lizcastner's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Violence, Cursing, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Injury/injury detail, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Death, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, and Grief
Moderate: Racism, Torture, and Mental illness
Minor: Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Suicide attempt, Rape, Panic attacks/disorders, Addiction, Cancer, Police brutality, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Child death, Drug use, Slavery, Alcohol, Drug abuse, and Sexual assault
carolynkwolff's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Violence, Murder, Animal death, Drug use, Gore, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Death, Death of parent, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Rape, Animal cruelty, and Slavery
Minor: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Vomit
kimmag92's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Vomit, Blood, Grief, Violence, Animal death, Gore, Injury/injury detail, and Murder
kimschouwenaar's review against another edition
- 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
a little dubious about some turns the story took, but in the end there is nothing — NOTHING — I would want to see done differently. this was such a treat and is one of my new all-time-faves.
Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Misogyny, Addiction, and Slavery
Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Vomit
cady_sass's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
2.5
The entirety of this novel is about Darlington, which, as I said in my review of Ninth House, we don’t know nearly enough about nor did we spend enough time with him in the first book to actually care about him. Everything else about the world they built falls away and the only thing that matters is finding Darlington and bringing him home, and the hell that comes along with it (pun intended). To that point, it’s completely nonsensical and out of character for any of these characters to care about Darlington too, except for Pam who is by far the best part of the whole book. Tucker has no reason to join them in their endeavors. The friend (I literally already forget his name) has no reason to risk his life here. ALEX has no real reason here either- they make a point, over and over again, to tell us how she feels nothing and everything she does is self serving. NONSENSE, all of it.
I get that this might do it for some people but for me it’s a let down. I’m sorry, I just don’t care about Darlington. Give me more secret society shady dealings and unsanctioned rituals and detective work and leave the hell portals at home.
Graphic: Sexism, Death of parent, Murder, Death, Animal cruelty, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Vomit, Abandonment, Body horror, Classism, Kidnapping, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/injury detail, Medical content, and Misogyny
megannoelle's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Violence, Addiction, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Injury/injury detail, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Blood, Cursing, Grief, Murder, Sexual content, Animal death, Death, Vomit, Body horror, Death of parent, and Drug abuse
kaycie51782's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The characters are very well written, multi dimensional, believable. The book is long, but doesn't feel unnecessarily so. It's well paced. You can feel the heat of Hell coming off the pages and smell the sulfur. You really feel like a part of the action.
I am eagerly awaiting book 3.
Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/injury detail, Body horror, Racism, Violence, Mental illness, Death, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Addiction, Animal death, Drug abuse, Vomit, Drug use, and Murder
martinatan's review against another edition
- 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
ok ok some thoughts that ran through my head, but not a cohesive review because I will always be too insane and biased about her writing to write something balanced:
- she strikes again with the calculated development of
Spoiler
unconventional and intense romance! i swear that she makes an art of slipping in well-placed sentences that convey barely restrained emotional tension. I feel like similar to Kaz and Inej in the Crows duology, Alex and Darlington have such a specific set of neuroses that make them tragically terrible for each other but maybe even worse if they were to be paired with anyone else or left alone. Their dynamic is heartbreakingly good with a little sexual tension as a treat.- Also I am enjoying this crew becoming
Spoiler
more monstrous, as their world becomes increasingly hellish. There’s something inherently queer and found family-ish about a bunch of university age adults coming together over murder and blood magic. don’t @ me.- She did a great job of introducing antagonists into the story and slowly revealing and resolving conflicts throughout. This is something that was done well in the first book and I was pleasantly surprised that it was still so satisfying and fresh in this one.
- I was similarly worried about attempting to replicate the mixed timeline format from the first book but it was just as effective, just made me wary at first because the opening to this series was such an immediate draw for me and to see it attempted again felt like she was setting myself up for disappointment. but it did NOT disappoint.
- I was also anticipating more backstory and development for characters introduced in the first book. This met my expectations and I found their histories to be really compelling, if not admirable or enviable.
Spoiler
I was so delighted by snippets of Dawes and Turner POVs, and I really hoped Dawes would become a more central perspective. This didn’t quite happen but I see a lot of room for that in the next book.- The book deals with issues of race and exploitation in an okay way.
Spoiler
I think Turner’s story was important to tell, and his actions in the moment of his flashback made the most sense for a “sympathetic cop” character to me, but all the same, his decision to not leave the force even after this traumatic moment in his career feels maybe disingenuous to me? I wish there had been more follow up about how this moment affected him afterwards. In fact, his emotionlessness being sort of explained away as a defense mechanism or a technique he developed for professional settings does not bode well for me. A Black character, by a white author, written to have no emotions? In the face of an extremely painful and fucked up line of work that sees the death of a lot of Black people? I’m sure Bardugo did her best to deal with it, but I assume it’s near impossible to do justice to Turner’s storyline in her position. Still processing this.I could say more but I’m done ranting for now. This book truly thrilled me and I was happy to delve into this world again.
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Blood, Injury/injury detail, Police brutality, Body horror, Drug use, Hate crime, Misogyny, Murder, Violence, and Vomit
Minor: Classism, Confinement, Addiction, Alcohol, Cursing, Drug use, Sexism, Slavery, Stalking, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Self harm
bookwitch_92's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Suicide, Vomit, Sexual violence, Injury/injury detail, Grief, Violence, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Murder, and Gore
Moderate: Blood, Death, Animal death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, and Cursing
booksandteatime's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Racism, Rape, Self harm, Vomit, Gore, Blood, Death, Animal death, Addiction, and Suicide attempt