Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Starless Crown by James Rollins

9 reviews

kharazimthelich's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-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? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: War

ryyyaaan's review against another edition

adventurous tense 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

3.75

The only reason I am rating this so highly is because I found the story so interesting and captivating. The world building was also fantastic (most of the time). I really cannot empathize how much I enjoy the story, otherwise, I probably wouldn’t have finished this book. There are a lot of grievances I have with it that probably would have stopped me from finishing it it I wasn’t enjoying the story so much. My major problem is the author’s liberal use of using sexist and racist tropes.

Also, the decision to introduce a blind character (I was thrilled to see some seemingly great disability representation!), only to very quickly have her blindness magically cured.

Most of the world building was wonderful, but one thing that irked me was the naming of certain things. There are a lot of great neologisms, but there are a lot that are just regular words with one letter replaced, like “chymestry”. And naming the planet Urth. Really? That was a cool word for about two seconds until I tried to pronounce it in my head. It’s just Earth. One final complaint, which is more a pet peeve of mine than an actual negative about the book, is the authors use of actual science concepts that he clearly only understands at a very basic level, but presents so pedantically as if he’s a genius for including them in his novel. I know I have a lot of negative things to say, but they’re possible to look past, and I really can’t overstate how much I enjoyed this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Excrement, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Classism

Minor: Body shaming, Pedophilia, and Religious bigotry

squids_can_read's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

The only hospitable part of Urth is the Crown, a slim section of land where all life on Urth lives. But now that life is being threatened by Moonfall. A cast of strange and unique characters have to work to find a way to save Urth but there are forces working against them everywhere. 

The world-building in this book is amazing. The world is expansive and well thought through. The history is interesting and so is the religion. I will say that I am a little confused about how the Crown works but that didn't detract from my enjoyment of the book. 

However, I think this book was lacking in the character department in a strange way. I thought that there were too many characters that we got points of view from. If they were just mentioned I think it would have been better because it would have been easier to keep track of them all. With all of the different characters, I felt that it was really hard to understand any of the characters' motivations. It was hard for me to connect with any of them. 

Overall, this was an extremely interesting fantasy and I'm excited to read more in this world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and War

Moderate: Incest

maregred's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Torture, and Death of parent

Moderate: Infidelity, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child death, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy

booksandteas's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes

3.75

This book took me longer to read than most. It is a slooooow burn. The sheer amount of effort and time it took me probably reduced the overall rating. The characters are interesting, the plot is amazing, and there is a lot that could be cut out and the story would remain the same. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Torture, and Blood

nebulasaurus's review

challenging dark informative tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Alcohol

katherineguild35's review

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? Yes

5.0

9/10: Beautiful writing, wonderful story, love the characters but it is so dark and disturbing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Sexual content and Pregnancy

pvbobrien's review

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Torture, Violence, Medical content, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, Slavery, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape and Death of parent

dani_reis's review

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

4.0

As a whole, I really enjoyed this book. I look forward to the sequel, however, I will need to listen to that instead. The pace of the story was medium, but it had so much detail crammed in there that it felt like it was so much slower. I really struggled to read this as quickly as I would any other fantasy in the same page count.

Now the reasons it's not a five, because I really wish I could have given it that extra star below. Nothing heavy on spoilers, but will help guide your own mind into wondering if these would bug you before diving in.

1. The map is missing important cities. I spent so much time trying to figure out the paths of where people started and ended. The one place they spend most of their time either getting to, circling, or entering is NOT on the map. WHERE IS HAVENSFAYRE??

2. There's a new system of time keeping. Not sure how long they keep referencing. That's not explained, just going with the flow and hope I was right.

3. One of the main characters has some of the most boring chapters and he has some really interesting plots, so it's a real struggle. But he has lots of character growth by the end.

4. The details in describing things just went too detailed. Maybe if I didn't read this when I have books towering over me with big glowing red eyes I could be satisfied with the world building descriptions. I hope that there's less of this, but there's huge chances, it continues.

5. The world building is just Earth (or Urth if you're the reader type) where it's what would happen if the world stopped spinning. The prophecy kicks in because of this. The people of Urth have never known Earth to spin. Half the world is in icy darkness. As much as I love the research that went into that part of it, I still wish it had more creativeness to it. Make it epic and take me somewhere else.

6. I recently read mistborn, so it's too soon to have people with the intricate tattoos around their eyes that are shady people working for the government. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gore