Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Storm Crow by Kalyn Josephson

14 reviews

bratt713's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Bullying, Abandonment, and Death

indigosparrow's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Torture, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Death

Moderate: Infidelity and Murder

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Alcohol, and Misogyny

abookishwasp's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Grief

meaghanelizabook's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Blood, Self harm, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Death of parent, and Death

Minor: War

imaginingly's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

literally my new favorite book. there are bipoc characters, lgbt+ characters, the book deals with depression and anxiety from the main character’s point of view, deals with grief and death of loved ones, and just—so much
there is very mild romance which i loved 
the character development is *chefs kiss* and the entire plot revolving around crows (as i’m a bird lover to start with) is astonishing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Mental illness, Death, Grief, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Death of parent, Animal death, Blood, Genocide, Murder, Torture, and War

egurgens's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring 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

4.75

I love the world Kalyn Josephson wove for this story. There are different nations, all with their own gods, their own culture, and characteristics.  Aris is a beautiful city, with different sectors that favor different industries and crows. There are different types of crow, all with their specific kind of magic; wind, shadow, battle, water, earth, storm, fire, and sun. However, 'everything changed when the fire nation attacked." Haha, jk, although Illucia DID use fire to

destroy the crows.

In an attempt to keep the peace, Thia's sister, the new queen, promises her to Illucia as a bride to marry the heir, Ericen. 

Ericen is a masterpiece in my opinion; one part ice and loyalty, one part fire and rebellion, and the rest is a mess, since he doesn't know what he wants from this war. He's just a softie with a tough shell, and I adore him. I also adore Caylus, all PTSD and mismatched sweaters and science and baking. 

There is so much political drama: a mad, blood hungry queen vs the trained Crow rider who has to face the wrath of the mad queen to save her country... or does she? Thia found a storm crow egg in the ruins of the roost, and decides to try and raise it to rally her country and fight back against the Illucian oppressors. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Torture, Violence, War, and Mental illness

Moderate: Abandonment, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Kidnapping

1quillb's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

Oh my LORD this was good. Kalyn sent me a free copy of this from a TikTok giveaway, and it actually took me a while to sit down and read it, but it’s amazing. Royalty, politics, a betrothal, love triangle with hot dark prince vs cute baker-alchemist-rebel. Everything you could want. 
The representation in this is *chefs kiss*. So many queer people (and it’s NORMALISED, which I love in fantasy), so many people of colour, mental illness representation, slight disability rep- This is the kind of book I want all books to be. 
Also, elemental crows? That’s such a unique concept? Applause all around for even thinking of that. 
Overall, yes. Read this. It’s kind of confusing in the beginning because you’re introduced to so much so fast, but it’s such a good read. You’d especially enjoy this if you liked books like Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard or Children of Blood and Bone by Tomi Adeyemi. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Mental illness

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Violence

dlrosebyh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Mental illness, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: War, Child abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Sexual harassment

mitone_winona's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad tense fast-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? Yes

3.25

Two thing's I love about this book, the magical crows and the diversity of kingdom's. The character's of the book aren't necessarily bad or frowned upon, but I will admit the author took the quick approach of "YA lead girl who is traumatized falls in love super quick with a nerdy boy who is genuinely nice but has infatuation for the prince she is engaged to that is from the kingdom that destroyed her own and has talked mess on her people and kingdom but dismisses that more and more" which is pretty annoying because it happens quick due to the pace of the book going fast. I would recommend this as a usual YA read for anyone who wants to pass the time but the weird pseudo-romance triangle isn't anything new or unique, just the usual bleh factor from most YA author's.

I will say however, I do adore Thia and her sister's dynamic in the book and how mental illness and PTSD/Trauma is addressed in the book and how Thia acknowledges her mother, the queen, has created a chain reaction of mistakes but is willing to go forward to fixing them.

Overall, a good book with great lore! Just a bad romance sub plot going on that went too fast.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Death of parent, Death, and Animal death

Moderate: Grief, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Child abuse

willowmae's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

It has a slow start but gets better as it goes on 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, and Death