Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

Queen of Shadows by Sarah J. Maas

11 reviews

mrsjburgin's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Stalking, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and War

stitchbooks22's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Felt like the pacing was a bit off and that some of the character arcs changed a bit too fast in a short number of chapters to really be able to take in the change for the direction the story was going in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

maireadryan's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-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

This is the best TOG book so far. Everything finally came together and it was so exciting and had me on my toes the whole time. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Stalking, Murder, and Pregnancy

anguawolf's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Hate crime, Self harm, Cannibalism, and Classism

Minor: Stalking

_charliesbooks_'s review against another edition

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, and Stalking

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, and Stalking

Minor: Vomit

britwalsh16's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious tense fast-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 could not put this book down! Omg! It was sooooo good!!! 
Watching Aelin become who she was always meant to be & fight for her loved ones & what is right, is inspiring! The growth she has had since book 1 is in incredible! 
And the bromance between Chaol & Dorian is like my favorite bromance ever! Coming in second only to my bat boys. 
All the characters have incredible growth in this book! & I could go on about how much I love them all, but then this will get really long, so I won’t. 
But my favorite character is Rowan! & having him not being in the first third of the book gave me serious withdrawal! My heart just leaped out of my chest when he finally showed up! I was so ecstatic! I can’t wait to read more of him, & more of his relationship with Aelin! My heart! 💜 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Genocide, Misogyny, Excrement, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Miscarriage and Pregnancy

nerdkitten's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Cursing, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Torture, Police brutality, Medical content, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

mhairi_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

Sarah J. Maas is in a league of her own. Honestly, I can’t even. She has such a talent and can make you fall in love with characters you entirely dismissed originally.

We seen Aelin really grow as a character in Heir of Fire and now she really does lead her court as the ‘fire breathing bitch queen’ she truly is. We really see a lot of character growth here and see Aelin stand on her own to feet and come into her own. Plus Mr Territorial Rowan - yes please!

Manon and Abraxos were definitely another two favourites of mine. Manon is another female character that gives of major badass vibes and Abraxos is just too much! I can’t wait to see how Manon and her Thirteen develop in the next book. I can definitely feel a massive shift happening here.

Elide, Lorcan and Lysandra are three more characters I’ve got my eye on moving forward. Elide, I think has the potential to bring some badass female energy to her story, Lorcan could go either way here but Lysandra surprised me. I’m interested to see where these three come into their own moving forward.

Queen of Shadows wraps up the start of this series and it’s almost as if we have a totally new hoard of characters to follow moving on. But the finale!! Give me more - right now! I love how everything is lining up for the no doubt, insane battle that we’re encroaching on. A battle of epic proportions that will decide the fate of all the characters we have come to hold so dear.x

This book is filled with plot points. We see many plot twists, epic battles and many new character introduced who become pivotal to the rest of the story. This is definitely climbing the ranks for me. I can’t wait to see where Maas takes this in the next instalment of the ToG series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Death, Genocide, Kidnapping, Stalking, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Bullying, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Torture, Vomit, and Cannibalism

mollydollydoodah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

This was my favorite book out of the series by far. It trapped me in with all of it’s action and adventure and so many plot lines that all tangle up in each other, and I simply couldn’t stop reading. I read this series right after reading the ACOTAR series, and as much as I have enjoyed reading these books and their strong-willed, deeply intricate characters, I was incredibly spoiled by acotar and therefore had been missing an unknown mirrored aspect so far in this series.

