Reviews with content warning for Death - Звёздная королева

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Звёздная королева by Roshani Chokshi

9 reviews

thekibbs101's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

2.5

I loved the descriptive writing in the beginning and middle, but right after the middle I hated where the story went. There are so many quotes I wrote down that I enjoyed so much and then the story just completely changed halfway through and l hated it. I was baffled by how bad it got.

“Staring at the sky in Bharata was like exchanging a secret. It felt private, like I had peered through the veil of a hundred worlds. When I looked up, I could imagine-for a moment- what the sky hid from everyone else. I could see where the winds yawned with silver lips and curled themselves to sleep. I could glimpse the moon folding herself into crescents and half-smiles. When I looked up, I could imagine an existence as vast as the sky. Just as infinite. Just as unknown.”

The descriptive lines in here are so nice! The story is slow to get into, I didn’t really start liking it until page 110. I really like the sweetness of Amar, he says such sweet things but I wish they were said after they have known each other longer because I have no idea how or why he is seeming to be already in love with her before he even meets her. The lines would be much more impactful later when they are falling for each other, but I still enjoy reading them. While the writing has nice descriptive lines, I wish it would go more in depth. I love that Amar has a palace with a glass garden, with a room of stars. When they go into the room with the stars I thought it was so nice and it reminded me of the magic in The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern (which I love so much) but I just want more descriptions and more depth. “He reached into the sphere, drawing out the string with the three stars. He twisted them between his hands, fashioning a constellation no larger than a sparrow. Amar stepped forward, sliding the stars above my ear. It cast a glow that turned his face silvery and beautiful.”Like that’s so nice but how are they just able to grab the stars? I’m just curious to know how. I just love the imagination in the writing so much! “I found a room where snowdrifts floated upside down in soft, swirling eddies. Once the snow had piled onto the ceiling, it fell in ribbons of translucent silk before sinking into the floor, for the snow-silk cycle to start anew.” oh my goodness 💖 I love the imagery the author creates.

“I had missed his presence, his speech. Next to him, I felt more alive.” (140) aifhwidjkw 💖 “you are my hope and more.” I didn’t understand or like how Amar keeps going from being all sweet to being cold and asking her to change the fate of things and it’s not even explained why she has to do that. Like I have no idea what’s going on whenever that happens. I didn’t like the parts when they’re just talking about what she has to do, I feel like it halts whatever plot progression could be happening. I wanted more dialogue from the characters as well, after they kiss they don’t even talk about it and their conversations are very short. Right after I started to think the rest of the book would be really good it got bad. the main character is always angry and nothing is explained. At the middle of the book and until almost the end what the hell happened to this book??? I hated it so much?? What is this book oh my god it gets so bad. I was so confused how this could seem like a normal book and then just get so weird and so bad. I can’t believe Maya destroys the tree when Amar begs her not to, I trusted him the whole time and I wish she had too instead of ruining everything. I hated it after that. I was happy to see them reunited and see why he loved her so much but seriously what the hell. This book has so much beautiful writing in the first half that I hoped this would be a 5 star read, but then it was so slow to get into that it went down to 4, then the middle made my rating go down to a 1 star. I want to give it higher because the wonderful descriptive and imaginative lines but this just turned into such a bizarre and bad book. I’m so disappointed. I would love to read Amar and Mayas love story without the giant interruption that takes over the entire second half of the book. I had to skim so much of the last 100 pages because I just hated what was happening. The last few pages are nice and happy and I enjoy seeing Maya and Amar have a happy ending but this is my complaint with so many books, let me see the happy ending for more than just a few pages. I want to read the second book just to see more of their happy ending but I’m sure it will end up being bizarre or having some major violent conflict come up that will not make for an enjoyable read.

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lri_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

booksthatburn's review against another edition

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This has a lot of vivid imagery and is a slow, character-driven romance. It's very focused on what's happening in the main character's head and her thoughts and feelings about what's happening. That's not the kind of book I'm looking for, unfortunately.

Content Warnings

martamae77's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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walkie_check's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

littlewishling's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

Beautifully written, I loved every second of it but I felt it could’ve slowed down. Let the reader savour the world more and learn to understand it more.

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00phantom's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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? It's complicated

4.5

Content Warnings

bookcaptivated's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.0

Content Warnings

leahsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-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

4.0

I read this as a buddy read with Whitney @ BooksWhitMe, and I’m so glad that I did. She was just as enthusiastic as I was about this (even though this was a re-read for her), and our feedback was so similar. I’m already looking forward to buddy reading the sequel to this with her.

I’m normally a very visual reader, but with this book, Roshani Chokshi has unleashed this stunningly descriptive writing that further fueled my visualization. Her writing was achingly beautiful and it was like … watching the most beautiful sunset unfold on the page. Every single scene was poetically beautiful.

“In Bharata, no one believed in ghosts because the dead never lingered. Lives were remade instantly, souls unzipped and ripped into the streaked brilliance of a tiger, a gopi with lacquered eyes or a raja with a lap full of jewels.”

The story itself drew heavily on Indian folklore and mythology, but it still allowed the author to cut loose and express herself creatively in a way that I’ve rarely seen anyone do. It was like seeing an entirely new world open up, and it was refreshingly different from anything I have read before. It drew from the most intriguing aspects of Indian stories, while still incorporating immensely creative expressions. I was absolutely awed by how talented Roshani Chokshi is, and although I was already impressed by The Gilded Wolves, this book took that talent to a whole other level.

Maya grows up as the daughter of a Raja, but she’s lonely, set apart from the other women of the harem because of her horoscope. But she is still part of the harem, so she grows up fairly naïve, which explains the many, many times she made decisions that I wanted to reach into the book and shake her for making short-sighted, dumb choices. But ultimately, I could see why she did, since she was only 17 and had basically no life experience.

“But I had listened to the stories of the wives and I saw what lay ahead. Another harem. Another husband. Another woman scurried away behind a lattice of elephant bone, staring out to a scene forever marred by the patterns of a gilded cage.”

Once Amar comes into the picture, things started getting really interesting. I wasn’t too sure about him at first, but he definitely grew on me. He was mysterious, but I loved how he challenged Maya and worked to build her up after she’s been torn down her whole life.

“Being with him was like seeing for the first time. I even started to think differently about the horoscope. Could I see a glimmer of silver in all that darkness? I wanted to. And now, I almost did.”

A lot of the plot twists didn’t come as surprises to me. I could see them coming a mile away, but I still couldn’t stop reading because they were just written so beautifully. The lyrical writing style and how effortlessly the words flowed off the page made this a quick read that was thoroughly enjoyable. I would have liked to see the magic system detailed more thoroughly, but I did love seeing how it came to life.

“I could feel magic coating the air around me. It felt like starlight and a swoop in my stomach, something heatless and bright and extraordinary.”

I look forward to seeing what comes next in the story, even though it focuses on a different character. Chokshi has a talent for developing characters that I enjoyed reading about, even the villain. So while the suspense wasn’t fully there, the story, writing, and characters more than made up for it.

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