Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Shadow of What Was Lost by James Islington

21 reviews

maddie_rae_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Every chapter there is something newly revealed and then twisted on its head! One of my favorite plot devises in stories with multiple groups is when something happens and one group knows while the other does and makes choices based on their limited knowledge. As a reader we know, but the characters don’t and it makes the story richer for me.

As we go through we discover a thicker and thicker plot, and the lines of good and evil are blurred in fantastic ways. 

The ending is a massive cliffhanger and now I need to jump into book 2.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

While the whole story is not graphic, the parts that are…ARE.

chrisb913's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.5

This book gripped me in it's clutches from start to finish. Islington's use of mystery, action, and character work had me confused and second guessing who to even trust.

This is an very thick book and there is a lot of information on the world, magic system, and the characters but I felt Islington did a great job giving us just enough to keep us interested without info dumping constantly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement, Self harm, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault

wearethistogether's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Death, Gore, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Rape

mari_is_here's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Gore, Blood, and Grief

sissizc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

goeagles91n's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm

1_800_fuck_off's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

in all its glory, this book should be a five-star read for me. the world-building, the story-telling, the plot, the writing style—all of it! amazing! i’d love to continue the series, and i will as soon as i find the time to go pick the rest of the books up, but i can’t shake off the feeling that there was something missing.

i think it had to do with the connections the characters shared with one another. something was lacking. i would read how they would feel, but i wasn’t able to connect with it. it didn't feel genuine, though i’m not sure why. perhaps because it appeared that a character would place less importance on a long-standing close friendship than on a recent romantic possibility? i have no idea. i still thought the characters were fantastic, though. they were all so charming in their own unique ways, and they all had such endearing traits.

the fact that the book's major plot twist was actually rather obvious toward the end of the book was another element that i felt was a little bit lacking. i'm not sure if that was the author's intention, but when it became clear that

caeden was tal'kamar

, i wasn't shocked, surprised, or even flabbergasted hehe. 

additionally, even though the book kept me entertained as i read it, it never really enthralled me, and i'm not sure why. this book fulfills every mark i enjoy in a high fantasy book featuring cisgender, heterosexual protagonists. nonetheless, i’m eager to get into the next two novels in the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Gaslighting

there’s too many to remember im sorry these are just the main ones i do remember

klambson's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

nerdkitten's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Genocide, Self harm, Vomit, and Stalking

Minor: Ableism, Child death, Physical abuse, Rape, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, and Alcohol

autumnrh's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious medium-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

4.0

A very good story, it was very interesting to see how everything flowed and connected to the end. One of the things I didn’t like about it though is that all the action scenes are done way too fast. It makes it a bit boring when you’re amping to see the magic system I’m action but the fighting is over within a page and half. It also does a good job of making want to commit to the rest of the series to simply find out what the heck is going on. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail