Reviews tagging 'Death'

Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas

207 reviews

ali1311's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.5

What a finale! I really enjoyed this wrap up. There was so much ground to cover, and I liked the way it ebbed and flowed with action. My only thing is that I wished some of our troubled couples had to work a little harder to resolve their issues.

For them to just come close to death and then be forgiven felt a little too easy. I at least wish they'd spoken a bit more about their issues afterwards so it would've felt fully resolved.

And then I found some of the battle scenes repetitive.

How many times can a group of people almost die and then just barely not!?

But I really appreciated the themes and plotlines all coming to fruition here. Just reading this book makes you realize how much work it must've been to plot it, let alone write it! I know these characters and this story will stay with me for a long time.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

cineladeras's review against another edition

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

smcrain's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

So... I don't know where I fall now having finished the series. There's a weird void, from this having been the last 3mo of my life, at the same time it suffers from what most endings suffer from in not living up to whatever expectations I had inadvertently setup in my head. Being aware of all that I'll say I still enjoyed it. I also kind of felt like the honeymoon phase with me and this series was coming to an end and I looked back and can see how many issues and plot holes there were. Did it stop me from enjoying the heck out of it though? Not really. Anyways the journey is at an end, and I enjoyed the ride. Is it going in my favorites? Not sure on that. I have some favorite moments and characters though. Lysandra is everything to me. But I seriously mostly read this series for a lot of the side characters if I'm honest.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Confinement, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

unboundbooklover's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Slavery, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content and Pregnancy

ladybug12793's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring 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

2.75

It was like pulling nails getting through this series. I wanted to love it so bad. It had some really amazing parts but other parts were just way too boring. A couple hundred pages could’ve been omitted. I would’ve rated this somewhat higher except that it took me 7 months to read this one book and I usually read about 180 books per year. It was a serious struggle. Glad it’s over. Sad that I didn’t love it. 

Also I HATE when the FMC loses her powers at the end. And Gabriel didn’t have to die. Pointless death.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Torture, and War

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Pregnancy

kristanjenkins's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content

starfire29's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Pregnancy

jls6283's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

I cried for like the entire last 20% of this book… It has been a long time since a book/series had that much of an emotional impact on me!

The way it just all comes together in this finale. 😭 I too am sad to say goodbye to these friends ❤️

Spoilers: SJM does a marvelous job of tying in so many characters and planning out so many crazy tiny details and plot lines.

Some things I would’ve liked to have seen were endings for Nox & Dorian’s mother/brother. I found the whole interaction with the gods to be a little underwhelming, but perhaps that was the point? That we can hope for divine intervention, but ultimately must take our own fate into our own hands?

Spoilers: Despite all this I still give 5 stars because I honestly didn’t think I could care about these characters so much. I remember when Manon and the witches were introduced and I literally kept thinking “I don’t care about these characters at all, get me back to the main people!”

But let me tell you how much I BAWLED at the 13’s sacrifice 😭

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, and War

Moderate: Death of parent

Minor: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Pregnancy

ririslibrary's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

I loved this series, but there are a few things that I didn't like about this book:

There are a lot of romances that felt forced

and, obviously, no one who had a romantic interest died in war

Gavriel death's felt unnecesary and I wanted to stop reading the book because of it... 

Otherwise, I never thought I would be so fond of the Thirteen and I cried when they sacrificed themselves (and therefore broke the curse).... "Live, Manon" </3

A great ending that could have been better if the Thirteen and Gavriel were still alive

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent and Pregnancy

sarmarkel's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.0

This was a slog for me. The entire book was building to one battle so felt much more logistical and plot driven rather than character driven which is more what I read for. I found myself skimming a lot more than I usually do.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Pregnancy, and War