Reviews tagging Animal death

Three Dark Crowns, by Kendare Blake

17 reviews

the_teen_bookworm's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Animal death

Minor: Sexual content

em_davies7019's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, Blood, Infidelity, Animal death, Murder, and Injury/injury detail

Moderate: Vomit, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, and Gore

Minor: Sexual content and Confinement

hannahwhiteyy's review against another edition

hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This was a good first book to the series, but didn’t stand well on its own. The pacing and flow was spotty at times, yet faster in others. Yet overall, the plot was intriguing and I empathised with a lot of the characters.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Injury/injury detail, Death, and Violence

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Suicide attempt, Cannibalism, and Torture

supernova7's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

I was wandering the library and stumbled on this book series. The premise was compelling: triplet queens with supernatural powers who need to fight each other to win the crown. I am so glad I did. This was fast paced and easy to read, which gave my overworked brain a needed break. I am impressed with the world building of this author; I believe that there are different cultures on this island and the characters react to and live within these cultures. I am engrossed in the folklore and history of the island and I want to learn more. The worse part of this book is the inclusion of a love triangle. That part felt forced, predictable, and frustrating, to be honest. It made me care a lot less about two of the characters. I’ll say this book ended well too, and I am excited to go back to the library to get the rest of the series. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse

rosenau's review against another edition

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Gore, Murder, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Injury/injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Gaslighting, Death, Abandonment, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, and Vomit

gardevoird's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Vomit and Animal death

Minor: Sexual content

bookishgoob's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

this book was a beautiful fantasy that wasn’t incredibly confusing in the world building. the perspectives of each place and how they train up their queens was so interesting to see. i’m so glad i started this series

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Excrement, Emotional abuse, Injury/injury detail, Physical abuse, Torture, and Violence

emily_mh's review against another edition

slow-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

3.0

A sentence that sums up how I feel about this book is: I'm glad I didn't buy it, but I am interested in what happens next. The best part about the book was its premise of three queens vying for the throne, and there was some good world-building surrounding this. Everything else was a bit meh. I didn't like the omniscient narration style, or that it was done in present tense. I think it was the reason behind the poor characterisation of literally every character (but ESPECIALLY Katharine's. Her POVs were... so bland). There was just no internal world for any of them. I was expecting big reactions from the sisters meeting for the first time in ten years, but it was literally "oh there's my sister on her platform" or "oh my sister's talking to me in this forest" which was incredibly disappointing. Flat characters also meant that all the romances fell flat. It was very insta-love. And on top of the characters being meh, the plot had no direction beyond the fact that Beltane was gonna happen in a couple of months. Literally nothing of consequence happened between the beginning and that point. And you'd expect with the whole book leading up to the Quickening, that event would have some impact. But it was over in 10 pages tops. On the whole I was just expecting a lot more from this book. What partially saved it was the unique world-building and the fact that I wasn't dreading picking it back up when I put it down - it was actually somewhat enjoyable and definitely easy to read. That's enough to make me pick up the sequel!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Violence, Death, Child death, Gore, Body horror, Murder, Injury/injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Infidelity, Animal death, and Vomit

Minor: Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Ableism, Excrement, Confinement, Sexual content, and Eating disorder

claragweny's review against another edition

dark medium-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

3.0

An interesting, though poorly described, world and a very compelling ending. I'll probably continue reading the series but I hope that Blake builds the world around them some more in the other books. 

I can't really recommend reading this without going through all the content warnings. It is very triggering in many, many ways.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, and Vomit

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Child death, Infidelity, War, and Sexual content

soswiin's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

2.0

i tried so hard to like this book. you have no idea. 

the pacing of this was just so odd. some points of the plot sped past in a blur while other parts were painful to get through because of how slow they were. the setting of this wasn't...bad, i just wish blake put more effort into developing the world that the three queens live in. 

maybe i was just rushing through this to get it over with, but a few key points of this novel just didn't make much sense. it was only around midway that i realized katharine, mirabelle, and arisnoe were brought up by different families, hence my confusion about who characters like natalia and jules were. 

i'm glad romance wasn't the selling point of the book because 90% of the lovey-dovey moments just had me cringing.

the entirety of katharine's introduction was NOT necessary. please read up on the trigger warnings for this book PRIOR to reading, because being hit with body shaming and vomiting in the first few chapters was not a fun experience. 

i will say though, i liked how morally grey all the characters are. that's...about it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Vomit, Body horror, Violence, Animal death, Infidelity, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Eating disorder and Body shaming