Reviews tagging 'Addiction'

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo

124 reviews

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

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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

nils_0's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny lighthearted 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

madisonstarkov's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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

Graphic: Addiction, Trafficking, and Grief

Moderate: Misogyny

ashleighamble's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.5

I love the characters, world, and magic, and I think that's what made this book enjoyable for me. 

My issue is that the plot was not engaging or worthwhile. It was a little unclear why things happened the way they did and while I liked the multiple big sub-plots that were engaging, yet the main one was just weird and felt unnatural. I'm not sure how to explain it properly. I say this with every book I've read recently: I enjoyed reading it, but I will likely forget about it the second I pick up another book. I'm just slightly disappointed and not one bit starstruck.

I also want to note that I like the characters they introduced and the backstory for Zoya and Nikolai (my favorite pair <3).

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Slavery, Suicide, and Violence

Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage, and War

audlittlebookshelf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

I enjoyed this so much! This one is more political drama with a touch of espionage. We also got to see characters dealing with grief and PTSD. Leigh Bardugo is a master at writing stories with multiple perspectives and giving each character a unique voice. There was a portion in the last half of the book that felt a bit hard to follow and didn’t flow as smoothly as the rest. In all fairness, that could have been intentional, given the context, but it made that section less enjoyable to read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Death, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Miscarriage and Pregnancy

cephalopodbot's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Xenophobia, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Gaslighting and War

Minor: Pedophilia

brekker_by_brekker's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Pregnancy

Minor: Miscarriage

onecheesetoasty's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

kiwij96's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

4.75

The emotional whiplash that this book has left me with is astounding. Leigh Bardugo has perfectly crafted the Grishaverse and has perfectly tied in character history with the other books in the series. This one broke my heart and gave me hope for future books in the best way. 

This book follows Nikolai, Zoya and Nina and takes place 3 years after the Shadow and Bone trilogy, and a year after the Six of Crows duology. All three of these characters are aome of my absolut  favourites from this series.

As someone who loved Zoya from book one of Shadow and Bone, rightly or wrongly, this was more her book than Nikolai's story. This gave her already tenacious character a brutal backstory and an awe-inspiring yet tragic redemption. This gives us understanding of who she is and why. I am honestly in love with her.

This book, from the Triumvirate's perspective, and Zoya and Nikolai's perspectives turned the whole Grishaverse on its head and the second that happened I was lost in the story in the best way possible.

Nina's character has always been a law unto herself, but her story in this felt disconnected from the rest of it. I feel Nina, Adrik and Leoni could have done with their own spin-off really however I did love learning more about their characters and recognising the references to previous books.

However, I am very confused as to what happened with the men from the very start of the story. Maybe I misread that bit but the whole time I was asking where they went and if they ever made it to Ravka.

That ending honestly has me in a spin, what an absolutely genius yet evil way to end a book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Miscarriage, Medical content, Kidnapping, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Body horror

eguare's review against another edition

adventurous 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? Yes

3.75

I enjoyed this more than the original Shadow & Bone trilogy, not as much as the Six of Crows duology. This book was a happy return for beloved characters, but I wasn't always happy with where they went.

While I loved hearing more from Nina, I was heartbroken that the found family of the Crows broke up so thoroughly after Crooked Kingdom. It was also too soon after Matthias to enjoy Nina's burgeoning tension with Hanne (though I adore that Nina is canonically bisexual).

I loved seeing Nikolai and Zoya continue to develop

both independently and together

. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, and War

Moderate: Religious bigotry and Dysphoria