Reviews tagging 'Child death'

De Winter van de Heks, by Katherine Arden

10 reviews

thewildmageslibrary's review against another edition

4.5

One thing I really love about this series is that there's not really any time gaps between books. Bam, you're right back where you left off. In this case, "in a pickle".
I absolutely adore Vasya's growth, especially in this book. Can't say much without spoilers, so just read these.

CW: same "it's set in the 14th century, so" as the others

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Grief, Sexism, Animal death, Religious bigotry, Violence, Blood, Confinement, Misogyny, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Child death

saintyeehaw's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective 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? Yes

3.5

This was probably the last thing I expected from the events of the first book. Truthfully, I had wanted Vasya to run away from it all and travel the world like she planned to. I admit I was disappointed by the second book's decision to turn inward toward her siblings. I think that disappointment probably puts a bias on my mediocre experience with this last installment. This third story is a good one and I did enjoy my time reading it, but it suffers a little from treating Vasya as untouchable and some questionable ethics. 

Spoiler

We are pretty much outright told that no man can resist Vasya's wild/unique charm; while that's something seen in the behavior of other men in the previous books, making it some kind of general rule that gets her out of more than one life threatening situation feels pretty cheap. I also don't feel great, or even good at all, about a 17 year old feeling forced by a dire situation to have sex with an ancient winter god. I was already iffy about their relationship but this book pushed it from questionable to straight up ick for me. Not loving that the only queer relationship in the entire series is between the two villains either. Finally, if we're going to undo some of Vasya's greatest development into adulthood by bringing Solovey back, at least give us more time with him.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Pedophilia, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Gore, Injury/injury detail, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, War, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, and Murder

aelis's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Religious bigotry, Child death, and Violence

decembermagpie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Injury/injury detail, Torture, Death, Grief, Murder, Violence, and War

Minor: Self harm, Pregnancy, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Child death

thequiltyreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Violence, War, Animal cruelty, Death, and Injury/injury detail

Minor: Death of parent, Child death, and Slavery

savanapavlak's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and War

chattie_the_mad_chatter's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

On a re-read this is even more incredible than when I first read it.

I love the journey we go with Vasya, it starts with a band then slows down, it took me by surprise but wraps everything up so well. 

I love this out of all 3 as it mixes things I enjoy from the first 2, tje conflict between Chereti and the Church, politics, Vasya finding herself. Character growth is brilliant emotions are high and it has made me appreciate mushrooms! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Sexism, Violence, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Blood, Vomit, Injury/injury detail, and Sexual harassment

avisreadsandreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Violence, Religious bigotry, Child death, Blood, Physical abuse, and Death

Moderate: Torture, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, and Misogyny

Minor: Vomit

sarahsbooklife's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Violence

Moderate: Murder and Blood

Minor: Sexual content, Sexism, Misogyny, Child death, and Confinement

ehmannky's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.5

A wonderful end to the series. Winter of the Witch delves straight into the action, without any of the slow build up to Vasya's main plot that the previous two books did. And it starts out intense, with Vasya nearly killed by a mob spurred on by the corrupted priest Konstantin. I did kind of miss the meticulous world-building, but this is probably the most focused of the series in terms of plot. But I forgive much because I loved the relationship between Morozko and Vasya getting the room to really grow. Also, Vasya's PTSD from the beginning of the book was rendered so vividly and painfully, and I liked seeing a protagonist struggle with doing what she had to do with that disorder. It just makes her feel all the more real and brave. 

The only thing I didn't particularly love was that it felt that there were essentially two parts that felt like an ending-one part in the middle and the other was the actual end of the book. I don't want to spoil it, but I felt that after one of the major forces of antagonism in Vasya's life are defeated, there was a 50 ish page gap where the book felt like it sort of stalled. Overall, I didn't hate it and I get thematically why this split exists and the meaning behind showing that "defeating evil" is not enough for a victory in a complex world, but it felt odd in a book that's so action-focused to have this weird lull roughly 2/3rds of the way through.

Overall, extremely satisfied with this series and its ending, and good god

Spoiler

was it satisfying to see Konstantin die. Still not sure how I feel about Solovey being resurrected in the last 10 pages of the book, but it is a very fairy tale twist so I did appreciate it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Violence, Sexism, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Blood, and Child death

Moderate: Slavery, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Kidnapping

Minor: Vomit