Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Shadow of the Gods by John Gwynne

124 reviews

librarybookfamily's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Gore, Slavery, Trafficking, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, and Cursing

venomtancitaro's review

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.5

Very slow for 75% of the book but the last little bit really hooked me. Everything finally came together and I’m hopefully the next book will be more story focused rather than character focused.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore and Grief

Minor: Sexual content

phaedruus's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

chrysalissa's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Gore, Slavery, and Violence

vvabecca's review

adventurous emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

naimar's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

1.5

I really wanted to like this book. I’ve heard so many good things about this series, and the concept sounded really interesting. However, this book just moved way to slowly for my tastes. Usually I enjoy multi-POV fantasy books, but I could’ve done without a lot of the Varg and Elvar chapters. Orka was the main character that I was invested in. It just felt like it moved very slow. The worldbuilding was really interesting and cool, but the story itself was too slow for me and the characters were overall not compelling enough. I think this was partially because their backstories are kept as secrets for so long. Also, this is a personal preference, but I didn’t love the amount of blood and gore in this book. I’m generally fine with fantasy violence, but this one was just a little much for me. I really wanted to like this series but I won’t be continuing with it. I feel sort of like I’m missing something because this seems on paper like a book I would really like, but I just didn’t enjoy it at all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore and Violence

hufflebuff's review

adventurous challenging dark 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? No

5.0

Gwen has an amazing ability to tell 3 separate perspectives/story lines at once. Each one high paced and interesting keeping you enthralled and engaged from cover to cover. Strong female mains and growth/development from male main. The world is familiar but mysterious and the battle scenes bring you right down into the action, you feel like you’re in the shield wall! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, and Blood

maur_damar's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Slavery and Kidnapping

aedory's review

4.0

At first the switching POVs, unfamiliar terminology and (initially) slower pacing of this book made it hard for me to get into it. I almost gave up on it a few times, but the vivid and beautiful writing style kept me engaged enough to keep going - and I'm glad I did. 
I became incredibly attached to all the POV characters (but not really many of the side characters tbh) , and am excited to see their growth in the next book, as well as (hopefully) seeing their stories overlap.
Though the pacing remained a bit too slow for my liking, it really picked up in the final quarter or so and I was completely hooked from that point until the end - and even would've careened straight into the next book had it not been very, VERY late lol.
Now that I'm more familiar with the style and world of this trilogy, I hope the next two books will be a bit easier to dive into :) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, and War

Moderate: Slavery and Torture

Minor: Sexual content and Vomit

agenericmirkwoodelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

WIP
4.5 stars! Might round up later! We’ll see! 

I have a lot of thoughts about this book! Having read it during senior year, it did take absolutely ages! That said, I really enjoyed it! 

Pros (spoiler free)
- Loved the writing! Every setting was incredibly vivid and immersive! And the Worldbuilding was lots of fun! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Death of parent