Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Bloed

Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Bloed by Holly Black

9 reviews

star101's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.25

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rachelgreenreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

Valiant by Holly Black

I won’t lie, this was a challenging read. Holly Black is pushing at the very edges of darkness and cruelty with this series, and she does it well. I felt every dark and twisty thing I was supposed to, even down to the numbness and delirium that accompanied Val’s withdrawals.

I adored Ravus, and my only complaint was that we didn’t get more of him. These books are very character-driven, but focus heavily on the main characters, and we only really see the other characters through their eyes. This is very effective, but I just couldn’t get enough of sweet alchemist Ravus!

I will say that sometimes Holly Black’s dialogue can be dubious, and I found the dialogue in this book to contain a lot of non-sequiturs, and to otherwise be obfuscating. Sometimes this is in service to the overall mysterious atmosphere, but sometimes just didn’t make sense.

If you’re looking for something very dark and twist, with a heaping of teen girl rage, this is definitely for you.

4/5⭐️

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laniessmith's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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? Yes

3.5

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amypalmer's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

My rating would be a 2.5
This book wasn't awful and was a quick fairly easy read however most of its pages are about graphic drug using and abusing, a very slow start and an abrupt end. There is also some animal cruelty that I didn't like at all. Similarly to tithe the mother figure is problematic to say the least.

In this book I like the character Ravus and found Val likeable when they are together, Luis also is ok nearer the end. Who is the audience of this book, it is not suitable for teens as the themes are too dark however there is no depth for adult readers. Not enough fantasy and world building.

Although the main characters are different this is a sequel to Tithe, however you only notice this in the last 50 pages or so.

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sienna727's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

0.25

The only reason someone should ever pick up this book is to use it as kindling.

This is NOT a YA book and the story and characters are incredibly messed up.

0/5

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sassper17's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense 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

3.5

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eloisenicolina's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? No

3.5

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leahfoko's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I was not a fan of all the drug use in this. I don’t think it was done badly necessarily, I think it portrayed it as dangerous and that is good, but it kinda just made me uncomfortable. Likely because I really, really hate needles.

Also, Dave glamouring himself to look like Luis so he could sleep with Lolli was really rapey to me and made me super uncomfortable. Dave’s character in general made me very uncomfortable.

So I found both those aspects of this book to make me like it a lot less because it was hard to read. I liked the mystery though, and all the faerie intrigue is always fun to me, I do love Holly Black’s faerie world. I liked Ravus and Val together. I liked seeing Roiben and Kaye at the end. But the drugs and the glamour sex thing was just pretty hard for me to read. So it would be good to know about those parts going into it I think.

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bry_oh_knee's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad 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

4.5

Another excellent dark faerie romp by Holly Black. Thoroughly enjoyed twisting tropes on their head. Came out in 2006(?) So it's funny hearing her describe the fashion's and them being popular now as well

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