Reviews tagging 'Medical trauma'

King of Scars, by Leigh Bardugo

12 reviews

math_scooter's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

Leigh Bardugo er muligvis vores tids bedste forfatter fr. Jeg elskede at læse om de diplomatiske problematikker og de realistiske forhold mellem landende mere end jeg havde troet jeg ville. Mathias forevigt i mit hjerte, og Isaak vil ikke blive glemt.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Grief, Animal death, War, Kidnapping, Blood, Addiction, Drug abuse, Violence, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Miscarriage, Alcohol, Genocide, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Suicide

jackiepreston's review

adventurous emotional lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Fire/Fire injury, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Misogyny, Drug use, Grief, and Death

spaghettii's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Suicide, War, Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Child death, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gun violence, Violence, Addiction, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Sexism, Death, Drug use, and Torture

aklovekorn's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Death, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Torture, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Religious bigotry, Murder, and Violence

claudiamacpherson's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

The Darkling is gone and the Fold is destroyed, but this is Ravka, so nothing is ever easy. Fjerda and Shu Han are at Ravka’s borders, ready to exploit any weakness left by the civil war. The Kerch are already asking Ravka to pay its debts, but the nation will only need more money if they are to survive the coming battles. Miracles have been appearing all across Ravka, and while most of the devout take heart from the old saints, some believe that a new saint should be added to their ranks: the Starless One. Amidst this chaos, King Nikolai is still playing host to the shadow demon forced on him by the Darkling’s nichevo’ya, and it is becoming increasingly hard to hide. Zoya serves by his side, trying to keep her king safe—and others safe from him. Nina is dealing with her grief as best she can, but throwing herself into her work as a spy in Fjerda.

Okay I know that everyone loves the <i>Six of Crows</i> duology best in the Grishaverse but...I think I might actually prefer <i>King of Scars</i> and <i>Rule of Wolves</i> (review to come)! This book started out a little slow but picked right up and then I could NOT put it down. The tension between Nikolai and Zoya is immaculate, and literally any scene with Nikolai bantering with one of his friends makes my heart explode. Even more than that (if that’s possible), I loved Nina’s storyline as she deals with her grief and throws herself headlong into every dangerous situation she can find.

Spoiler

I am also obsessed with her relationship with Hanne...it might actually be my very favorite wlw relationship that I’ve read!

Happy ending meter (no specific spoilers, just the general vibe of the ending):

Spoiler

Cliffhanger, of course, because this is Leigh Bardugo and there’s a sequel on the way. Thank god I picked it up almost immediately!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Blood, Death, Murder, Pregnancy, and Xenophobia

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, and Vomit

luluslittlelibrary's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.5

I really liked this book more than I expected. The beginning is painfully slow, so it was hard to get into, but once things started moving at a faster pace, I was hooked. I loved getting to read Zoya and Nikolai's POVs for the first time. They both have very clear "voices" so it was super engaging to read from their perspectives. I would have also been interested in getting a POV from Genya or David as well in this book. 

I LOVE Nina's storyline. For me, I was a lot more interested in what was going on with her in Fjerda than I was with the others in Ravka. I'm not going to give any spoilers but I would recommend this to anyone interested in reading more about Nina and what she's doing as a Ravkan spy in Fjerda.

And then there's the sequel. I definitely liked Rule of Wolves more than King of Scars so I would recommend reading it even if you didn't love King of Scars (I think it is much better). Once again I love everything that happens with Nina (and Hanne!). And I think the connection between Zoya and Juris is very interesting. I'm not big on the storyline surrounding the darkling, I think it was interesting but maybe didn't belong in this book (?). Also, the ending is SO GOOD.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Blood, Death, Grief, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Murder, Gore, Child death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Confinement, Trafficking, Domestic abuse, Racism, Slavery, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pedophilia

ghostofthegallows's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Great stand alone duology. It was a strange mix of fast and slow. A bit confusing as to what was going on but its very good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Adult/minor relationship, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Torture, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Cursing, Death, and Grief

tomi_delano's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring tense fast-paced

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

4.0

An emotional rollercoaster from start to finish. I fell more and more in love with familiar characters and some new ones. I got very angry at other familiar characters. Spectacular writing from Leigh Bardugo as usual. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, and Xenophobia

Minor: Body shaming and Bullying

citymouse's review against another edition

3.0

Nina deserves to have her own series and her story entwined with Nikolai makes quite literally no sense. The book was good, but I would have preferred to see them as individual books rather than alternating between stories many lands apart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Abortion, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Trafficking

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Infertility, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt

_justagremlinwithglasses_'s review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

This review contains unmarked spoilers for the Six of Crows duology.

