Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

26 reviews

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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? Yes

3.5

As someone who loves the rest of this series, I had a difficult time getting into this one. Anyone picking it up be warned that the first half is incredibly slow moving, orienting you into this new world of Winterkeep while still remaining relevant to the rest of the world we already know. Cashore is known for her world-building. but there was a lot of information about the world and not enough about the characters in that first half of the book.

If you make it past that first half, the second half has what I love about Cashore's writing. Gutsy characters, intricate mysteries in politics, characters desperately trying to expose those who are abusing their power. There are actually quite a few narrators in this one, which also makes it difficult to follow the story at times. 

This can be read without reading the other Graceling realm books, there will just be background information on some of the characters that you're missing. However, I probably wouldn't dive into this one first, if you aren't familiar with any of the previous novels. I think the previous novels give you context, and I would probably at least read Bitterblue before jumping into this one. There's a bit of a time jump, but I think it helps with a bit of the world-building.

All in all, I think this book could have been shorter and still get its point across. I'm curious of Cashore is going to keep exploring this world, though, because there are definitely avenues she could explore.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Grief

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

jenkneebee's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

karingforbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad 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

KC does abusive relationships (mostly parent child) brilliantly, especially the aftermath. It’s brutal but it adds a whole other layer. Love Bitterblue and seeing her childhood come to the fore in her strength. Love Lovisa and definitely the sea creature. And Adventure!! The animals in this were beautiful. This world is so comfortable, even ten years later and I loved learning about the expansion of it. Excellent sequel 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Murder

lapis's review against another edition

dark reflective 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Confinement, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content

Food

two of the characters are basically starved while in confinement, wasn't sure how to mark that

ajparmentier's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book so much! I read it all in one go. Cashore has done it again. The beginning like 30 pages or so were a little more inelegantly a worldbuilding dump than usual, but afterwards the worldbuilding was a lot more organic as Cashore built up this whole new world. All of the POV characters were so interesting and dynamic. Cashore further explores themes of power, love, sex, abuse, and recovery. It's such a pleasure to see these themes deepened and different aspects of them examined in each of the books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Sexual assault:

Very scene where a boy threatens to have sex with a girl against her will. She just doesn't want to have sex in that location and basically argues with the boy and the move locations. The boy doesn't appear much later in the story.

Suicide:

Mentions of suicide and allusions to a character considering suicide and not caring about their life are made. No suicides occur.

Abuse via starvation and neglect. Animal cruelty:

None of the named/significant animals die or intentionally cruelly injured. It's "faceless" ocean animals. One of the main animal characters gets injured and another is in a (mostly emotionally) abusive situation. But doesn't get, like, hit or anything.