Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Darkdawn by Jay Kristoff

5 reviews

jezabelh's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Animal death, Death of parent, Gore, Murder, Sexual content, Cursing, and Blood

Minor: Torture

rafacolog's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Murder, Death of parent, Torture, Death, Violence, and Blood

dragonaion's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

Unfortunately, while the first two of the trilogy seemed to be written back to back, this book does not follow the trend. In fact, the author almost committed the worst sin an author can make; writing himself into the story. Kristoff walked the line and while he didn't write himself in the story, he did reference and mock his own writing style when he

put his books into the story, have his characters read the same books we are, and used them as plot tools

. The romance was wonderful and well placed in the first book, but the romances started in Godsgrave seemed forced to start and continued only to feel like mashed (not grinding, that would imply too much cohesion) gears.

Nothing like having a awkward living-then-dead love triangle where the boy kills himself a second time to let the other two girls come back to life to let them forever in a "cabin by a lake" while he's moping alone in the underworld!

The trilogy will end with this book, there's definitely nothing else, and that's arguably for the better.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Death, Murder, Confinement, Gore, Classism, Alcohol, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Torture

Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, and Fire/Fire injury

lettigirl101's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Excrement, Suicide, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Torture, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Self harm, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Slavery, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

wardenred's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Part of having is the fear of losing.
Part of creating is the fear of breaking.
Part of beginning is the fear of your ending.
Fear is never a choice.
Never a choice.
But letting it rule you is.

I've started this review a few times and inevitably descended into lots and lots of spoilers for the entire trilogy. So instead of listing my entire jumble of thoughts, I'll be brief. This is a wonderful conclusion to the trilogy, unexpected in the way only inevitable things can be. It's got plenty of blood, sharp twists, sharper wit, characters fluent in deadpan snark, beautiful moments of pathos, horrible depictions of deaths, interesting worldbuilding, and, of course, vengeance. The book made me laugh a lot and cry at least four times.

Also, early on I thought the author was being too quick with revealing a few things the previous two novels were building up to. But the way he then twisted those reveals, and how much more exciting stuff he built upon them? Perfection.

 Read for the following October 2020 readathons:
- BooAThon: Blood
- StrangeAThon: Finish a series
- Sbooktober: Fantasy Costume (Fantasy)
- Gothtober2020: Female protagonist

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, and Sexual content

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Pedophilia