So I decided to give this a reread because,

A.) Rule of Wolves came out recently.
B.) I couldn’t remember if this book was actually good or if I was just blinded by Nikolai.

So after my reread I can confirm that it was actually good and it wasn’t my imagination.

This book’s strength is its ability to continue character arcs. Zoya and Nina specifically. Zoya’s character arc is really needed since we didn't get her POV in the Shadow and Bone trilogy. We get some crucial backstory on her and why she is the way she is. In as least spoilery wording as possible, her character arc is her dealing with grief and her own mistakes, some of which struck a chord with me. Nina’s arc is about her grappling with her Matthias's wishes for Nina to try and teach his people that Grisha are good, instead of outright giving up hope.

Isaak was a new character for this duology, and his scenes showed what was going on back in Ravka, while also providing some comedy.

Spoiler

You know until the end where he DIES. I am excited that we’re getting characters who have been in Shu Han a lot so we can get more information about it. Also the foreshadowing about the princess/guard switch was really good and I audibly said “oh yeah that makes sense” several times.

All in all I think he’s a good character.

I, like most people, wanted more Nikolai in this book saying that this is his series but his parts are pretty well written. Saying that Nikolai is one of my favorite book characters of all time, it's nice that he was very relatable in this book. Nikolai spends half the book fighting his demon, and the other half fighting his demons (get it, I'm hilarious).

Spoiler

The scene where he fights his demon and his demons at the same time is so good. And when he said

“But he knew this much: He would not rest until his country could too. 

And he would never, ever turn his back on a wounded man- even if that man was him.”

I’ve never forgotten that since I read it 2 years ago. It's just so good. And such a good example of Nikolai’s character

The plot is a little all over the place. It mainly follows three different storylines with four different POVs

- Nikolai and Zoya trying to find a cure
- Isaak at the palace
- Nina in Fjerda

I don’t think that Nina’s storyline and Nikolai’s storyline go that well together but I think that will be solved in the next book.

Spoiler

With the guy claiming to be a Lantsov.

It  wasn’t bad that they didn’t go together, it was just a lot, so if you don’t want to keep track of a lot this might not be for you.

Spoiler

It also seems like it goes 1-100 real quick with the sudDENLY SAINTS ARE REAL part. Speaking of which I would have liked a little bit more time with Elizaveta and Grigori. And I’m hoping with Zoya using Juris as her amplifier we can get some stuff with Juris still.

Now for the elephant in the room,

Spoiler

The Darklings reappearance. Now, I am a known hater of the “and they were actually alive ALLLL DAH TIMEE!!1!”  trope. So the “villain from the last book returns” trope usually isn’t much better. But honestly, I’m not sure how I feel about The Darkling coming back. On one hand, I do think it cheapens the ending of Ruin and Rising and the Shadow and Bone trilogy as a whole. But on the other hand, The Darkling is an interesting villain, and is just so evil to read about. I really think it will depend on what Bardugo does with him in Rule of Wolves.

All in all, a nice spin off with a couple pacing issues here and there, but other than that pretty good. 5/5

This next part is just a list of things I’d love to see in RoW. 

Spoiler

- Nikolai alive
- Zoya alive
- Nina alive
- NinaXHanne
- For Zoya and Genya to fight The Darkling. Not using powers, just fists and rage.

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Update on my list of things I wanted to happen in RoW

Spoiler

-Nikolai is Alive
-Zoya is Alive
-Nina is Alive and is with Hanne
- Zoya and Genya did not fight the Darkling but they were present when he stabbed himself on a tree so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Unfortunately I forgot to add David Alive to that list because I thought he would be safe. I was a fool.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma and Drug abuse