Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

A Game of Gods by Scarlett St. Clair

5 reviews

madelineslibrary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Sexual content

the animal death refers to the gruesome sacrificial death of a mythical creature. It was shocking and sad even though I knew it was coming because of a prophecy.

avaholic29's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

2.0

I spent the whole time trying to figure out who was who. Obviously this book is part of a series where stuff is explained. Very little plot. No conclusion to anything.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic relationship, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

thethirtiethofjanuary's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Child death, and Alcohol

savage_book_review's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book has confirmed my feelings that I prefer the story told from Hades' point of view. The story feels like it has so much more depth and scope than in Persephone's novels; his solo trips and the bits that Persephone doesn't see are far more engaging and add to the levels of intrigue, threat and mystery perfectly. From a practical perspective, without these books I think the upcoming finale would be missing a lot of background information that I suspect will become important.

Getting to understand and appreciate Hades' internal struggles is also a massive bonus of these books. He's a great characters through Persephone's eyes, but seeing his world-weariness, the depth of his love for Persephone and his darker impulses rounds him out so well. In some ways, it also gives the spice a bit more of a reason for being; he readily admits he's insatiable! 

Similarly, the pacing of Persephone's trauma and recovery seems to be reflected better through Hades' eyes. His determination to take things at her pace, his fear of inflicting further hurt and his genuine horror when things go awry feel more true-to-life and more deeply considered here. There are still moments that don't sit quite right with me, but it's certainly better. 

I also loved the insight into the Dionysius and Ariadne relationship and the twists introduced to that part of the mythology. Likewise, I'm really enjoying the twist of making Greek heroes into anti-heros or outright villains, and there is a big part of me that hopes the author rips up the rule book in the finale and Hades and Persephone end up as King and Queen of Olympus as well as the Underworld...

My biggest criticism is that it appears the author got slightly lazy towards the end of the book. The closer to the end you get, the more errors there are in the text - definitely needs another going over by an editor. And then to find that the last chapter is just cut, copied and pasted from Malice is quite disappointing - I was hoping for a little extra to bridge the gap between this and the finale. 

So glad I don't have to wait very long for the next book in the series to come out!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Rape, Sexual violence, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Child death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Vomit, Kidnapping, Stalking, and Death of parent

kathrynok's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Infertility, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Alcoholism, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Abortion