Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Graceling by Kristin Cashore

21 reviews

caseymac's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful tense medium-paced

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

3.75

Low fantasy, romance

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Pedophilia, Torture, Kidnapping, and Abandonment

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Violence, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Incest, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Vomit, Grief, Alcohol, and War

Animal attack. Near drowning.

cepbreed's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

I will be honest I had low expectations and this book met them. It’s standard YA fantasy so how can I complain when I picked this up fully knowing what it was! A redeeming moment though happened when we learn

Po was blinded in his failed assassination plot on King Leck. It was a great twist to go along with his grace that continued to develop throughout the story.

Speaking of graces the power system in its entirety could be more clear. There are hardly any ground rules and powers vary so drastically it’s confusing. Maybe it’s meant to be convoluted? The book is too long yet some core scenes were lacking in detail while minor unimportant ones were fleshed out in pages. I have a neurosis about series though so I will be finishing it to satisfy my self.

Song: 

• Don’t Blame Me - Taylor Swift 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Minor: Sexual content and War

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

Moderate: Ableism, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Vomit, Grief, Outing, and Sexual harassment

battybookworm's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring 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

This book! Rereading this was a delight, I think Katsa was a big deal for me when I read this as a teen. Now reading her character feels nostalgic and familiar. I can’t wait to continue with this series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Blood, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, and Death of parent

sonambuorion's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping

Minor: Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Torture

zngzag's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Kidnapping

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

booksthatburn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.0

This is a YA novel with an aspec protagonist (my best guess is she'd say demi if that language were available) who ends up in a relationship with someone who meets her on her terms rather than demanding she meet his. It's nice to see an aspec character whose aro/ace nature isn't overwritten or ignored in order to give her a relationship, how she is is part of how they are together.

It's about loneliness, abuse, and healing, including abuse to children and animals, so please be aware that those are major themes in the book. 

The world building is solid, with enough detail to make later revelations feel important. The explanations feel natural, occurring as something happens or Katsa thinks of some detail. This makes it feel like the world is slowly being revealed even though early on it's not new to the protagonist. I like Po, he had a difficult set of things to balance and overall I like how he is with Katsa. His situation towards the end skirts some potentially problematic ableist tropes but manages to not make it seem like his late-acquired disability is what gives him greater control of his powers. YMMV on whether this works, I think it does because of the precise order of events.

Overall I like this a lot and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content

therobinjoyce's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

This book was absolutely fantastic. I loved the characters, the world, the Graces, the intrigue, the adventure, the heartache, the romance. 

I adored the storytelling and pacing and the way the author described everything. The writing style is just perfect. The plot was very sound for a YA novel and I adored the relationships Katsa had with all of the supporting cast (Po, Raffin, Oll, Giddon, Bitterblue). It was wonderful to read a fantasy YA novel where the Main storyline is not romantic but the romantic element is powerful and swoon-worthy.

I really enjoyed Katsa’s character and the personal growth she goes through though I will not lie, I am mainly here for the Po supremacy. 

This book has so many feels and I’m still reeling from it. I cannot wait to get started on the next book in the trilogy, Fire, and see this fantastic world grow even more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

Minor: Child abuse

readingrat's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

One of my all-time favourit YA romantasy

+ creative and not overdone idea
+ fast paced page-turner
+ worldbuildig so basic, even my squirrel brain could keep up without going back to the map everytime a place was mentioned
+ no cliffhanger & no need to binge the whole series
+ finally a loveable and nice loveinterest in a YA book 🥳 No "He is a walking red flag but I don't care bacause he's hot"
+ romance was there but not too much

- infodumping in the beginning
- ShE iS nOt LiKe OtHeR gIrLs 
- protagonist is a little too overpowered. She can do nearly everything. Yes, I know, it's because of her Grace, but it still leads to:
- ridiculously fast resolving of every problem
- Plottwists can be seen from space (but it's extremely satisfying, if your predictions turn out to be true)
- style of writing is a little inconsistent. Some sentences don't make sense, but it's not to bad for a debut novel
- kind of insta-love? Not love at first sight, you can see the feelings and relationship develop. But it's way too early to suddenly talk about love 

=> Undeniable fan-fiction & Mary Sue elements, but I enjoyed every minute of it

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Violence, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Torture, and Kidnapping