Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Winterkeep by Kristin Cashore

17 reviews

saltydough's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I've been reading the Graceling books since I was young, and I really enjoyed finding myself back in that world again. Kristin Cashore is undeniably a very good writer and creates carefully thought-through plots with lots of focus on the characters' thoughts and feelings. That being said, this is not my favorite or hers, which could also be down to the fact that I'm no longer within the target age range. I felt that the multiple POVs didn't work very well because she Cashore didn't change her writing style, or the character's thoughts, enough for each one to be distinctive. In such a character-focused story, switching from one to the other is almost counter-productive because we never stay in anyone's head long enough to feel truly connected to their POV. I was also a bit disappointed by Giddon and Bitterblue's romance. Though I think those characters do have chemistry when they're on the page together, it was annoying that when they were apart, every other sentence would be about how Bitterblue would've loved this or Giddin would've done that, and so on. I get that Cashore was trying to create that pining, but it just didn't work for me.

I do think this is a really fun and entertaining book, though, and I appreciated the allegory about climate change. Would recommend!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Drug use

elle_dee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

darth_twain's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.5

If you are a fan of other YA fantasy novels, then you will enjoy the story of this book. Be aware of adult content that is not appropriate for young readers. I enjoyed the story but will be throwing the book away before I have children of my own who could stumble across this book and read adult content slipped into a YA story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Sexual content, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

harrownova's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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: Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

etosaurus's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence

Minor: Animal death and Sexual assault

nyssbomb's review against another edition

adventurous 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 cruelty, Animal death, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Violence, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Blood, and Grief

ajparmentier's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I loved this book so much! I read it all in one go. Cashore has done it again. The beginning like 30 pages or so were a little more inelegantly a worldbuilding dump than usual, but afterwards the worldbuilding was a lot more organic as Cashore built up this whole new world. All of the POV characters were so interesting and dynamic. Cashore further explores themes of power, love, sex, abuse, and recovery. It's such a pleasure to see these themes deepened and different aspects of them examined in each of the books.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Violence, and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Sexual assault:

Very scene where a boy threatens to have sex with a girl against her will. She just doesn't want to have sex in that location and basically argues with the boy and the move locations. The boy doesn't appear much later in the story.

Suicide:

Mentions of suicide and allusions to a character considering suicide and not caring about their life are made. No suicides occur.

Abuse via starvation and neglect. Animal cruelty:

None of the named/significant animals die or intentionally cruelly injured. It's "faceless" ocean animals. One of the main animal characters gets injured and another is in a (mostly emotionally) abusive situation. But doesn't get, like, hit or anything.