Reviews tagging 'Slavery'

Das Mädchen und der Winterkönig by Katherine Arden

30 reviews

dragonaion's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

It is hard when you start a sequel to a good story; sometimes the time between each book makes the second start with a "jolt" and almost have to remember itself. This book is brilliantly connected to the first, it wove the end with the new beginning very well, and by page 30 I was leaving in my seat and excitedly turning each page. 
It was heartwarming to see a story mentioned from my childhood and the mix of history, fantasy, romance, and adventure with political intrigue was beautifully woven and naturally fell together. I have to get the third book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Sexual content, Slavery, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Rape

This is a historical fiction with a romance with an ambodiment of Death; the main character has to hide she is female is an extreme example of a patriarchal world.

itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

I didn't really enjoy this book as much as the first one, but I hope the next book in the series pays off. I think I was kind of expecting a book without Vasya as the protagonist and for the story to focus mostly on Olya but even though it didn't meet my expectations it wasn't bad.

What I liked:

• I liked Vasya's different relationships with everyone in Dmmitri's court and how it evolved the longer she decided to keep her true identity concealed.
• I liked Masha and I hope we get to see more of her in the next book
• I'm not a horse person by any means but I liked all of the horse related stuff in these books. I think Solovey was probably my favourite character overall because he was so full of life and personality.

What I didn't like

• The combination of different POVs (that kind of stopped after a while) and pacing made me struggle with the flow of the book. I don't know how to explain how I would improve it but I found myself skim-reading at times.
• Remember when I was like "yay no romance between Vasya and the Frost King!"? Yup, joke's on me, huh? 🤡
  
  I just really didn't care for the romance, let alone the whole back and forth of whether it was better to be immortal or to be in love.
  It didn't really feel like it amounted to anything other than him quietly disappearing without much of a trace.
• I thought the firebird was disappointing, especially in comparison to the bear from the previous book. Although the latter didn't come until the latter half of the book, it felt like he was built up more to be the final boss and had (and still has) a lasting impact on Vasya and the plot. In this book, it's just like "oh by the way, this dude transfigured a firebird into a horse and now it's going to fly off and burn everything - bye!"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Slavery, Vomit, and Death of parent

raptorq's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Pregnancy, and War

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Miscarriage, Sexual assault, and Slavery

bookycnidaria's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Slavery and Kidnapping

mary_stormageddon's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.5

I didn't enjoy this one as much as Bear and the Nightingale. However, I still liked it and am excited for book 2

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Miscarriage, Slavery, Blood, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and War

andra_mihaela_s's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-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

 From me, The Girl in the Tower gets 5 stars! 🎉🥰

After the events of the 1st #book, Vasya made a life-changing decision on how she wants to live her life. In this installment, we get to see soo much more of medieval Russia, and I can only say that was what I needed all along!☺️

CW : death, slavery, horror (supernatural), extreme discrepancy between genders, traumatic birth, loss of children, violent and humiliating outing of a person

This time I'll try to be more concise with my thoughts as this is a sequel.

In terms of setting and atmosphere, Katherine Arden does a fantastic job in transporting you in that era. You can feel the winter's harshest snow storm, see the forests alongside Vasya and the others, the frozen rivers used for travel and, definitely, you are walking Moscow 's dirt streets between horses, carts and merchants while women and children stay out of harm's way.

Now...themes and action : the story follows the footsteps left by the author in the first book...we get to see a heavier accent on customs, gender and society, how important was religion in those times and what role it took when people are faced with hard times, and lastly, the complex political playground that was Russia then.

I'm very happy to say that the political aspect drives A LOT of this book while always being weaved with Vasya's struggle to find herself and what she wants.

Perfect transition engaged😙👉 my favorite characters continue to be Vasya, and members of her family! A close second to our MC is Morozko!🥰 I absolutely loved their scenes full of meaning both towards their relationship and us! I feel like I come to learn peace with them🧐
Kasyan...now...this was an interesting character...his story balanced political, mythical and day to day aspects☺️...I was very happy to especially see the role he played in Vasya journey to accept her role in her family.
Sasha and Maryam were great, I both understood and got frustrated with Olya..not to mention...grieved with her, and, finally, I was left unsatisfied with Konstantin's involvement...don't get me wrong...what happened felt just right...only I wanted more.

That's it! 👉 go read the book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, and Classism

olivia_piepmeier's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? No

4.0

Like the first book, this is a great winter read - so easy to fall into the world that's also in the midst of winter, and oddly comforting for the bitterness of winter to be relayed in what you're reading. I'm also rather impressed I didn't feel like I was missing anything having read the other book nearly a year ago. Folks that think "winter fairy tale in medieval Russia with some gender commentary" sounds good will dig it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, and War

Minor: Vomit and Death of parent

sas_lk's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

So incredibly good. So close to a 5 star, it just did not give me a 5 star feeling, but I absolutely loved it. Highly recommend this series, can't wait to start the 3rd book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Animal cruelty, Slavery, and Vomit

jenny_d's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Sexual assault

Moderate: Slavery

basil_touche's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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

4.0

I'd say that this is even better than the first book. No word is wasted here, yet it paints such a vivid and clear story of a girl fighting for her freedom in a period that denies her that, while also trying to keep what family she has left in Moscow safe from those who seek to use her to gain power. 

Also learned some things about Medieval Russia, the whole narrative feels very well researched in that regard.

It was also quite neat to see more of the mythical beings of Russian Folklore in this, but I feel that they don't appear as much as in the first novel. However, with this story leaving certain threads unanswered, I feel that the last book of the trilogy will feature more of them while also revealing what has been hidden under the surface the last two books. I eagerly anticipate reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Xenophobia, and Grief

Minor: Slavery