Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Murtagh by Christopher Paolini

21 reviews

amanda_amidala_organa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

Murtagh remains my forever favorite character in fantasy storytelling, and this book is an absolute gift. I always felt like I deeply understood this tragic and tortured (yet somehow stubbornly hopeful) character - and Christopher Paolini’s writing confirmed so many feelings and theories. This was a powerful deep dive into trauma and choosing a more difficult but morally right path, and yet again I continue to be blown away so many years later by the world building and heart balanced in the stories of Alagaësia. Here’s to so many more ahead. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Gaslighting, and War

greenrequiem's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Torture, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, and War

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

amacat's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

4.75

Was excited to get back into the world of Alagaesia. This book follows Murtagh after the events in Inheritance. There are some flash backs that fill Murtaghs back story. I enjoyed the book but there were times things seemed to drag and the author did leave an opening for new books which I wouldn't say no to. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty

exhaustrovert's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

If you enjoyed the Inheritance series, this book feels like reuniting with an old friend. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Genocide, Kidnapping, Murder, and Dysphoria

Minor: Toxic relationship and War

v_neptune's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

jackiepreston's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Slavery, Death of parent, War, and Classism

aseel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.5

I'm SO glad that the author is writing in this world again, this was my childhood and my adulthood. 

I really liked getting murtagh's perspective and I love him and thorn so much, very keen to see what happens next 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

betweentheshelves'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

So, I had read that you can pretty much read this without having read the previous Eragon books, which I think is true for the most part. Since it's been 20 years since Eragon first came out, I figured I'd be okay because I definitely don't remember any of details from the first four books. There are references to events and characters that I definitely could not remember, but I could follow what was  happening with Murtagh. 

This book is very much about Murtagh dealing with his past trauma, not only when he was working for the evil king, but also just his unbringing in general. There are some tough moments in this book, both for Murtagh and for Thorn. 

Also, I forgot how long winded Paolini is. I don't think this book necessarily needed to be this long, but it's not surprising that it is. There's some unresolved things, so I wouldn't be surprised if Paolini also revisited this world again in the future, either with Murtagh or with Eragon. I'm sure we'll be getting more books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Gore, Slavery, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal cruelty and Self harm

savanah's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

There were multiple occasions where I told my husband that I was going to DNF the book if “this 2014 emo pick-me whiny boy” said one more of his “poems”. I really liked Murtagh in the original series because he was a little angst-y and mysterious. Hearing his internal monologue absolutely ruined it. 
I did love thorn he is precious and must be protected at all cost. 
I did see a change in the writing which has improved, but at almost no point did I actually get drawn in to the story, I spent more time rolling my eyes at Murtagh than literally anything else. Would not read again, or if I did I would literally just skip to the last several chapters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Torture, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Confinement, Slavery, Violence, and War

Minor: Self harm

withloveandlights's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.0

Returning to Alagaësia felt like another wonderful homecoming. Picking up this continuation, without going back and rereading the original quartet, didn’t leave me feeling like I was missing previously discussed topics. The concepts that were relevant were brought up subtly where necessary. The new characters introduced didn’t take away from the previously explored friendships and added more intricacies to the world building. 

While I loved returning to these characters, the overall conflicts throughout the novel felt very repetitive and the character development felt insignificant. For several instances through the discovery of the evil and planning to thwart the witch’s  efforts, Murtagh made little to no change with his tactics. It was disappointing to not see him grow and develop his skills as a rider as we had seen with Eragon’s development. 

This novel contains the darkest concepts and plot points within the Inheritance Cycle by far; many scenes playing out more like a horror novel than a general YA fantasy. It brings a new perspective to Alagaësia, but may not be suitable for younger or more sensitive readers looking to jump into the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Blood and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal cruelty