emilywemily6's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Violence, Murder, War, and Body horror
Moderate: Sexual content, Racism, Medical content, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal cruelty, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Torture, Child abuse, Drug use, and Fire/Fire injury
bubbly_lara's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Spoiler
and the group of survivors in the White Cathedral"What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men."
For a moment there, I thought my little heart could not take how the story was unfolding. In what the Darkling decided on as a punishment for
Spoiler
NikolaiSpoiler
Alina and Nikolai in his monster formSpoiler
For a moment there, I thought they would not get to live the life they both want and deserve. What with Mal being the Third Amplifier and both of them knowing he must die in order for Alina to absorb the power within Mal. No words, just heartbreak. I did love the epilogue and how they rebuilt Keramzin to be a better home for others than it was for them. Zoya handing Alina blue Grisha robes with the note "You will always be one of us" makes me tear up even writing this review.Please do yourself a favour and go read this series. It deserves all the hype it's getting. I cannot wait to go dive back into the Grishaverse with "Six of Crows" next.
Graphic: Murder, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Cursing, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, and War
Moderate: Suicide, Child death, Sexual assault, Animal death, Rape, Sexual violence, and Vomit
fionamatilda's review against another edition
- 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
4.25
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual assault, War, and Toxic relationship
toastyghosty13's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.5
One thing that bothered me was that
Spoiler
Mal was the third amplifier. This just seemed strange to me, especially when the idea of Morozova and his normal daughter surviving being drowned in chains is a huge reach, on top of the fact that Mal is some supposed descendant of the daughter. I found this to be a weird plot point, but I guess it can work.Something that really bothered me that stems from this is that when Alina killed Mal to try to use him as the last amplifier as a last resort, she lost all of her power and it was reflected in all of the other normal citizens instead. I found this very cheesy and a weird way to take it. I doubt I am the only one that wanted to see Alina go super saiyan on the darkling in some massive showdown, so this was a huge letdown to me.
I did not realize how many people would die off, nor did I realize that they had even died until spoken about in past tense.
Spoiler
Harshaw is one of these, plus Ruby and some others that were from the final battle and the battle at spinning wheel. I think all of these characters got done dirty, plus Genya got done dirty for no reason, in my opinion. Same goes for Botkin and anyone that was defending the orphanage; I feel that that was totally unnecessary for them to die and did not really add anything to the plot.The end bothered me unbelievably.
Spoiler
Leigh pulled a Game of Thrones, where we are all expecting some epic showdown just for the big ending move to be getting stabbed in the heart by some forgotten dagger. This was boring and a disappointing cop out, since she is the main character and I expected a lot more for the final scene.The afterward I actually quite liked. It was quaint, and pretty wholesome. I enjoy that
Spoiler
they still have contact with everyone that stayed on to be advisors to Nikolai in the palace and that Alina and Mal are not just cut off from the world completely. They opened an orphanage that they really care about and are able to reminisce whenever old friends from the palace come by to visit. Overall a great afterward.I have heard that the other duologies are a lot better than this. I am pretty disappointed with the turn this series took after how much I enjoyed the first book. I have the boxset so I will at least be reading The Six of Crows Duology since I already own it. I would not purchase King of Scars unless Six of Crows makes a huge turnaround of what Shadow and Bone left me feeling.
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Torture, War, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, Child abuse, and Suicidal thoughts
aidareads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Blood, Violence, and War
Moderate: Suicide, Grief, and Sexual assault
this_is_naomimi's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Blood and Violence
Minor: Sexual content
k_winchester's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
And I did feel like the final battle somehow was too... I hesitate to say "simple", because it wasn't exactly, but maybe it just wasn't quite long enough to have that really earned punch-in-the-gut?? It kind of was more like, "Oh... oh man, it's over." That's it. And given how intertwined Alina and The Darkling have been up to this story, it was a bit surprising how separated they ended up feeling in the end, despite all the parallels, connections, and Alina learning more about who he once was.
That being said, the parts that were engaging were awesome and threw me for some loops. I did not see a few of the twists coming, I certainly did not see ANY part of Nikolai's story coming, and I really wasn't sure how Alina was going to end up in the end...!! I pretty much couldn't stop reading the last quarter because I needed to know how on earth it would end!
Leigh always has gorgeous writing regardless, and I *did* enjoy this. I honestly was expecting a much more tragic ending the way things were trending through this book, so I was really relieved to see it end more bittersweet.
Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
nataliebootlah's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Graphic: Violence, War, Grief, Blood, and Death
hayleythegoose's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, War, Grief, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Rape
Minor: Suicide attempt and Cannibalism
casthefanby's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Body horror, War, and Confinement
Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Grief