Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Dcera kostí a dýmu by Laini Taylor

25 reviews

sophieamreacher's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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

4.0

I enjoyed the first half more than the second half. Fun premise and sad storytelling, imaginative. Pacing was a bit strange towards the end. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

rachel_jones03's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War

biobeetle's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Toxic friendship and Abandonment

frawst_disasta_reads's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I absolutely loved this book.  By which I mean I devoured the book.  

Laini built a gorgeous and unique world, where you both want to love in it and are just slightly terrified by it.  How could she write this without stepping into the world?

My only complaint is that I felt the organization of the book just didn’t quite work for me.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Blood

kiwij96's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-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

4.75

This was a super easy read: well-paced chapters and full of plot points that all eventually come full circle at the end. Engaging plot in that sense, especially when the twists come in.

Not super in love with the idea that Karou was potentially being groomed by Kaz as it mentions in the beginning that they had been a couple for a while before their break-up and he is now 20 while she is 17. I also felt super uncomfortable with the Akiva and Karou romance plot too given the age gap there too.

I was also worried at one point that he was her dad.

However, the plot all comes together at the end and boy did it.

My only other gripe is Chapter 22. It felt massively out of place and I had to reread the chapters either side of it to figure out how it fitted in with it all. Felt like an afterthought but misplaced in the sequencing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Gore, Slavery, and Grief

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Islamophobia, Stalking, and Sexual harassment

savvyrosereads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.5

If you’ve spoken to me in the last couple weeks, you’ve probably heard me screaming about how much I love this series! I think it’s an absolute CRIME more people aren’t talking about it. I also had the absolute best time buddy reading these with my fave feral five (sorry for imploding the buddy read when I just couldn’t stop reading, whoops).

Mini reviews for each book are below, but the main takeaway: READ THESE BOOKS!

Daughter of Smoke and Bone (4.5 stars): The world building was incredible and the characters pulled me in! Also the ending absolutely BROKE ME into a million pieces.

Days of Blood and Starlight (5 stars): Possibly a hot take but this was my favorite of the series! I absolutely loved it, start to finish, and literally could not put it down.

Dreams of Gods and Monsters (4 stars): An amazing conclusion to an incredible trilogy! It wasn’t my favorite ending and I could probably nitpick a lot of things, but overall SO emotional and captivating!

Night of Cakes and Puppets (5 stars): An absolute DELIGHT of a novella spotlighting Zuzana and Mik, who might be two of my all time favorite secondary characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide and Murder

Minor: Sexual harassment

cosy_armchair_reader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-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? No

4.75

A tremendous book. So well written. It was honestly magical. Laini Taylor took her time to write this book and the result displays the incredible penmanship and effort she put into this story.
It is such a mysterious tale which really drew me in and made me want to stay.
The only complaint I have, which really isn't that much of a complaint and more of a personal preference, is that when we take a look back on Akiva and Madrigal's memories it feels very slow and slightly dreary and I would rather get back to the action that had been carved so wondrously in the previous chapter.
I loved the element of magic, love and wishes. And hope.
 So beautiful. Top marks for Laini Taylor.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Blood, and War

Minor: Abandonment

jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful mysterious 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? No

4.0

I love this series already with all my heart and cannot wait to read the rest. Karou and her skills are unmatched and her relationships with zuzana and discovery of Akira are amazing.  

I truly didn’t see the twists and turns coming and was sat with my jaw dropped to say the least.  Dived into the next one already 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Blood, Grief, Abandonment, and War

moonchild_cos's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Genocide, Torture, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Sexual content, Medical content, and Trafficking

scarlett_f's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Sexual content, Toxic friendship, and War