Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

4 reviews

oxfordcommas91's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I did the tandem read of this book & Tower of Dawn and enjoyed them immensely. Though this series started a bit slower than I typically like in a fantasy, I starting to really appreciate all the ways that SJM set up multiple plot points and characters early on in the series. The call backs to characters and situations from earlier books throughout Empire of Storms was really expertly done. The world building by the time you get to EOS is immense and I really was constantly on the edge of my seat during this book. The action was intense and the end a real cliffhanger.
This book reminds me in many ways of Empire Strikes Back and really beautifully sets up the final fight between good and evil and the battles that Aelin and her friends will have to wage to save the kingdom.
A really good book and I’m really looking forward to the final installment!
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bookrecsplease's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

The beginning of this book honestly read like the weakest entry in the ToG series so far, starting to feel like more of a fetch quest holding us back from finishing the final conflict. 

There was barely any distinction in the voices of all the POV characters of the same gender, and it felt like all characters (non-POV, too) were reacting in similar ways to everything they came up against. Elide, especially, I felt changed her whole character out of the blue from the last book to sound more like Aelin. 
And the thing is, if every one of your characters puts on a swaggering arrogance in all tense conversations, that chuckling, smirking bravado simply doesn’t pack the same punch anymore. It is just so silly to me that every single person in a diplomatic or intimidating situation has the same sort of attitude and approach, and not only story-wise does that not make sense, but also writing-wise it gets redundant as Mass uses the same kinds of adjectives and adverbs to describe those identical attitudes. I think I read the word “drawl” or “drawled” over 100 times.

The way that all the good characters understand each other’s thoughts kept taking me out of the story because I felt like it got a little ridiculous. Like, with one look, a character (who, if this makes any difference, barely knows the other) understands that the one who LOOKED at them wants them to take another person and get them out of that situation as soon as possible once a conflict begins. I mean, that would be at least a three-gesture and look communication if you’re not using words. It was just a little absurd the way they could basically read each other’s minds all the time so that narratively, we could keep moving forward. 
It happened with characters understanding each other’s motivations and feelings without talking to each other, too. One would watch another one have a certain expression on their face and just definitely know why they felt that way, putting together details from their personal history with what was presently happening, and boom. Character arc identified. It wasn’t a huge thing, but it kept making the characters feel less and less real every time it happened.   

This isn’t an original complaint in all of fantasy as a whole, but particularly in this book I kept feeling that the series would be 10x better if Aelin were 30 years old so that all of the life debts other people have for her and all of her secretive history makes so much more sense. 

SJM always writes shocking endings, but in this case, I felt like a lot of the reveals were things I was hoping to happen throughout the book and were frustrating to not see going on earlier in the story, only saved for the very end for dramatic effect and not logical narrative flow. 
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britwalsh16's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

5.0

I read this in Tandem with Tower of Dawn. And I am SOOO glad I did! If I had to read TOD between this book & KOA, I would have died! & not enjoyed TOD, cause I’d be obsessing over what’s gonna happen with the characters in this book!
This book was sooo good! I love being able to read from all the different characters POV’s. 
I love all the couples & am so thoroughly enjoying them to settle in with eachother. The dynamics between the different couples are just amazing!! But Aelin & Rowan are still my favorite! 
But, all the revelations at the end, I AM NOT OKAY WITH THEM!!! This story really can’t end the way it’s leading to!! There has to be another way! I am not okay with that! 
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kat1105's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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