Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Tower of Swallows by Andrzej Sapkowski

8 reviews

saltylane's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark 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

4.0

Despite how confusing the jumping around of the narration could be, I did quite enjoy the varying viewpoints used. It was interesting to be able to read all the different characters’ perspectives. There are a lot of cliffhangers and enough intrigue to make me want to keep reading all the way to the end of the story/series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Child death, Child abuse, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Alcohol and War

Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, Grief, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, and Vomit

bobstick's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense 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

4.5

A great story told in many flashbacks which can be hard to grasp the exact timeline, but still a rather simple story to understand as it's all explained and written quite well. This book mainly focuses on Ciri with Geralt only really being a side character, a complete switch on the previous book, but I think works in the series' favour.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Torture, Violence, Blood, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Kidnapping, and Animal death

sarahhoward's review against another edition

slow-paced

1.0

I...sad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, War, Violence, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Child abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Vomit, and Ableism

camoo3032's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

One of the things I love about this series is the different perspectives that Sapkowski chooses to tell the story from. In this book there are several different perspectives which almost makes the book read as a collection of interwoven short stories. It's very clever and engaging but I did find it disorienting the first time.
It's also the most gruesome novel in the series

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Pedophilia, Torture, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Child abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Misogyny, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Ableism, Drug use, and Homophobia

Minor: Confinement, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal death, Sexism, Suicide, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Vomit, War, Child death, Classism, Transphobia, Biphobia, Excrement, Miscarriage, Grief, Pregnancy, Abortion, Abandonment, and Sexual content

upthestairs's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Death, Gore, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Torture, Kidnapping, Mental illness, and Blood

Moderate: Sexual assault, Classism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Colonisation, Cursing, Death of parent, Sexual violence, War, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Animal death

Minor: Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, Vomit, Eating disorder, and Infidelity

annick's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Fractured narrative from multiple perspectives (eg kenna to coroner). It helpfully disorients the reader and grasp at what they can to follow the present action. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, Trafficking, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cursing, Gore, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Vomit

chronographia's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

You’re going to want a map. Seriously, a map; there’s a lot of traveling from here to there and back again. Put a marker in the book and go google the map.

I find it interesting that the author starts using different cadencing and storytelling frameworks to set the various storylines apart. This is useful up to a point, but you are also likely to want a flowchart of characters and events. It’s repeatedly emphasized that this is all running to a particular schedule, with significant dates to mark the pace. Even though the storylines are broadly independent in their flow, still their actions (and inactions) have effects that ripple throughout. It can be tricky to see how they all sync up together, but the author indicates that this is important, so maybe take some notes.

PS: Cahir is unexpectedly growing on me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Drug use, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Homophobia, Sexual content, Slavery, Vomit, and Xenophobia

rachaelbunny's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Slavery, Sexism, Sexual assault, Drug use, Physical abuse, and Misogyny

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Torture, Slavery, Religious bigotry, and Rape

Minor: Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pedophilia