Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

296 reviews

anna_stazija's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring 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? No

5.0

I absolutely love this book. I reread it fir the second time and it was still interesting. The characters and their love was so entertaining. The POVs of characters were not  as confusing except no matter how may times I read the actual heist i can not pin point the location or anything for that fact. But I loved the book. The whole vibe the characters, however i usually forget that these are kids my age.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gun violence, Torture, Blood, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Slavery, Violence, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Alcohol

undecidedpersonality's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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: Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Minor: Ableism, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and War

oxfordcommas91's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious medium-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

4.0

I understand the hype for this series. Night and day for me from Shadow and Bone where I felt the characters were lackluster and the action felt really contrived. In comparison, Six of Crows is full of complicated and morally ambiguous protagonists and compelling, "what will happen next" sort of action. The twists and turns were endless, and the characters all had rich and well-developed backstories that gave you an interesting perspective on why they act they way they do. This book felt like a fantasy version of Oceans Eleven with traumatized teenagers, and I loved every minute of it. It all worked for me.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and War

water13girl's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious 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: Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

strawberrytheauthor's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

AHHHHHHHH!

Ends on a cliffhanger

Anyway, AHHHHHHHH! 100% lives up to the hype. Found family is amazing! Everyone has a devastating backstory! It’s just perfect! 

Do check trigger warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Slavery, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Self harm, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Toxic friendship, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Misogyny and Sexual content

bookishfads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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? Yes

4.0

A fun ride of a book, can't wait to get my hands on the sequel. Leigh Bardugo really redeemed herself of the boring protagonist of The Grisha Trilogy with this fun new cast of characters, each unique and interesting in their own way, not to mention how their dynamics play out in the crazy job they sign up for. Some parts are full of plot-armor that takes away from the cleverness of the story, but I suppose sometimes it can't be helped. My main issue was simply making one character (read: Kaz) too powerful and not really what the story set him up to be. I'm glad the author got inspired from her own experience with chronic pain, but Kaz's disability hardly affects the plot. It's just character cosmetics.
Still, I enjoyed this read and its perfect if you want to get to know a fun group of characters, read some snappy dialogue full of clever clap backs and see more of the Grishaverse.
 Read more about it in spoiler section below.

So why 4 stars? I took off .25 because the last part of the book kinda started to get a bit too plot-armory for the characters and the clever plans got less and less clever and the plot twists at some points were simply because information was left out to the reader. Lame.
Another .25 is Wylan. I really liked him and wanted to get to know more of him... shame the author didn't feel the same. Not a  single POV from a character who's supposedly member of the titled ensemble... For what? A cheap plot twist? Wylan's reading disability would have been just as effective in the middle as it was at the end of the book.
 
Half a star is taken away because of Kaz Brekker.
Let's start with this age - 17! And he's this edgy criminal mastermind at 17. Ugh, it YA, I get it, marketing and all that, but making him 20 at least wouldn't have scared the teenagers away, trust me. Age aside, Kaz is so full of edge (some other characters had straight up edgy sentences torn from a local emo's diary, but Kaz takes the cake) it actually disrupted my immersion in the story and made me snort back a frustrated laugh. I can't take seriously this edge lord, who apparently first got arrested at age of 12.
Then his whole skill set is all over the place. Okay, he's the mastermind with neat sleight of hand and lock picking abilities. How come he can take down a dude who strangled a wolf with his bare hands?? With a disabled leg?? Okay, maybe the way he did it was plausible, but that still doesn't justify making Kaz good at everything just because the author wants you to think hes So Kewl! One scene - he hardly climbes up to third floor, another- he's running around and fighting and - you've guessed it - it has no impact on the plot at all. 
Kaz's weaknesses would have been so cool to explore: the touch aversion, injured leg, obsession with revenge and control, but they get swept aside to show us another clever triumph of Kazzle Dazzle. I really want to like him, but so far his comebacks, thieving tips and romance with Inej are the only fun part of the character, otherwise he's an edgy killjoy that course-corrects the plot just when it's about to get interesting.
Man just look at that paragraph.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Hate crime, Slavery, Torture, Vomit, and Trafficking

Moderate: Ableism, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Vomit

Plot revolves around an intense drug for magic users, throughout the story there's lots of forced usage of the drug and description of bodies of addicts. A character tortures and kills someone for information, quite graphic. There's also mentions of torture in prison. The aftermath of a hate crime over a fictional race is described and it happens quite suddenly - they're burned at the stake. A character gets trafficked as a little girl and sold into sexual slavery, the scene where she's sold is quite detailed, however the rest of it is vague mentions.

Moderate warnings:

A parent of a character hates them due to their learning disorder and calls them a mistake and many other hurtful things. A character who has had a radical religious upbringing defends an extremist ideology to another character. Character often get into violent situations and get injured, nothing too disturbing, but occasionally something graphic will pop up.

Minor warnings:

A character vomits out a necessary tool. It is brief and glossed over, but still to be considered. A female character has been trafficked and used for prostitution, therefore raped many times, which is mentioned, but never explicitly shown.

nooweljayy's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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: Violence

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, and Blood

Minor: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Abandonment

aribookishly's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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: Ableism, Addiction, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Murder, and Alcohol

lovorka's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

jestareader's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

4.75

Fantastic Read! 

If I had read it when I first got it as a teenager, it would have been perfect. However, now that I am out of my teenage years, the characters felt uncomfortably young for their stories in a work fiction which discussed sex, SA, violence, and murder.  So in my head, they're older. 

Inej and Waylan - 22
Kaz, Jesper, Nina - 23 
Matthias - 24 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Sexual content, Torture, and Sexual harassment