Reviews with content warning for Animal death - Malice

Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Malice by John Gwynne

30 reviews

arian_dragonelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

This took a long while for me to get into. That’s really the only thing that kept me from giving it 5 stars. This was intense. I could handle all the fighting scenes, but it was hard for me to get through the animal deaths.

Poor Buddai! I teared up imagining the faithful hound lying on his master’s chest as he died.

That was rough. I did see some things coming, but that wasn’t a bad thing. I was kind of irritated that we didn’t get any information about Corban. John Gwynne had been teasing it for I don’t know how many chapters, and then the book just ends. Thankfully I do have Valor, but I don’t know if I want to go straight in. I think I need to sit in this for a little bit. I need to go read a cozy mystery or reread a favorite romance. There is only so much head chopping a person can take!

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rachel_faerie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

The beginning was a nice slow world and character building experience but once I connected to the characters man I fell in love with it and had a great time.

Also wow John Gwynne is RUTHLESS lol I can’t believe this was his debut!? I can’t wait to get to book 2 🥲

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thoughtsontomes's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense medium-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

4.5

There is a lot of setup in this book for the greater conflict of the overall series, and as such it is pretty heavy. There’s a tension building throughout and a lot of characters involved. It can be confusing at first, especially since some storylines are similar, but they start to differentiate as the book goes on. This is a series with a lot of character death though, so be warned!

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thegoodship88's review against another edition

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2.5

Definitely not worth the slog of never ending lists of characters for a predictable plot and not super engaging characters/storyline. If the second book doesn’t improve quickly I probably won’t be continuing.

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haz_tyner's review against another edition

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slow-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

2.25

It was basically just a whole book of build-up and then the book ended before anything happened. The characters were so one-dimensional and just not memorable at all. Two characters I frequently mixed up were Kastell and Veradis (not spoilers). They were just similar and the author didn't do much to distinguish them from each other. There was only one female POV (Cywen) and I really wished I heard from her more because a lot of times her chapters didn't even focus on her. Her character was used for listening in on conversations or just observing events - we didn't really get her feelings/perspective that much. Hearing all the hype about this book made me want to read it but I just don't understand the hype AT ALL, sorry :(

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chrisb913's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I am incredibly shocked this was a debut novel. The way Gwynne had me gripped to the edge of my seat as I devoured this story. I had heard there was slow pacing and that is factual. But I could not put this book down. The character work for me was phenomenal. The way he incorporated so many povs into this story, yet still was able to seamlessly weave the narrative between them and progress the overarching plot between so many different subplot going on. If this was his first novel, and everything gets better from here? I cannot wait to continue on.

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happyknitter2020's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional fast-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? It's complicated

5.0

Absolutely loved it. My first John Gwynne book, become attached to the characters, developed an ecomap of each group, so could keep up with the POVs as they developed & listened to the audio book to reflect on what I had read. Thiscreally helped me get through the first half, after this I felt I was in their world.
So many people that I cared for died so quickly without preparing.

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ashleykhoffman's review against another edition

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adventurous tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

3.75

Now this is a war fantasy. Some authors try to write war, but every character comes out relatively unscathed, but this is dark and twisty and heartbreaking. There are a LOT of characters and places, and for a first book in a series, I think a lot of them were unnecessary and just made this slower to get through. I had to take notes to make sure I was even kind of following earlier parts of the book. It does seem like the series will be much easier to follow in subsequent books, but be aware if you're a mood reader that this one takes focus and determination to plow through the world building. But the end is worth it and I'm excited for book 2.

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hails2dabails's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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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angemelb's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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? No

3.5

Lots of characters to get your head around from the get go. Coming of age for Corban, young man who is being trained by mystery man. A Prince, Nathair, counsel-Evnis, and others who filed with greed/ambition.... tale of kings being superceded and who shall win in the end? Help from strange places/ people/ creatures.... really enjoyed this first book and ate throug the pages. Can't wait to see what happens next.

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