Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

50 reviews

snowiceblackfruit77's review against another edition

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

4.75

I loved this book so much

I didn’t like at first that Alina lost her power, but it was necessary.

I love this trilogy and the characters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and War

undecidedpersonality's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Gore, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, and Classism

Minor: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Medical content, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

cristina_reading24's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, and Torture

emilywemily6's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

I’m conflicted about this rating because I feel like the reading experience was so much more fun for this book because there were twists and turns at every chapter and I could not put this book down- BUT- some of the things that happened to Nikolai and Mal and even a little bit of Alina bothered me at the end of the book. There were some tropes and cop outs that made the ending tie up too nicely, especially with how much build up there was to the climax of the final battle. I still love how much nuance the Darkling has. And while I liked Mal better in this book than the last, I am team Nikolai all the way!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Emotional abuse, Violence, Blood, Religious bigotry, Murder, and War

Moderate: Racism, Sexual content, Medical content, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Fire/Fire injury

memorykey2's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I liked this better than Siege and Storm, but not by much as the two books have blended together in my mind. I appreciate where she was going with this and how she was trying to convey the stress and anxiety of the plot, but I was lost throughout the book. I will say that I did actually like the ending, so that gains some bonus points from me.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Confinement, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, and War

as610's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and War

k_winchester's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.25

I certainly did not expect things to go how they did in this one!! I will say, I feel like I overall didn't enjoy this one *as much as* the second one - a good portion of the felt little a bit of slog to get through, and I struggled to keep my attention on it. 

And I did feel like the final battle somehow was too... I hesitate to say "simple", because it wasn't exactly, but maybe it just wasn't quite long enough to have that really earned punch-in-the-gut?? It kind of was more like, "Oh... oh man, it's over." That's it. And given how intertwined Alina and The Darkling have been up to this story, it was a bit surprising how separated they ended up feeling in the end, despite all the parallels, connections, and Alina learning more about who he once was. 

That being said, the parts that were engaging were awesome and threw me for some loops. I did not see a few of the twists coming, I certainly did not see ANY part of Nikolai's story coming, and I really wasn't sure how Alina was going to end up in the end...!! I pretty much couldn't stop reading the last quarter because I needed to know how on earth it would end! 

Leigh always has gorgeous writing regardless, and I *did* enjoy this. I honestly was expecting a much more tragic ending the way things were trending through this book, so I was really relieved to see it end more bittersweet. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

casdelvo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Body horror, Confinement, and War

Minor: Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

louise_french_rider's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Well like the second book I had a hard time getting into it, only around 200 pages it started to be interesting. Yet there’s a good end, I can’t say I loved this trilogy, I don’t even like it, it’s just readable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Gun violence, Sexual content, and Murder

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

1.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Pedophilia, Torture, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol