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A review by votesforwomen
Blood for Blood by Ryan Graudin
4.0
REREAD REVIEW:
Still 4 gorgeous stars. I'm in love with this series and I need to reread the first book.
LUKA LOWE IS THE HOTTEST SIZZLING BOOKISH BOY IN BOOK HISTORY. *fans self and swoons* So hot and gorgeous and selfless and *bursts into tears* *howls* *sobs forever*
THIS BOOK GAVE ME SO MANY EMOTIONS
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
Yael. Yael. That's all I can say. She's one of my favorite heroines right now. She's epic and beautiful and feminine and broken and HUMAN. Her development over this book was the most compelling part of the story, and it made me cry and laugh and howl at the moon. Yael.
You thought Luka was boring in the first book? You thought he was nothing more than a flat love interest? You. Were. Wrong. As love interests go, he is one of THE BEST I've encountered in a very, very long time. His arc. Was. Magical. I fell in love with Luka Lowe, and my heart still aches from the end of this book.
I personally liked this book a lot more than the first one. It was a lot more compelling. It was about more than just winning a race--it was about saving the world. Yael's first book was about avenging the wolves she already had--this book was about keeping there from needing to be more wolves. I loved it. I loved it so freakin much.
Were some of the plot twists predictable? Yes. Was it slow sometimes, in the middle? Yes. Did I squirm a couple of times and grimace at the violence? Yes. But did I jump and dance at the parts that involved triumph? Yes, I did.
Because this book is about more than Yael, and she knows it now. She understands that she fights for something greater than herself. She has complex feelings about fighting in this battle and whether or not it can ever be justified to kill someone--will that turn her into the monster that the Nazis are, the monster that she's always been accused of being? I appreciated it so much. I'll say it again: Yael is tough. Yael is a fighter. She beats people up. She doesn't crack under torture. She doesn't flinch at setting her broken nose. She's a tough girl, and she knows it. But she is also so human. So feminine. She's a young woman who's had her identity stolen by the Nazis and her femininity stolen by the tough life of being a Resistance fighter and a Jew. But she is still a young woman.
There was more content in this book. There was more fighting, more death. But it was worth it this time. I really felt like, as in the case of Catching Fire, this book justified the violence and occasional strangeness of the first one.
Because it was good. And I don't know how much I can recommend it--as in the first one, there is quite a bit of violent content--but I will anyway.
Read it.
CONTENT
Violence:
A ton of violence. People are tortured, executed, and experimented on. Several people jump out of an airplane to escape. There's a scene involving amputation where you don't find out what happened til later but it's implied to be horrific. Lots and lots of fighting and death. The medical experiments of the Jewish death camps are a prominent plotline--not as much in this book as in the first one, but still a lot. Some violence involving a man beating a woman. Several people are shot and a few prominent characters die (But which ones? You won't hear it from me.)
SEXUAL:
A long kiss that is not described in detail, just emotionally, kind of from an outsiders' POV. A past incident where a guy walked in on a girl taking a shower is alluded to briefly.
LANGUAGE:
Quite a bit--all in German, although the meanings of the words aren't hard to guess. It was a LOT less than in the Book Thief, however, and I didn't feel like it detracted as much from the story.
DRUGS/ALCOHOL/ETC.
Luka smokes, although not as much as he did in the first book. I feel like there was some alcohol at a couple of points, but it would have been drunk by adults. Medical experiments were performed on important characters, and while this time we don't really see them happen we see the horrible effects of the drugs on their bodies later.
Please. If you can handle it, read this series.
Never again.
Still 4 gorgeous stars. I'm in love with this series and I need to reread the first book.
LUKA LOWE IS THE HOTTEST SIZZLING BOOKISH BOY IN BOOK HISTORY. *fans self and swoons* So hot and gorgeous and selfless and *bursts into tears* *howls* *sobs forever*
THIS BOOK GAVE ME SO MANY EMOTIONS
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
Yael. Yael. That's all I can say. She's one of my favorite heroines right now. She's epic and beautiful and feminine and broken and HUMAN. Her development over this book was the most compelling part of the story, and it made me cry and laugh and howl at the moon. Yael.
You thought Luka was boring in the first book? You thought he was nothing more than a flat love interest? You. Were. Wrong. As love interests go, he is one of THE BEST I've encountered in a very, very long time. His arc. Was. Magical. I fell in love with Luka Lowe, and my heart still aches from the end of this book.
I personally liked this book a lot more than the first one. It was a lot more compelling. It was about more than just winning a race--it was about saving the world. Yael's first book was about avenging the wolves she already had--this book was about keeping there from needing to be more wolves. I loved it. I loved it so freakin much.
Were some of the plot twists predictable? Yes. Was it slow sometimes, in the middle? Yes. Did I squirm a couple of times and grimace at the violence? Yes. But did I jump and dance at the parts that involved triumph? Yes, I did.
Because this book is about more than Yael, and she knows it now. She understands that she fights for something greater than herself. She has complex feelings about fighting in this battle and whether or not it can ever be justified to kill someone--will that turn her into the monster that the Nazis are, the monster that she's always been accused of being? I appreciated it so much. I'll say it again: Yael is tough. Yael is a fighter. She beats people up. She doesn't crack under torture. She doesn't flinch at setting her broken nose. She's a tough girl, and she knows it. But she is also so human. So feminine. She's a young woman who's had her identity stolen by the Nazis and her femininity stolen by the tough life of being a Resistance fighter and a Jew. But she is still a young woman.
There was more content in this book. There was more fighting, more death. But it was worth it this time. I really felt like, as in the case of Catching Fire, this book justified the violence and occasional strangeness of the first one.
Because it was good. And I don't know how much I can recommend it--as in the first one, there is quite a bit of violent content--but I will anyway.
Read it.
CONTENT
Violence:
A ton of violence. People are tortured, executed, and experimented on. Several people jump out of an airplane to escape. There's a scene involving amputation where you don't find out what happened til later but it's implied to be horrific. Lots and lots of fighting and death. The medical experiments of the Jewish death camps are a prominent plotline--not as much in this book as in the first one, but still a lot. Some violence involving a man beating a woman. Several people are shot and a few prominent characters die (But which ones? You won't hear it from me.)
SEXUAL:
A long kiss that is not described in detail, just emotionally, kind of from an outsiders' POV. A past incident where a guy walked in on a girl taking a shower is alluded to briefly.
LANGUAGE:
Quite a bit--all in German, although the meanings of the words aren't hard to guess. It was a LOT less than in the Book Thief, however, and I didn't feel like it detracted as much from the story.
DRUGS/ALCOHOL/ETC.
Luka smokes, although not as much as he did in the first book. I feel like there was some alcohol at a couple of points, but it would have been drunk by adults. Medical experiments were performed on important characters, and while this time we don't really see them happen we see the horrible effects of the drugs on their bodies later.
Please. If you can handle it, read this series.
Never again.