Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Stars Above by Marissa Meyer

8 reviews

sydley_wibbly's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Suicide, Violence, Dementia, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

I do want to add that most of the content warnings only apply to two of the short stories in this book. The queens army and the princess and the guard are definitely the darkest stories in the book. I really enjoyed learning more about moments from the characters past that they mention in the main part of the series. I also LOVED something old and something new. It made the ending to the main part of the series feel more real when it said "and they all got to live happily ever after for the rest of their days"

noellegrace8's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

This is basically like seamless fanfiction because it's done by the author and therefore perfectly congruent with her series. Some stories are better than others, I would venture to say, and The Little Android is a bit of an odd one that breaks away from the rest of them. I was only mildly disappointed because 1, I was hoping more of it would be focused on our main characters rather than random backstory characters, and 2, I thought for certain that the wedding teased in Marissa Meyer's interview was going to be between Winter & Jacin. I wouldn't say I was super disappointed, just surprised, and it ended up making sense that she chose that couple. The ending was very sweet, and I loved the story that showed us Kai's perspective of meeting Cinder.

I feel like I've ranked Rebecca Soler's performances so many times at this point that it's getting redundant, but I can only give her a 4/5 this time around unfortunately, due to whoever produced this audiobook. She was obviously sick or recovering from respiratory illness! I don't understand why they would force her to record before her voice was fully back to its normal state. It made the performance grating, as she sounds clearly stuffed up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cursing, Gun violence, Infidelity, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Classism, and Deportation

The thematic elements of this entire series would stand to warn about topics revolving around one group of people being willing to rule over another in personal relationships and culturally. This book in particular mentions those concepts but doesn't go into details. The story I would give the biggest trigger warning about would be Winter & Jacin's, "The Princess and the Guard." This is where most the sexual assauly and suicide warnings come into play.

risten's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: War

eowyn_zoe's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

Minor: Infertility, Violence, Trafficking, and Grief

msradiosilence's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad

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

3.0

TLDR; 3 rating, it’s an anthology, and a couple of these were in the backs of the books already.
Content warnings at the bottom. :)

Every anthology I’ve ever read has had hits and misses. Most of these, unfortunately, were misses. I love The Little Android, which is the one exception, but most of these stories were in the backs of the original books. The one with Cinder’s dad, for example. And when I said I wanted Winter and Jacin’s relationship to be fleshed out, I didn’t mean that I wanted Winter to be unwittingly a player in someone’s continued sexual assault. It’s icky.

I wanted more of the Rampion crew. I know there’s the graphic novels, but I wanted more like the wedding story, which was very short and very rushed, if you ask me. And the fact that Kai upstages it by proposing to Cinder? The story says there’s a time skip, but they both seem like the immature teens they were in the series. UGH.

Rating: 3
Would I recommend? No, you could probably find The Little Android and the Rampion wedding story online somewhere.

Content warnings: Body horror, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Ableism, Child abuse, Bullying, Blood, Genocide, Torture, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Gun violence, Death of parent, Child death, Car accident, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Rape, Medical content, War, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Classism, and Body shaming

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ameydireads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

“Cinders. Embers. Ashes. Michelle hoped that whatever strength had allowed this child to survive the fire all those years ago was a strength that still burned inside her. That it would go on burning, hotter and hotter, until she was as bright as the rising sun.”

This book is a great way to end the Lunar Chronicles! There were many moments that were shortly mentioned in the main story and this book elaborates on it further. Each story felt special as it focused on the main characters’ past and their experiences. In my review of ‘Winter’ I mentioned that I was less invested in Winter and Jacin and didn’t understand Winter’s decisions. The story ‘The Princess and the Guard’ made me change my opinion. Sigh, I do like them now and I finally understand Winter. 

I really enjoyed Thorne’s story. He’s such a funny character and is very smart. A typical Thorne moment right here >>>

"Last summer, he'd even managed to get the Santos family to pay him sixty-five univs for a box of "succulent, prize-winning" oranges, having no idea that he'd picked the fruits off their own tree earlier that day."

And there is one short story (Something Old, Something New) that takes place after the book ‘Winter’ and oh my gosh, so cute! 

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Vomit

psliz's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful 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? No

3.75

loved these backstories! my favorite has to be kai’s pov of meeting cinder!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Self harm, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide, Medical trauma, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Gun violence, Rape, Blood, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

chuckielittle's review against another edition

adventurous medium-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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Physical abuse, Rape, and Blood

Minor: Sexual assault and Murder