Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo

206 reviews

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.

claire_not_rebecca's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Blood, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, and Classism

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

emotape's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Slavery, and Trafficking

Minor: Ableism and Sexual violence

samigeo122's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Torture, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Ableism, Gun violence, and Racism

mckiheather's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, Murder, Cultural appropriation, and Injury/Injury detail

melincholyssa's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Classism, and Deportation

eemi42's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.75

Reading Six of Crows is a somewhat similar experience to reading Dune in that there is a lot of vocab and world building to get used to, but it's worth it to stick with it.

The characters are loveable

and I like rooting for the couples that formed—Kaz and Inej, Jesper and Wylan, and especially Nina and Jesper.

Also, I found the Grisha vs. Fjerdan conflict very compelling and relevant.

It took me quite some time to get used to the world,

but things really pick up in the final 25%. Things would appear to go wrong and I'd get very stressed, only for it to be revealed that it was part of the plan all along. (Inej getting detained at the gate). There are many loose ends that make me want to acquire and read the second book immediately

I thought the constant switching of perspective would get annoying, but it was masterfully done and didn't detract from the story—only added to it.

Can't wait to read Crooked Kingdom!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Death, Genocide, Racism, Blood, Vomit, and Murder

Minor: Sexual assault, Trafficking, Sexual harassment, and War

veggiestrawenjoyer13's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.5

I was wary of starting this series because I wasn’t sure if I’d like it, but I do! The start was a little slow for me, but then it got better as the plot started advancing. I ADORE all the main characters/crows and I’m super excited to read the second book. The worldbuilding can be confusing if you haven’t read shadow and bone (like me) but you understand it after a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, and Blood

Minor: Ableism, Child death, and Sexual harassment

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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: Ableism, Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail