Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

36 reviews

barbarianmissy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

WE ARE HOME, BABY! HELL YEAH TESSAREN! 

Wowee that was quite the epic tale! 

Felt a smidge slow at the start but the last 200 pages were crazy af in usual SJM manner. 

Here are my thoughts on the characters for this book:

I’m so flipping HAPPY that Dorian got freed, poor sweet summer child, he didn’t deserve to be possessed for so long! BUT ALSO! Every single person just frickin left him to run a country on his own???? After he was tortured for months?!??! Like Aelin and her court all left to go North, and Chaol and Nesryn are going south! Who’s going to watch our battered and bruised lil king?!?! I don’t trust any of these Adarlan jerks to treat him right! But something I’m hopeful for is that I feel like Manon and him may become a thing????? That’d be quite the dynamic! Can’t wait! 

Manon you’re sick af and a rockstar queen. Keep rocking, girlie! Hope Elide doesn’t get lost in the woods or break her other leg after you just left her there. 

Also Lorcan was a fun lil addition, I don’t like him but I think he’s fun! Saucy lil guy! 

I hope Lysandra and Aedion get together, they’d be really cute especially since she can scare the shit outta him. Good for her. She’s becoming one of my favs. 

Aelin, I love you and Rowan together but I really wish it wasn’t established that you are blood relatives. I don’t care how distantly related you are, the fact that you can say “let’s go visit our aunt” is WEIRD. But long live the QUEEN! 

Chaol, buddy, you really were pissing me off this book. Sorry about your lil leggies and I hope you get them back but you need to drink your “respect women” juice and treat Nesryn right pls cause I am getting real sick of your antics. 

Now, ONTO THE TANDEM READ! LETS GOOOOOOOO

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Incest, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

anguawolf's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Hate crime, Self harm, Cannibalism, and Classism

Minor: Stalking

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-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

3.75

Continues the strong character development and worldbuilding that Maas delivered in Heir of Fire, with some satisfying plot twists and emotional breakthroughs for various characters. 

This is also the first book that starts to get properly horny.

Many of the descriptions  are starting to become repetitive - there are only so many times that I can read that someone was "covered in black blood" or had "eyes lined with silver" (just say they're filled with tears jfc). Also the way that Maas describes territorial Fae males is already exhausting, and the lack of nuance between familial vs romantic territorialism makes a big middle chunk of the book seem uncomfortably incest-y.

Overall this is stronger than the first two entries in the series and makes me excited to continue reading, but imo, a small step down in quality from Heir of Fire. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Incest

sreilly1's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.0

Lot of plot happenings, setting up for some good romance 😋 but I can definitely see myself forgetting what happens in this book later on 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Blood, Vomit, Pregnancy, and War

caelfind's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Genocide

yarisbooksandbevs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-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

Oh I loved this book. There was so much emotion, so much growth and so much heart.

So many characters developed. I love all of them. They all have loveable qualities and witty banter. (Chaol is eh. He was pissing me off in the beginning). The women in this story are absolutely amazing. Aelin is so smart and cunning. Kaltain’s story was so sad and beautiful. Lysandra really surprised me and I love her. Manon is an absolute icon. Asterin made me want to cry.

I can’t wait to see these characters win this war.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Torture, and War

Minor: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexual content, Vomit, and Pregnancy

rafacolog's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Sexual harassment

ashleynp24's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

This book was easily my favorite so far in the series. The relationships built between characters was so good.

Lysandra is definitely one of my favorite characters, and I loved getting to learn more about her specific history in this book.

Manon and Elide’s relationship was another one of my favorites, and Manon’s character arc was really fun to read.

The ending was so many emotions and I’m so excited to try the tandem read next. 

I absolutely screamed when I found out they perrington is the overarching villain this whole time and that manon helped Aelin. I’m so interested to see if Elide finds them and what happens to Chaol and Nesryn. I’m wondering if they will run into the girl that Aelin helped to become a healer back in assassin’s blade!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

britwalsh16'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? Yes

5.0

I could not put this book down! Omg! It was sooooo good!!! 
Watching Aelin become who she was always meant to be & fight for her loved ones & what is right, is inspiring! The growth she has had since book 1 is in incredible! 
And the bromance between Chaol & Dorian is like my favorite bromance ever! Coming in second only to my bat boys. 
All the characters have incredible growth in this book! & I could go on about how much I love them all, but then this will get really long, so I won’t. 
But my favorite character is Rowan! & having him not being in the first third of the book gave me serious withdrawal! My heart just leaped out of my chest when he finally showed up! I was so ecstatic! I can’t wait to read more of him, & more of his relationship with Aelin! My heart! 💜 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Genocide, Misogyny, Excrement, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Miscarriage and Pregnancy

dalek_caan's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

This book had me on the edge of my seat. The last one in the series was a little bit slow to read, but this one was moving from start to finish. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism