moonchild_88's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
5.0
Spoilers and trigger warning for basically everything.
All these years later, I still teared up at the red wedding. It's such a devastating scene. I heard George wrote the whole book, and then went back and wrote Catelyn's last chapter. It makes sense. It is gut wrenching.
My god I love the women in this story. Catelyn, Sansa, Arya, Deanerys, Brienne and Olenna. Their povs are my favourites, Olenna doesn't have one but she is still the best. I also absolutely love Jaimie's. He is such a fascinating character. He is a subversion of a stereotype. Blonde, skilled, rich and powerful. He is your typical jock. You expect him to be a fuckboy, an egotistical abuser. But then you're confronted with the reality, he has only ever been with Cersei, he loves and is protective of Tyrion. He is also riddled with guilt over the death of Aerys, and feels no pride in having saved an entire city. He has PTSD and he copes with it by dissociating. He is such a hurt individual, I can't help to empathize with him. And yet, he has also done terrible things, like pushing Bran out of the tower. George writes such complex and compelling characters.
This is a really long book, and yet it felt shorter than A clash of kings. It had so many impactful moments. Like the red wedding, obviously. But also the purple wedding, the trial by combat, Deanerys and the unsullied, etc. I think though, that by far my favourite moment in this book is Jamie's and Brienne's conversation in the bath. "The heart at conflict with itself". It really makes for the most compelling stories.
This was at times a really hard book to read. The violence has escalated and things have also become a lot more graphic. It's more gorey than the first two books. I grimaced several times. The sexual violence has also escalated. The things that Rorge said to Arya chilled me. Knowing that it's real, those things happen. What a nightmare. Also Tyrion being a violent mysogynist. No only was he actually attracted to Sansa, an 11 year old. He also killed Shae, an 18 year old sex worker. He also had a man killed for writing a song. He is such a dark character, there might be some light in him, but I think he is headed down a really dark path.
I also struggled reading Davos' chapters. I really like him as a character, I just find the Stannis plot line boring.
This is the first book I reread fully as an audiobook, and, my god, why? I don't want to completely discount Roy Detrice because he has some genuinely great moments, specially when it comes to excentric male characters. But, Jesus Christ, what he did with Missandei was an actual crime. I think this books would benefit of a full cast audiobook, because there are genuinely so many characters. I mean, I think there is something like 2000 named characters. I don't know how many have dialogue but it's no doubt a lot. The female characters specially suffered, as did the children.
As of right now I think that this is my favourite book in the series. I just want George to stop writing about sex, thank you.
All these years later, I still teared up at the red wedding. It's such a devastating scene. I heard George wrote the whole book, and then went back and wrote Catelyn's last chapter. It makes sense. It is gut wrenching.
My god I love the women in this story. Catelyn, Sansa, Arya, Deanerys, Brienne and Olenna. Their povs are my favourites, Olenna doesn't have one but she is still the best. I also absolutely love Jaimie's. He is such a fascinating character. He is a subversion of a stereotype. Blonde, skilled, rich and powerful. He is your typical jock. You expect him to be a fuckboy, an egotistical abuser. But then you're confronted with the reality, he has only ever been with Cersei, he loves and is protective of Tyrion. He is also riddled with guilt over the death of Aerys, and feels no pride in having saved an entire city. He has PTSD and he copes with it by dissociating. He is such a hurt individual, I can't help to empathize with him. And yet, he has also done terrible things, like pushing Bran out of the tower. George writes such complex and compelling characters.
This is a really long book, and yet it felt shorter than A clash of kings. It had so many impactful moments. Like the red wedding, obviously. But also the purple wedding, the trial by combat, Deanerys and the unsullied, etc. I think though, that by far my favourite moment in this book is Jamie's and Brienne's conversation in the bath. "The heart at conflict with itself". It really makes for the most compelling stories.
This was at times a really hard book to read. The violence has escalated and things have also become a lot more graphic. It's more gorey than the first two books. I grimaced several times. The sexual violence has also escalated. The things that Rorge said to Arya chilled me. Knowing that it's real, those things happen. What a nightmare. Also Tyrion being a violent mysogynist. No only was he actually attracted to Sansa, an 11 year old. He also killed Shae, an 18 year old sex worker. He also had a man killed for writing a song. He is such a dark character, there might be some light in him, but I think he is headed down a really dark path.
I also struggled reading Davos' chapters. I really like him as a character, I just find the Stannis plot line boring.
This is the first book I reread fully as an audiobook, and, my god, why? I don't want to completely discount Roy Detrice because he has some genuinely great moments, specially when it comes to excentric male characters. But, Jesus Christ, what he did with Missandei was an actual crime. I think this books would benefit of a full cast audiobook, because there are genuinely so many characters. I mean, I think there is something like 2000 named characters. I don't know how many have dialogue but it's no doubt a lot. The female characters specially suffered, as did the children.
As of right now I think that this is my favourite book in the series. I just want George to stop writing about sex, thank you.
mdzreynolds's review against another edition
4.0
George really loves to spend all his time in the weeds and dance quickly over the mountains. Spend some time on the climatic moments, GR! Seems blasphemous to say, but the show did the shocking moments so much better.
daphne_k's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kyde00's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
slow-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
vas_tsakona's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
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
julyan's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-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? Yes
4.25