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readwithsophsx's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation
filipacmiranda's review against another edition
4.0
“King of Scars” não só se cumpriu as expectativas, trazendo de volta algumas das minhas dinâmicas preferidas de Shadow and Bone (como os irmãos Kir-Bataar ou o Triumvirate), como também expandiu a teia de relações que constitui o GrishaVerse.
Embora esperasse que alguns dos Crows fizessem uma aparição nesta duologia, ter Nina Zenik como uma das principais personagens do primeiro volume foi uma surpresa muito agradável! Adoro a forma como Leigh Bardugo continua a estabelecer pontes entre as diversas coleções que compõem este universo. Além disso, poder continuar a ver Nina evoluir e acompanhar a sua jornada de aceitação da nova versão do seu poder Corporalki foi, a meu ver, um dos pontos altos deste livro.
No que respeita a Nikolai, não esperava que o enredo e as consequências com que se depara depois da sua experiência como nichevo’ya seguissem o caminho escolhido pela autora – o que é de aplaudir. Contudo, o final não me encheu as medidas…. Só não sei exatamente se o meu descontentamento foi motivado pelo ritmo que o enredo assumiu (mais lento do que aquele a que os anteriores livros deste universo nos habituaram) ou pelo facto de ter achado o final e a reintrodução do Darkling pouco original.
Ansiosa para saber o que “Rule of Wolves” reserva e se será capaz de dar a volta às minhas reticências.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction and Death
Moderate: Drug use and Violence
kate_arts's review against another edition
adventurous
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
I love how Leigh Bardugo can create such multifaceted characters that feel real. The way they think and feel and act feels very real to me and is nice to see in the fantasy setting. I don’t necessarily love all of the plot points she puts these characters through. Especially how they are increasingly more impossible of situations that everyone comes out of mostly unscathed. That being said she is good about having the consequences of her character’s actions stick around and change the trajectory of the story. I loved the first half of the book, but the second half, particularly when Zoya and Nikolai were in the saints fold I did not like. I had a hard time suspending my disbelief for this whole section of the book. I mostly enjoyed Nina’s POV, but I don’t feel ready for whatever her and Hanne have going on. I do appreciate that she is given time to mourn Matthais’s death, but like literally the moment after she buries his body she stumbles upon a new love interest. I also don’t completely know how I feel about the darkling coming back. Like yes he was around forever and had great power so it shouldn’t be so easy to kill him, but also I want these new POVs to have their own struggles and bad guys. I guess we’ll see how this all plays out in the next book. All that being said I really did like the book and it’s probably one of my favorite out of the grishaverse despite some of my misgivings of the plot.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, and Pregnancy
jesslane27's review against another edition
adventurous
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? Yes
4.0
not a masterpiece, but very good!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, and War
Moderate: Sexual assault
Minor: Vomit
laurenandradee's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
This book was on par with Shadow and Bone but definitely not as good as six of crows (but maybe I just love a heist with a solid found family plot). But if you liked shadow and bone (which I definitely did) you will like this as well ! I do highly recommend that you read both series - shadow and bone followed by six of crows - first since there are multiple returned characters and some context is assumed knowledge. Also there are huge spoilers for both series in this book so you will be ruining the previous series if you read this before those.
This book has a slow start (similar to shadow and bone and six of crows) since this is multiple POV book and not only that but there are also multiple plots(three to be exact) happening simultaneously (it's never confusing or hard to remember what is happening) but at about the halfway point once the stories really kick off this book is SO engaging and its fast paced, like chapter to chapter I am on the edge of my seat and Leigh Bardugo does the classic end of chapter cliffhanger followed by a POV change - there was a lot of "Oh nonono don't end here....wait never mind, thank god we are back to this POV" happening for me towards the end.
The slow build ends up being really nice since you really get an understanding of the plot and each of the characters are well fleshed out for me.
Overall I just love Leigh Bardugo's imagery, the horrible horrible things that happens within this booklike the women in what is essentially a human factory farm being forced to breed children under the influence of highly addictive drugs that they are originally force fed with the sole purpose of keeping the women addicted and therefore pliable, and to keep them breeding more addicted children even though the women clearly don't want to but need to, to continue to have access to this impossible to get drug otherwise they die from withdrawal. So essentially these women are slaves kept in a single windowless room, they are starved, live in squallor and forced to endure rape and forced pregnancy because they are so addicted for the sole purpose of breeding more grisha. and one women was unable to conceive but was still raped and forced give birth multiple times only to hold her multiple still born children after each pregnancy and then having to do it again and again or die - yeah that is BIG nightmare fuel. Also the imagery of Elizaveta flying at Zoya with locusts spilling from her mouth is not exactly the same brand of nightmare fuel but still pretty gross are handled in a way that is still appropriate and are not overly gruesome or horrific for the shock factor which I liked. It was just enough that you got the horror of the situation but it wasn't drawn out and horrible to read.
Overall, I really enjoyed being back in the grishaverse and who doesn't love a whole books worth of Nikolai-wit.
This book has a slow start (similar to shadow and bone and six of crows) since this is multiple POV book and not only that but there are also multiple plots
The slow build ends up being really nice since you really get an understanding of the plot and each of the characters are well fleshed out for me.
Overall I just love Leigh Bardugo's imagery, the horrible horrible things that happens within this book
Overall, I really enjoyed being back in the grishaverse and who doesn't love a whole books worth of Nikolai-wit.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Child death, Slavery, Grief, and Pregnancy
Minor: Sexism, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail
seforana's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
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
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
nova123's review against another edition
- 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
3.75
zoya nazyalensky 🧎♀️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death
Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Violence, and Pregnancy
summonerwitch's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, and Pregnancy
koiolee's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
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
As i grow older, i stray away from fantasy novels/series. This series (and Six of Crows duology) bring me back to my fantasy days. I adore the magic system and the writing that brings this world into the real world. The grief every character fights is palpable, as if you yourself lost that person.
Spoilers
My opinion on characters
Nikolai: i really like him as a king. Also live how he keeps his wits around him like a protective slime layer.
Zoya: i think my favorite character with so much depth. I loved learning more and more about her.
Nina: probably the character i relate to the most. Her chapters were hard for me to read because i imagine my own partner and that loss as my own. I was mad after crooked kingdom when she didn't lose her cool over her loss (literally my only critique was that she didnt go absolutely feral), but after reading this, i understand it so much more.... but i still think she should've gone feral. Or as feral as she could during recovery.
Spoilers
My opinion on characters
Nikolai: i really like him as a king. Also live how he keeps his wits around him like a protective slime layer.
Zoya: i think my favorite character with so much depth. I loved learning more and more about her.
Nina: probably the character i relate to the most. Her chapters were hard for me to read because i imagine my own partner and that loss as my own. I was mad after crooked kingdom when she didn't lose her cool over her loss (literally my only critique was that she didnt go absolutely feral), but after reading this, i understand it so much more.... but i still think she should've gone feral. Or as feral as she could during recovery.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism and Grief
Moderate: Addiction, Pregnancy, and War
Minor: Confinement
kelshenka's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
lighthearted
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
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Genocide, Miscarriage, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Pregnancy