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A review by lauracurrieee
King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
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
3.0
I went into this with quite high expectations after reading the previous Grishaverse books, particularly the Six of Crows duology. I was excited by having POVs from Zoya, Nikolai and Nina as they were characters that were stand outs for me. However, as you may have noticed, this book has taken me FOREVER to get through. I just could not get into it. The chapters were super long and slow. The first 260 pages (50%) of the book almost had me tempted to give up and DNF, which I never do. There was so much repeated information and repeated internal monologue in that first half of the book. I don't mind world building normally, but when you mix in repetition, political landscapes and a slow plot that's from three different POVs with long chapter, well you're lucky people keep reading.
Anyway, I pushed through and I'm glad I did. The plot finally picked up and we got some pay off for all the tedious building, it was a little weird but it worked. It finishes on a twist that I didn't see coming and the stakes were high for the last 20% of the book. Zoya was a highlight, I feel her characterisation continued seamlessly and continued to develop well in this book. I like Nikolai, but I missed some of the sass! I liked the introduction of Hanne, I think she was engaging and I'm looking forward to seeing how her story develops. Overall, the second half of this book saves it from what I thought was going to be a two star read. If you can push through the first half, it becomes a reasonable 3/5 stars.
P.S I liked the allusion to Beatuy and the Beast with the grey stuff.
Anyway, I pushed through and I'm glad I did. The plot finally picked up and we got some pay off for all the tedious building, it was a little weird but it worked. It finishes on a twist that I didn't see coming and the stakes were high for the last 20% of the book. Zoya was a highlight, I feel her characterisation continued seamlessly and continued to develop well in this book. I like Nikolai, but I missed some of the sass! I liked the introduction of Hanne, I think she was engaging and I'm looking forward to seeing how her story develops. Overall, the second half of this book saves it from what I thought was going to be a two star read. If you can push through the first half, it becomes a reasonable 3/5 stars.
P.S I liked the allusion to Beatuy and the Beast with the grey stuff.