Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Empire of Storms by Sarah J. Maas

24 reviews

khaley0127's review against another edition

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

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

5.0

Gods be damned, this book absolutely broke me. The beginning felt like I was wading through murky waters, lost in a sea of information and even being mislead as a reader from certain plots until the very end. Very well written, and that ending is and ending I will not forget any time soon. Aelin’s sacrifices, her plots, so much she kept hidden from her loved ones and ourselves as readers. A truly unreliable narrator. The truths revealed in the end truly cleaves me open into devastation. Everything absolutely ties together neatly like a perfectly destructive blow to your already hopeful heart. The only thing that continues my hope is the path these characters are taking into setting things right. A beautiful read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Stalking, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Genocide, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Classism

kristanjenkins's review against another edition

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

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Moderate: Sexual content

mgdmcc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Colonisation, and War

emilywemily6's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

Wow. I did the tandem read with Tower of Dawn and it was honestly such a long haul but also so enjoyable. The plot progression and the character growth throughout this book is so good. My one gripe would be that everyone is coupling up which feels a little obvious/contrived. I wish there was a little bit more variety in the relationship statuses. But I adore these characters and my heart broke at the end of this book 😭. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Cursing, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Child death, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Pregnancy

savage_book_review's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I really wanted to try and do the tandem read with 'Tower of Dawn' via audiobook, but I don't have the patience to try and set up all of the bookmarks, nor have I figured out a way to make it work smoothly, so I'm reading then one at a time this go round... I'm interested to see what difference it makes to the flow of the overall narrative, at any rate! And nervous about having to now wait another 22+ hours before getting to the resolution of the climax of this book...

Despite the different story threads happening contemporaneously, they are woven together so well that it all still forms a cohesive narrative and it doesn't feel disjointed. Likewise, while I'm not sure that each thread receives equal page time, they are all well thought out and the whole thing feels very balanced. 

The book serves a dual purpose - it absolutely moves the overall series plot along apace with a great story in itself, giving you a great mix of action, adventure, romance and jeopardy. But equally it's clearly another case of a book serving to move all of the players into the right places at the right times to make sure they're ready for the grand finale. You are rewarded with a lot of payoffs from earlier books in the series, and with the development of newer characters and so it is certainly not lacking in elements to pull you in and keep you reading, but there is a small part of me that keeps saying 'just get on with it already!'

There are a few moments that I found harder to follow via the audio, for example Elena's story and the events that laid the foundations for the current predicament. I get it, but it's not a particularly straightforward backstory (IMO) and, once again, because it takes so much longer to listen to than to read, it just didn't make as much sense. On the other hand, I think I spotted an error in the text that I would probably not have picked up on when reading the physical book. Although it's a throwaway comment, it contains quite a big spoiler for later in the book (although saying that, you're 100% expecting it by this point if you're familiar with the Maasverse). 

On to 'Tower of Dawn'!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and War

Minor: Infertility, Sexual assault, Slavery, Vomit, Death of parent, and Alcohol

miss_berry315's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.75

Oh my gosh I think this is my favorite book in the series even with

it absolutely shattering my heart into a million pieces with the last few chapters

Not a boring chapter to be found in this book. I already want to reread it to relive everything. Wow. 

*Read in tandem with Tower of Dawn, following online guides for chapter order. Would HIGHLY recommend doing so when reading.*

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement, Sexual content, and Grief

merrow's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.75

A very good and exciting book, that’s generally let down a bit by the ending. The characters are very engaging and the book does a good job of strongly connecting the reader to each.

Aelin’s level of planning was probably my main gripe with the body of the story - always either 10 steps ahead or 10 steps behind, sometimes in the space of two chapters. The end was just cruel and miserable however and significantly dulled my excitement for the final book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

kinsportch's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Confinement

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

Wowza. Ok. Ok. Ok.

I gotta wait till tomorrow to finish Tower of Dawn cause I need to process the fucking shit show (said as a term of endearment) that went on in the Empire of Storms. 

AELIN GALATHYNIUS YOU COME BACK RIGHT THIS INSTANT SO HELP ME GAWD! 

This book had some stellar moments. Wyvern attack on the capital, Manon attacking her mean Grandma, Elide and Lorcan on the run, Lysandra kicking ass in Skulls bay, Aelin blasting all those ILKEN SHITS outta the sky, finding out what Elena did, and the END!!!!!  Crazy stuff, man. 

Sadly, the gang is unfortunately splitting up AGAIN *sigh* and all of my fav ships are SINKING!!!! 👎

Rowan’s Queen got shipped away in the bad box by the bitchiest UPS worker ever known to man. Elides pissed at Lorcan, and rightfully so (I am too, I have a very strong love/hate relationship with this dude). Aedion is being a man baby about Lysandra doing what she was told to do by THEIR QUEEN. Dorian and Manon are still rockin though 🤘good for those lil emos! 

Something cool I realized in this book though was that each of the mains have one of those jerkface gods kind of pulling the strands of their fates together which is neat! Like Hellas with Lorcan, Annieth with Elide, and Mala with Aelin and Rowan. 

Im very stressed. I’ll finish tower of Dawn tomorrow. I need a nap.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

spatterson7's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Body horror, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, Torture, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Confinement, Self harm, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Alcohol