Reviews tagging 'Bullying'

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas

21 reviews

micaelamariem's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

5.0

 

It was time for my annual dive into the Throne of Glass universe. 

Seriously, I'm averaging a book a year in this series, oops. 

Heir of Fire by Sarah J. Maas, published by Bloomsbury, is the third book in the Throne of Glass series. As such, I won't be able to talk about this with some spoilers for the first two books so be warned! 

In Heir of Fire, Celaena goes to Wendlywn but ends up in the land of faerie, facing her aunt and her magic, Dorian begins to understand his powers, and Chaol struggled to pick a side. 

I had a really good time reading this, much better than the first two books! I don't know if it's because I didn't much like my last two reads so this was better by comparison, or that the writing style got a lot better. Perhaps it was a bit of both.  

What I think made Heir of Fire a good read was that the story could finally progress because we are now acquainted with the world and characters. The first two books were really just a set up. Now, we're getting into the beginning of an epic war. The multiple points of view added a lot of depth to the story, too, and was done in a fantastic way that kept the plotline still straightforward. We also learn a lot about Celaena's past, that connects us to her powers, her birthright, and her trauma, and makes her past actions make sense. 

I was also stoked to meet a couple of characters I heard about in social media but hadn't yet seen in the books. First and foremost, Rowan. I started out hating him, but over the course of the story, loved him. A slow burn for the reader. A lovely sarcastic asshole. And the other character was Manon, terrifying yet also might be the catalyst for change the witch covens need to see. I'm excited to see how her storyline will cross with Celaena (who after this review, I think I can start calling Aelin, if only because the spelling is easier). 

I really enjoyed Celaena's pov chapters--it's mainly her story, after all. I also adored Dorian's. I didn't like him until he got magic, but now I like how his arc is progressing. He really doesn't deserve the tragedies that happen. Chaol, while once being my favorite, had the most boring POV's, but maybe that was because it was very military-like, which befitted his character. 

Despite the slight boredom with him, I still really loved this book. I daydreamed about it driving and missed my turn. Any book that can have me do that has to be five stars right? 

Guess I'll be back next year for Assassin's Blade, because I really need to read that prequel before continuing with the series, much as I want to! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

leguminosae's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

Fuck

this dude. Made me cry and I’m not even the one he yells at. He’s not even real. What the heck.

In other news: I love my random evil girl on her dragon adventures yesssss good for her hoorayyy
😻🖤🐲🧙‍♀️🕸️🖤🐦‍⬛🐲🤩

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Alcoholism and Alcohol

khaley0127's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow this book in the series was incredible. What a journey, and such revelations. What an empowering story it is to watch Celaena become Aelin, own her identity, her past, her truth, what she must do. And Rowan was a character I desperately needed in this series. I had many heartbreaks at the end of the book, many reveals that had me enraged. I literally shook with anger lol, I feel like a book deserves 5 stars if you pull genuine emotion from me (considering I have an impenetrable mask while reading lol I do not get emotional visibly easily)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Gore, Self harm, Torture, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death and War

ladyrambo's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

An amazing emotional trip and continuance of the series.  It keeps you literally on the edge of your seat. I could not put the book down and there are not a lot of books out there that does that to me..  I will be thinking about this story for the next several days.  It’s definitely a book and a series that you can dive in and forget the world around you.  ❤️. LOVED IT! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Slavery, Torture, Death of parent, and Murder

barbarianmissy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

Holy shit monkeys! 

Ok I was so worried after the first 3 books I read in this series that there wouldn’t be any characters that I fully loved or connected to. I liked them but I never LOVED any of them. It was a good story, but I wasn’t obsessed with it UNTIL FRIGGIN NOW! 

Rowan and Manon literally saved this series for me. Bringing back the world of magic, epic training and fun banter, off the chain chemistry between characters, AND friggin WYVERNS?!?! Epic and cool and just awesome. It was so so so so much fun! 

I liked Celaena Sardothian… but Aelin Galathynius is a friggin badass and I wholeheartedly stan. Her growth in this book was outstanding. 

Chaol is a coward and the fact that I ever compared him to Lightning McQueen is a real kick in the pants. Lightning never deserved such disrespect. 🤦‍♀️

Dorian, my poor sweet little baby. God I hope that necklace gets removed and you don’t need to be beheaded to be freed. I’ll be so pissed if your head gets the chop! 

And Aedion, stop crushing on your cousin and I’ll find you more appealing. Hope you don’t hjget executed for being a traitor and get to once again kick ass. 

And finally, to the king of Adarlan, suck a big fat egg and choke. 

Overall, this book slaps, your honour. 

ONTO QUEEN OF SHADOWS!!!! LETS ROCK!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Physical abuse, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

tiredtori's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Mental illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Hate crime, Slavery, Excrement, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, and War

emilywemily6's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful tense 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

Amazing!! I devoured this book and I can’t wait for the next one. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. I thoroughly enjoyed following every perspective and am so excited to see where these characters go from here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Hate crime, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content and Medical content

merrow's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

I always like the point where a YA series turns from adventures to a desperate fight for freedom, and this book is no exception.

Quite the tragic turn of events at the end, but they set up for some potentially good ways out.

The first half is a bit frustrating as the focus is placed on rebuilding and crumbling over and over again for the main character, but it finds its direction very well for the second half.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Colonisation

Minor: Body horror, Bullying, Deadnaming, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Abandonment, and Alcohol

anguawolf's review against another edition

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Bullying and Panic attacks/disorders

liesthemoontells's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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

4.25

My favourite entry in the series so far. The fantasy and worldbuilding is much more mature than in the first two books. While the pacing sometimes faltered a little bit with the array of characters going back and forward, the widened scope and perspective was welcome.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Genocide, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Slavery and Vomit