I have always loved Celaena for her cunning and brilliant plans, her wit and strength and courage, and her secretly soft heart as she has risked so much to save other people’s lives even as a cold-hearted assassin. I have been awed by her unflinching bravery, her undying loyalty, and her overall bad-assery throughout all of these novels, but I am stunned by her as Aelin. I loved how SJM switched from referring to the narrative of Celaena to Aelin in this novel, demonstrating to readers right off the bat all of the growth she has done. I originally mourned the loss of Celaena Sardothien, having become attached to that persona, as Aelin herself had (obviously not with the same intensity, but you get the point), and I was left clawing at the scraps of the name. But as I progressed through the novel, reading of each task, plan, hope, action, and word from her mouth, I realized I love Aelin much more than Celaena. Don’t get me wrong, I do not fear Celaena, her actions, or her past (I mean I probably would if I saw her in person because omg she seems so intimidating ngl even though I’d want to be friends or something idk), but Queen Aelin Ashryver Galathynius is like a pheonix standing in the flames of who Celaena was, reborn much more powerful and capable and strong after all of the hell she’s been through. I am awed by the journey that SJM has taken us through, as every piece and occasion seems so necessary to where we have ended up at the end of this novel, and it seems as though I’ve spent a lifetime with these characters. Chaol seemed so right for Celaena at a time, but through all of her growth, all of his own journey, a reborn Aelin being with Rowan is the perfect match, & I’m so happy they have each other. I love the way that they accept all of each other’s flaws and pasts and idk literally all of it, they’re so cute. Seeing Aelin slip back into her Celaena persona in order to face the aftermath of Arobynn’s death, I was startled by how much Aelin has grown. Because SJM developed her character growth so well, I didn’t consciously compare Celaena to Aelin until it was done for me, and I was awed just by how truly different Aelin has become to the girl that was Calaena. I positively adored all of Aelin’s plotting and secret plans— plans that were constantly withheld from the readers as well! This was thrilling, because I never really knew what I would get next, but I knew that something was brewing as she constantly snuck out at night & did hinted at things without giving the readers full knowledge. I adored the shock that came from everyone at the will reading, because I experienced some of it as well! Through all of Aelin’s cunning plans and straight up badassery, I was reminded of my beloved, darling, Feyre. The detailed descriptions and lack of blatantly telling readers what the plans running through Aelin’s mind during certain crucial action scenes were so much fun to read, as it felt as though I was truly immersed in the scene, watching these plans unfold along with the other characters. The battle between Aelin & Manon reminded me so much of Feyre & the Middengard Wyrm because of the brilliance of both scenes, and I positively adored the resemblance. Speaking of Manon, I am in love with her character development. Despite my feelings in the last novel, I very much enjoyed reading about her journey and I am thrilled with how her story has connected with Aelin’s, and all I can wish for is that they become very close allies one day soon. It was so interesting seeing how Manon’s thoughts, feelings, and actions shifted throughout the novel as she stepped away from her Grandmother’s overbearing shadow and she allowed more humanity and morality to seep into her so-called ‘nonexistent heart’, and I will never not appreciate a badass woman that can hold her own in any battle & takes no shit. Kaltain’s subplot was heartbreaking and so interesting, as I had no idea how her story would end up. When Elide & Manon ran into her as they were fleeing, I was convinced for a split second that she would stand in their way, & that although she had broken free of the demon, she had been overtaken by the darkness of her shadow flames. I was in awe of the way that her story ended, and I think that it was perfect, and couldn’t have happened any other way. It was so effective, both for the plotline itself, as well as for readers. I am so intrigued about how & when Elide & Aelin will connect, and how long it will take Elide to realize that the Celaena Sardothien she searches for is her queen. Sorscha was a great character, and I was excited to see how she would have grown throughout the series, and it was sad to see her die. She was exactly what Dorian had needed at the time, and I desperately hope he can heal from all the trauma and wounds he has been through, and that perhaps he can find someone else to love. It made me giddy to see Rowan’s perspective of how connected he is with Aelin, and to read all his little personal comments about how much he wished that he could touch her & all of that stuff, I thought it was so sweet. Also, I adore their enemies to friends to lovers route, it makes perfect sense for who they are. I’m excited to see where the future takes them, and I’m so glad they have each other to support and protect and love. I adored the introduction of Lysandra, and how Aelin’s court has been building into a family. Everyone has done so much growing throughout this novel, and I adore everyone’s character development.  There was so much action in this novel, especially towards the end, and it was remarkably thrilling.

I was utterly enthralled, pages rapidly flipping as I took in every riveting word. It reminded me of why I love acotar so much, and it was brilliantly written. I could definitely see SJM’s growth as a writer in this novel, and I am so excited to read what happens next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Rape, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Stalking

kat1105's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual violence