Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

32 reviews

bella613's review against another edition

adventurous 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? It's complicated

3.5

Took me a few chapters to get into it, and the story was very predictable, but it was entertaining. The beginning of the book kind of dragged, and the premise has definitely been done, and in better ways. It was like every ~girl finds out she has superpowers and learns to control them~ story mixed with every ~dystopian country in an oppresive civil war needs teenage girl to be the face of a rebellion against cruel leadership~ story. But there's nothing wrong with that, and YA readers eat that stuff up. I wish I could have read this in middle school. It still would have been predictable, but my complaints for this book are also true of the hunger games and divergent, and I loved those back then. I did enjoy listening and I think I would have loved it if I were the age it's meant for (like 10 years ago). 
I will definitely be checking out the rest of the series. I hope that we will get to know Mare's brothers better, that Cal will become a round character, and that we'll get more unique plot points.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism

bree_h_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

1.0

I was looking forward to this book, as it seemed like it had a lot of potential for an interesting story. Unfortunately I didn’t feel like it kept that potential as the story went on.

Overall I found it slow and a bit tedious with minimal action happening. Something about the pacing just didn’t grab me. Which was disappointing as I found the concept interesting and thought it could be executed well.

The characters too just felt very flat and one note. I can’t tell you much about any of the characters. I didn’t really find them or their relationships overly compelling. There were a few moments here and there I did think a character or dynamic would really shine, but overall it rarely felt earned.

The writing style also wasn’t all that impressive to me. There were a few instances where something was described in a weird way, but outside of that it read like your typical YA fantasy.

I definitely think the book had some potential, especially the concept. In the end I think it just fell a bit flat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Torture

maresuju's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

Graphic: Violence, Xenophobia, and Blood

Moderate: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Slavery, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

Minor: Child death and Death of parent

khucc's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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: Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Cursing, Suicide, and Grief

natalie_j's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Self harm, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Classism

pandareader24's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Omg. This book. This is not my kind of genre I normally read, but omg I feel like this book has changed me! The last few chapters had me in shock and covering my mouth!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

bludgeoned_by_hail's review

adventurous lighthearted mysterious tense fast-paced

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

1.0

I think I'm probably way out of the age range for this, but almost every aspect of the book feels hollow and underdeveloped, not to mention how generic and clichéd it is. It does acquire a sort of so-bad-it's-good charm after a while, I guess. Probably best for people who have never read any dystopia or YA before.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, and Classism

Moderate: Police brutality, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

julienicole1106's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

amanda_reads13's review

adventurous hopeful 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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

zoeelora's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism