Reviews with content warning for Grief - Girls of Storm and Shadow

Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Girls of Storm and Shadow by Natasha Ngan

25 reviews

omnombailey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad slow-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

I had tremendously high expectations for this book after reading the first one, Girls of Paper and Fire. While it was a great book on its own, it still struggles with the pesky "middle of the series" syndrome.

Most of the narrative is the main characters going from place to place, either trying to recruit help for the rebellion or run away from the king's forces. In between are some delightful moments between characters that I adored, especially with

the growing tension between Lei and Wren. I was happy to see them in situations that made them question each other (mostly Lei with Wren) instead of being stuck in a honeymoon phase. Don't get me wrong - I do want them happy together, but they definitely have a lot to talk about.

Seeing Lei mature from the previous book is extremely bittersweet; it's great to see her less whiny, but also knowing why and how she got to that point (via sexual trauma) just breaks my heart every time. Her coping is extremely authentic and relatable and thus makes me root for her even more.

I also grew to love the shift in perspectives to those back at the palace. I wondered what happened in the wake of the assassination attempt and seeing the lives of those Lei and Wren left behind was an absolute treat. Though the tense shift was always jarring (going from first person present to third person past :\ bleh).

Sadly, a bunch of points fell short for me.

I was never a fan of Bo; he felt too forced and I was constantly annoyed he was never taking anything even half seriously. I feel he was written to make the reader laugh and find him enjoyable, but it didn't work for me. I did enjoy his brief relationship with Merrin, because their obvious flirting since the beginning felt like a freaking neon sign to me, so it was great to see some more queer characters. Bo's death only worked for me because I was far more invested in Merrin than Bo and seeing Merrin devestated was heartwrenching, but I don't think that was the intention behind all of that :\

And Lova.... *sigh* I think if Lova had zero backstory with Wren and didn't show up as a deus ex machina 75% into the story without ever being mentioned I might have enjoyed her more. On paper, she's character I'd be into, but her feeling entitled to Wren despite Wren being Lei left an awful taste in my mouth. I want to say Wren did mention Lova in the first book when it came to her previous lovers, but that still doesn't excuse her randomly showing up to save the gang from death. Oh what's that? She's been following them the whole time and there's been zero foreshadowing? Uh-huh, alright. Sure ಠ_ಠ I struggled with finishing the book because of her waltzing in and stealing the spotlight. I hated it and didn't want it and thus it made the last quarter of the book feel ridiculously forced. I probably would've given this 4 stars if Lova was never a thing because I despised anything in a twenty foot radius of her so much.

For the most part, this was an enjoyable read. Not as brilliant as the first book, but a good addition. Well-written with lovely prose and equally lovely characters not you, Lova or Bo. It's definitely hooked me for the next book.

Content Warnings

autistic_dragon's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark fast-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

CONTENT WARNING: Extreme violence, rape and subsequent trauma, sexual slavery, self-harm, suicide, alcoholism

This is one of my most grudging five-star reviews ever.

“Why,” you may ask, “…is that? You shouldn’t feel guilted into giving a book more stars than you think it deserves.”

Well, the thing is, the childish—not as in petulant, but rather the optimistic and idealistic—part of me wants the last third of this book to be very different from what it is, but the mature person I am now cannot help but marvel at the ways Ngan tugs at the reader’s heartstrings, and how the numerous twists and turns into moral ambiguity weave so deftly together.Looking back at my

November 2018 review of the first book in the series, I was being overly simplistic as to the future course of the series. While the series remains interesting East Asian-inspired high fantasy with enough anthropomorphic animals to mistake this for a piece of furry fandom fiction, and also even more same-sex romances than the first book, to the point that I’m pretty sure there’s more same-sex sexual tension than opposite-sex, this is very much also a war story. Not one of epic pitched battles for control of the kingdom, but rather the dark political underbelly of war that embodies the (in)famous Carl von Clausewitz quote, “War is the continuation of politics by other means.” In this way it is reminiscent of the final* installment of The Hunger Games trilogy, Mockingjay, and judging from my skimming of the other reviews, the general consensus as to that book may apply to you as well. This book contains multiple reader gut-punches of increasing intensity, and I was not kidding around when I included violence in the content warning up there. This book is so violent it’s a miracle the publishers were able to market it as YA.

This book takes Book 1’s already dark premise and makes it even darker, and in such an artful way that I can’t help admiring the grim tableau that Natasha Ngan has made for us. Therefore, five stars.

Content Warnings

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

wirt's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

daydreamermoonwalker's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The first half of the book is quite slow, but the beautiful prose and gripping action scenes make it well worth it. I'll definitely be reading the next book when it comes out!

Content Warnings

More...