Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

49 reviews

chronicacademia's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexism, Violence, Pregnancy, and War

zoey_blk's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

A solid read. I enjoyed Nina's pov the most and I was much more invested in her story than in Nikolais and Zoyas. I still enjoyed spending time with these familiar characters that are so dear to me. I'm hoping for Crow more references in the next book, those keep me alive. Maybe Leoni meeting Jesper, Inej meeting Zoya and the gang, Kaz and Nikolai reuniting, that would be fun. And I want Jarl Brum realizing who Nina is + a hero speech by Nina. She deserves a lil revenge. It's so random that ma boy Aleksander is back, but I'm not complaining. I know he's like evil and stuff, but I can't help being happy we get to see him again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, and Pregnancy

sea_sea's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad 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

4.5

OH MY GOODNESS!!! The story continues!!! This book is a little hard to get into in the beginning, but it is amazing to finally see Zoya and Nikolais perspectives! Also how Nina’s life continues after Matthias ;-; It definitely picks up towards the end! It was a little confusing that Ninas and Nikolai+ Zoyas Plots were handled simultaneously in the book, because they had almost nothing to do with each other. Overall a good book! :> 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

Minor: Rape, Slavery, Torture, Vomit, and War

prettynerdy3's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

jessicaludden's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious 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

3.5

“He was not the crying child or even the drowning man. He was the forever soldier, eternally at war, unable to ever lay down his arms and heal.”

I loved being back in the Grishaverse and seeing what these characters are up to now. I loved the politics in this and there were definitely some plot twists I didn’t see coming. I really liked learning more about Nikolai and Zoya especially because we really didn’t get a lot from them in the books before. Of course I loved seeing Nina again, even if it meant hurting my heart every time she mentioned Matthias. 

But I did feel like there was some pacing issues which caused a disconnect with the characters and the plot. I just couldn’t get into it and never really cared a huge amount about the characters. It was very slow in some parts and very repetitive which often left me feeling like I was reading parts that were unnecessary to the character and plot development. But overall, I’m excited to read the next one!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

marine2907's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

jessiereads98's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? Yes

3.5

Really torn between a 3.5 and 3.75 on this one. A good addition to the Grishaverse. Solid themes and a compelling story overall. The world remains expansive and sucks you in as we’ve come to expect from the Grishaverse, with interesting domestic and foreign politics. While they have similar themes and are obviously working towards the same big thing in the next book, I’m just not sure Nina’s story belonged with what was billed as Nikolai’s story. In this book the two were nearly completely separate and it was a bit jarring switching back and forth. The ending is obviously full of cliffhangers for the second book and some of this throughout felt so obviously like set up for the next book or future entries in the Grishaverse. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Gun violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Classism

lis4so's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and War

arya3155's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Child abuse

spaghettii's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and War