Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo

30 reviews

mythicsage's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual harassment, Violence, and Animal death

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Classism, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Gun violence, Alcohol, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, and Slavery

Minor: Abandonment, Cursing, Forced institutionalization, Mental illness, Rape, Eating disorder, Alcoholism, Bullying, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, War, and Xenophobia

emilywemily6's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring 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

4.75

I loved this book and need to continue the series asap! I read the Six of Crows duology first and so far think I enjoyed those books slightly more because they really sucked me in; this book didn’t fully immerse me in the world. I love the characters, loved seeing Alina grow as a character, and I love the twist at the end! I also appreciated that the ending wasn’t such a huge cliffhanger that I had to start the next book immediately. I feel like there is more nuance and depth to the Darkling too, so I am looking forward to seeing how the rest of the series goes.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Violence and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Gaslighting, Sexual content, War, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Alcohol

tays_books's review against another edition

adventurous 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, War, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent and Sexual assault

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, War, Abandonment, Body horror, Pedophilia, Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Alcohol, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Death of parent, Racism, and Xenophobia

Relationship (explicitly unhealthy/abusive) between teenager and character who appears around the same age, but is 100+.

emohell's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

enjoyed this a lot more than i thought i was going to!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, and Animal death

Moderate: Grief, Death, Blood, Violence, and Kidnapping

Minor: Alcohol

konstantina's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Fine. Make me your villain.

If you're a lifelong fantasy lover, you will thoroughly enjoy the Grishaverse. Shadow and Bone is a typical ya fantasy novel of the 2010s, but the Grisha magic system is so unique that it allows you to look past plot clichés. The villain, Darkling, is interesting, although his abusive "relationship" (if you can even call it that) with the MC is romanticised by the fandom often. 

A good start to the series!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Death

Minor: Alcohol

livi74's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and War

Moderate: Alcohol and Sexual content

Minor: Cursing

trintrin's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.5

I read the Six of Crows duology before this because everyone said the Grisha trilogy was not that good, that Alina was a boring protagonist, that they all hated Mal, that Malina wasn't a good ship, and that Leigh's writing wasn't as beautiful as it is SoC blah blah blah. So I trusted them all and read SoC first. Now I regret skipping this wonderful story. It has all the amazing elements of a fantasy novel that I had forgotten I love so much. You could say it has the typical YA fantasy tropes but it's done so well, and since this is one of the OGs I'll give it a pass. 

I don't understand why people love to hate on Mal, I found him perfectly fine. Maybe a little possessive at times but nothing other than that. Apart from the fact that Alina needed a man to feel like she belonged somewhere, I didn't find anything wrong with her either. And I finally understand the appeal of the Darkling lol although I don't really ship Darklina. 

The world-building is so rich and that's why I wish I read this before SoC because so many things that I previously found confusing suddenly finally made sense to me, I felt like I opened a third-eye or something. I really loved seeing the fantastical side of the Grishaverse rather than just the heist-y side. I'd love to read more about the Grisha folklore, the Saints and all that good stuff. 

As for Leigh's writing style, it's certainly not as breathtaking as I know it would be in her future books but it's still pretty solid. The first person POV felt weird for the first chapter but I got used to it after that. Her story-telling is still very good. This was certainly a page-turner, I binged it in one day and the only other book I'd binged in one day is Crooked Kingdom so it's all very fitting :D

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Eating disorder, Gore, and Murder

Minor: Alcohol and Death of parent

rose_88's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

4.0

Knew some things about it from social media, wanted to read before  watching the show, but only really heard about ‘Six of Crows’, but I really enjoyed this book. I felt there could have been more about Alina’s dynamics with people other than the Darkling, like more about her time with the other Grisha and her time in the army, but i did like how the author portrayed the Darkling and Alina’s relationship/dynamic.

Spoiler

I liked how the relationship was first portrayed as one where he had been searching for her for ages and so fell in love with her due to his longing for someone to help fix the Fold, but then when you find out more about him and realised ‘oh shit he played her, he SEDUCED her’ which was really really shit on his part, just to get her to trust him.

 

Spoiler

I also really loved Bahgara, just everything abiut her. How she was this mean and scary teacher who was the one person not pulled towards or enamoured by the Darkling, then you find out SHES HIS MOTHER!?!?! And everything just gets more sad cause she still loves him but knows he may be too far gone. But also wtf? Like we know barely anything about her? How’s she get her powers? How did she birth the most powerful Grisha minus the literal Sun Summoner?  Was she just as powerful as him, but just chose not to show it? ANSWERS I NEED ANSWERS!!

 

Spoiler

I thought there could have been more about Mal, it was him who found the stag and he was so concerned about Alina, even thought he never got her letters. He’s so much better than the Darkling

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Blood, Body horror, and Death

Moderate: Animal death, Classism, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, and Cursing

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Sexual assault

onefineelephant's review

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

7/10. I think the magic system and even the political system are interesting. However, I usually hate love triangles and this is no exception. I typically love the friends-to-lovers trope but Mal kind of sucks at the beginning. Like, who would sleep with a ton of girls when you're actually in love with your best friend the whole time?? I like Mal more by the end. Also, them confessing their feelings wasn't satisfying at all and fell kind of flat. I think that the character of the Darkling is super fascinating and complex, which I love. I am not a fan of Alina which is really unfortunate because she's the main character - but this is because she is TOO MUCH of a main character. She just wants to fit in when she clearly is unique, she is a peasant in high society, she only has one friend and doesn't get along with other girls (aka she's not like other girls), and she won't kill when it is absolutely necessary. The dialogue is kind of so bad that it's good. Like it's very bad but most of the time it made me laugh because of how bad it is instead of making me say "this is stupid." The ending was awful, in my opinion. I know there are more books in the series but the events of the last 50 pages made me say "what the f is this?" about 8 times. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Genocide, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, and War

Minor: Sexual harassment, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Self harm and suicidal ideation are mentioned but not acted on. Also, there is an attempted sexual assault but it does not progress further.