Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Winter Soldier: Cold Front by Mackenzi Lee

9 reviews

lawbooks600's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

Representation: N/A
Score: Seven points out of ten.

I wanted to read The Winter Soldier: Cold Front for a while but I didn't get around till now. I saw it a few months back but someone transferred it. Months later, I transferred it back when it was finally time to read it. I glanced at the blurb, making it seem intriguing. I almost gave this one three stars, until it redeemed itself.

It starts with the first two characters I see, V, living in the Soviet Union in 1954 as a super soldier experiment, and Bucky Barnes, refusing to enlist for the US army in WWII in 1941, instead taking part in a special British mission, where he meets a woman who plays chess, and plays chess. The pacing is slow as nothing significant happens in the first 200 pages, but it soon picks up in the last 200. I initially found it tedious to read The Winter Soldier: Cold Front, as it switches between time to time and character to character, establishing a non-linear narrative structure, but at least it's not as disjointed as another fictional composition I've read. I didn't bother trying to connect or relate to the characters as Bucky was naïve and V was cold-hearted. It bored me so much I was about to say it disappointed me, but it didn't, because of one moment that changed everything. Bucky and V were the same person, only with a different identity between the years since Bucky was missing in action and the United States presumed him dead, only for the Soviet Union to retrieve and restore him but as another person, whose identity is now V. The action further increased as V tried to escape the lab, but there was a cliffhanger in the end where scientists wiped his mind so he forgets all the memories he had before he became the experiment. That is where the story earns its fourth star.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Full trigger warnings: Death and murder, dead bodies, physical assault and injury, blood depiction, military violence and war themes, World War Two, hospitalisation of a person, near-death experience, amputation (arm)

jtjackson228's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment and War

riespark's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dementia, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Death, Gun violence, War, Medical trauma, Torture, Murder, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Violence, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Car accident, Mental illness, Drug use, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content

seforana's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad fast-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Body horror, Murder, Gun violence, Medical content, Blood, Car accident, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Vomit, War, and Suicide attempt

ruckystarnes's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Physical abuse, Murder, War, Body horror, Medical trauma, and Gun violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Drug use, Confinement, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Body horror, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Blood, Cursing, Self harm, Torture, Kidnapping, Suicide, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Death, Violence, and Suicidal thoughts

callidoralblack's review

adventurous mysterious

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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, and Dementia

Minor: Alcohol, Car accident, Torture, Blood, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

origamibird's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

The book is good cuz bucky’s in it but the book is also pain cuz bucky’s in it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Body horror, Gaslighting, Gore, Medical trauma, and Death

Moderate: War, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, Blood, and Torture

Minor: Death of parent and Suicide attempt

mamabeardteacher's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Fanfic 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting, Suicide, Panic attacks/disorders, and Murder

Moderate: Self harm, Kidnapping, Grief, Forced institutionalization, Fire/Fire injury, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcohol, War, Car accident, and Torture

m_winnike's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

4.0

I got an ARC copy of this book through work. Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier is one of my favorite Marvel characters. If you’re going into this book expecting it to be MCU Bucky you’re going to be a little disappointed. He’s got a lot of the personality of MCU Bucky but the background and such is different.

The timeline of the book is split between the 1940s when Bucky was first trying to get into the military and the 1950s in his time as a KGB spook. Reading the parts about his time with the KGB was heartbreaking at times, especially at the end when reading his records of all the experiments on him for the Winter Soldier project. Overall I really loved this book. I know the chess aspect was really important because of how it helped set up some of the intrigue but omg do I not care about the multiple pages of descriptions of different chess moves. I get that the author was trying to compare chess strategies to espionage but if I had to hear one more thing about a gambit I was gonna scream because the only Gambit I want to hear about in a Marvel novel is Remy Lebeau. Imogen was such an interesting character and I wished we got more of her. Her whole backstory with her father and finding out what he had planned for her so awful. I wish she would have had a better ending to her story.

If you’re planning to read this book please look at the content warnings because the things I listed are pretty well described in the book and I don’t want anyone to be surprised when they come up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Gaslighting, Gore, Torture, Medical trauma, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Body horror