Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

14 reviews

saltydough's review

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-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

3.75

I've been reading the Graceling books since I was young, and I really enjoyed finding myself back in that world again. Kristin Cashore is undeniably a very good writer and creates carefully thought-through plots with lots of focus on the characters' thoughts and feelings. That being said, this is not my favorite or hers, which could also be down to the fact that I'm no longer within the target age range. I felt that the multiple POVs didn't work very well because she Cashore didn't change her writing style, or the character's thoughts, enough for each one to be distinctive. In such a character-focused story, switching from one to the other is almost counter-productive because we never stay in anyone's head long enough to feel truly connected to their POV. I was also a bit disappointed by Giddon and Bitterblue's romance. Though I think those characters do have chemistry when they're on the page together, it was annoying that when they were apart, every other sentence would be about how Bitterblue would've loved this or Giddin would've done that, and so on. I get that Cashore was trying to create that pining, but it just didn't work for me.

I do think this is a really fun and entertaining book, though, and I appreciated the allegory about climate change. Would recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use

darth_twain's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad 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? It's complicated

2.5

If you are a fan of other YA fantasy novels, then you will enjoy the story of this book. Be aware of adult content that is not appropriate for young readers. I enjoyed the story but will be throwing the book away before I have children of my own who could stumble across this book and read adult content slipped into a YA story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

melplays9000's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

This book just came at the perfect time for me. I haven’t really been loving what I’m reading lately and this book broke that cycle for me. I loved following familiar characters but with some new ones in there also, they showed genuine, real and raw emotions throughout the story and they just felt like they could be real people. I was so invested in the story and found myself thinking about this book even when I wasn’t reading it. And of course Kristin Cashore delivered as always, this book is once again super sex positive and shows it all from birth control to the struggle for emotional attachments in a way that is real and needs to be spoken about more in YA. 

I must say however that the beginning of this book did feel a little rushed to me. There wasn’t much time to get back into the characters and the world before we were thrust right into the main plot. Saying that, the series as a whole doesn’t really have a overarching plot, which I also find a little strange. Each book has its own plot which is just the characters reacting to what is happening to and around them. I’m not sure this is something I specifically don’t like, just an observation which I’m not sure how I feel about. 

Overall this book was exactly what I wanted and needed it to be at the time I read it. I definitely need to read more fantasy and more series because clearly that’s what I like best. 5 stars. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Drug use and Suicidal thoughts

nyssbomb's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Grief