Reviews

Malice by John Gwynne

Only show reviews with written explanations

calliebeth331's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense 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

4.5

arian_dragonelf's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.5

This took a long while for me to get into. That’s really the only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars. This was intense. I could handle all the fighting scenes, but it was hard for me to get through the animal deaths.

Poor Buddai! I teared up imagining the faithful hound lying on his master’s chest as he died.

That was rough. I did see some things coming, but that wasn’t a bad thing. I was kind of irritated that we didn’t get any information about Corban. John Gwynne had been teasing it for I don’t know how many chapters, and then the book just ends. Thankfully I do have Valor, but I don’t know if I want to go straight in. I think I need to sit in this for a little bit. I need to go read a cozy mystery or reread a favorite romance. There is only so much head chopping a person can take!

Content Warnings

rayanriri's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

melaniearchercat's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark tense medium-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

datboitantony's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous 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? Yes

4.0

rachel_faerie's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The beginning was a nice slow world and character building experience but once I connected to the characters man I fell in love with it and had a great time.

Also wow John Gwynne is RUTHLESS lol I can’t believe this was his debut!? I can’t wait to get to book 2 🥲

Content Warnings

8yalan8's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.0

I didn’t get what I expected, but I liked it either way!
I expected brute in the fantasy world, and I got giants, coming of age story and a great animal companion. A grim dark fantasy expectations, title, cover design totally mislead me, and it took some time to get invested in the characters and the story.

The book is a classic fantasy with modern twist, it gets darker little by little, and I can’t wait to read other books in series.

Also, I have this bad feeling that Storm will die badly, and I will be wrecked.

annrose's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark medium-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

3.75

triplebriiii's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.75

This was excellent. It was a bit slow, but personally I enjoy the slow methodical build up, which this had. It did what it was supposed to do, get us invested in the characters, the story, and everything so that we continue. and jesus christ do i want to continue 😅😅😅

my one complaint is that there are like four instances where these character names are so similar that it took a minute to figure out who was who. if i was physically reading the book that would be one thing, but through the audio i was like huh?

thoughtsontomes's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark sad tense medium-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

There is a lot of setup in this book for the greater conflict of the overall series, and as such it is pretty heavy. There’s a tension building throughout and a lot of characters involved. It can be confusing at first, especially since some storylines are similar, but they start to differentiate as the book goes on. This is a series with a lot of character death though, so be warned!

Content Warnings

More...