begin.

Its definitely ridiculous and entertaining and slightly too long. Nearly every living character from the previous 2 series made an appearance, but ultimately felt shallow and bleh (sorry, I couldn't think of a better adjective), as the storyline felt spread too thin. The Shu Han and Fjerda storylines were my favorite. And I did love that

Nikolai and Zoya end up together, although it still doesn't make any sense to me making her queen.

It also bugged me that the rules around tailoring seemed incredibly inconsistent.

I have a huge problem with the military propoganda/moral gymnastics of

building weapons of destruction, going so far as sacrificing David, who was the only one to speak out against it,

that dominates much of Nikolai's story. I also disliked

the re-emergence of the Darkling and allowing him to be named as a Saint because he was afraid of being forgotten, in exchange for his "sacrifice", which really wouldn't have been necessary if he never created the Fold. The only reason he came back from the dead seemed to be more about being able to write more books in the future than adding anything material to the current story. His chapters contained mostly nothing and the fact that he got to use his victims to regain his powers and manipulate them into solidifying his legacy as a saint......I feel like Bardugo wants us to pity him, maybe even root for him a little, but at the very least, treat him with banal humor.

At some point this evolved into a hate read for me and I skimmed a lot of the text to get to parts that actually moved the plot. If these were just fluff fantasy novels, I would laugh at the preposterousness of it all and leave it at that. But Bardugo introduces a lot of horrific, charged plots points into her stories and I don't think she has the range or the experience to take them on in a meaningful way.

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ehmannky's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

Much better than the King of Scars (which wasn't bad, just took much longer for me to get into). It's a long read, but I felt that all of the POV's came together nicely, loved the themes of growing past your trauma and learning to be loved and the comfort that community brings, and Zoya and Nikolai's romance was 10/10. I think that despite this being like *~Nikolai's duology~*, it was really Zoya's, and I'm fine with that since I am a sucker for prickly and angry female characters. I do think there was a lot going on in this book, but unlike the previous book, I think I was okay with all of it. Like, maybe Nina's chapters could have been their own book, but I don't know. I think it worked here.

I think really my only complaint was the Darkling's chapters. I don't know if I particularly believe the inclusion of him brought much to this duology and I think a lot of the things Bardugo uses him for could have been accomplished with another character or something else. Like, I get the idea of her characters working beyond their trauma from him and I think narratively they did need to heal from the damage he did to them. But did he have to physically be there for them to do that??? I liked the focus on people really taking stock of the pain he did to them and their loved ones and really reckoning with his abuse, and trying to recover from that, I just don't know if he needed to be there as a character. I will say that a lot of reviews seem to be like "she's scolding us for liking the Darkling!!!" when this duology feels a lot more like, "hey, let's focus on the victims of the abuse and their trauma and how they're recovering from that."

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catmac15's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny lighthearted 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

5.0

One of my fav grishaverse books! so many things happened in these book and emotions were all over the place. Love the couples featured in this book and the backstories (especially zoya). The book kind of leaves off with the potential of it being continued (idk if it actually will though)

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haddy's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.75

<spoilers> I really enjoyed this book, the grishaverse books are my favourite series. I laughed, I cried, I was shocked, I was angry, I enjoyed it immensely.
Only reason it wasn’t 5 stars was bc I really felt like David’s death was a bit sudden and needless? And the darkling stuff kind of made sense but was kind of out of character imo. But everyone is able to have character development I guess🤷‍♀️

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blueberry0531's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful 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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saskiamal's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

4.0

Mayu and the monk's chapters were boring. Nikolai and Zoya were great.

I liked wlw Nina and Hanne so I was a bit bummed by that but it makes sense. Not really the ending I wanted Nina to have.

I found the set-up for the next book a bit annoying since it seems Leigh won't get to it for quite a while. A lot of loose-ish ends from previous books were tied up.

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zidaaan's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective 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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ali_debookness's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.75

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