Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Lodestar by Shannon Messenger

6 reviews

lawbooks600's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.0

Representation: Asian characters
Score: Six and a half out of ten.

Is it me or has Shannon Messenger plateaued? I enjoyed Keeper of the Lost Cities and the second and third instalments were delightful too, but from there it's only okay. The fourth one, Neverseen, wasn't it--it didn't reach the same level as book one. I wanted an improvement when I read Lodestar but I didn't get that.

It starts (more like continues) with Sophie and other characters picking up after the events of the fourth novel, Neverseen in the opening pages, where nothing much is happening other than the characters processing everything that happened. Remember the issues I found in Neverseen? They're also in Lodestar, but more prominent I don't know where to begin, but I'll try, first, the repetition. I'm tired of the repetitive plot telling me parts of the story I already heard of before like the Black Swan and the Neverseen. The only new subplots introduced in Lodestar are (you guessed it,) the Lodestar, at least the symbol of it, and a special stone that uses blood. The conflict thickens, but not by much as the ogres are the against council, and the Black Swan is supposed to be this benevolent organisation What is the Lodestar supposed to do? The pacing is like Neverseen, but slower as Lodestar spans more than 600 pages, most of which are filler. Removing filler could've tightened the reading experience. I still like the characters like Sophie, but without any character development, I disconnected from them. I can't relate to the characters if they don't have character development. Did Messenger forget to put that in? Please fix it in the sixth part, Nightfall. At least the conclusion has a slightly faster pace but the final pages are predictable since the finish is the same as the other narratives.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Blood, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Full trigger warnings: Death, war themes, blood, grief and loss depiction, physical injury and child abuse, building collapse

unicorngirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful lighthearted sad medium-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

4.75

This plot seemed to go slow and, while it seemed like there was no plot, there was a lot of substance. It felt like they were just learning new things and slowly figuring things out, while also having action sprinkled throughout. I can sense the "But we're Cognantes!" starting from Fitz, even if it already had, but I sense it will come in later, and will come more.🙄🙄🙄 His anger issues didn't flare. I think there was one instance but I think that was in a later book.🤷🤷🤷
Keefe was my favorite character in the earlier books (1-3), but when he joined the Neverseen I was like nope. I had put my faith in you and you took it away. He is slowly earning my trust.
Why did Mr. Forkle have to die? Why did he have to be killed by Gethen? I am so angry with you Shannon!!😡😡😡

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content

Moderate: Confinement, Drug use, Blood, and Kidnapping

luciiee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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, Child abuse, Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, War, and Injury/Injury detail

bujo_bellel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

The stuff that happened in this books is completely off from what I remembered mostly, and besides WE GOT LEFT ON A CLIFFHANGER, ARGGHHHHHHH. Anyways, amazing as always. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Kidnapping

crunchycrystals's review against another edition

adventurous

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

irisheyz77's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

Lodestar continues the story of Sophie and her friends and their battle with the Neverseen and the growing tensions between the various groups within her new world. She continues to discover new things about herself and those around her. In this book she's dealing with the betrayal of a good friend all while trying to stop a sinister plot. While there were times where I felt this story was overly long I did enjoy that this book included a little more diversity than had previously seen in the characters of Tam and Linh. As with the other books Lodestar with filled with adventure and humor and despite its length it is a fast-paced story. Its engaging and as a reader you want to race to the end to see how it all turns out.  I enjoyed this one and will definitely be picking up the next book in the series soon.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Blood

Minor: Kidnapping