Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb

62 reviews

mazzreads86's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Abandonment

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, Infertility, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

gabrieldorian's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

• 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Infertility, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

reddeddy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Chronic illness, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Infertility, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Colonisation, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cursing, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Excrement, Vomit, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and War

beautifulpaxielreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense slow-paced

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

4.5

This may be one of the best fantasy novels I have ever read, and yet I can understand why others have had difficulty with it.

The pace is very, very slow, there is a lot of descriptive language and exposition to wade through, and even then, there isn't a whole lot of plot to be found, at least not at first. All these things considered, I can easily see why someone might get frustrated and give up.

But I found Assassin's Apprentice to be an absorbing, riveting, and immersive read - just what a good fantasy should be.

It also delivers in spades when it comes to political intrigue, which I also very much enjoy reading. The story is told from the POV of Fitz, who for

the first half of the book isn't even given a proper name

, and this was such a masterful move on Hobb's part.  You see him as he

grows from a child into a young man

. He's very observant of people and he has a

strong affinity for animals

. His keen observational skills (and at times judgmental behaviour) could make him unlikeable, but Hobb takes care to show us the other sides of him - his compassion, his kindness, his curiosity, and his thirst for knowledge all made me care about him and root for him as a character.

The other characters are well-developed too (even the villainous ones[

well, mostly</spoiler]), depicted as complex, flawed human beings, with many shades of grey.

The plotting was overall excellent, although did find the ending

rather rushed and not well-explained

, but I am willing to overlook that because of how much I enjoyed the rest of it.

4.5 stars from me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Eating disorder, Blood, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Xenophobia, and War

bookishgoblin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

lizziaha's review against another edition

slow-paced

3.75

I’m putting my faith in the idea that this book is laying a very strong foundation for the 15 other books. Unfortunately, Fitz is a very lonely child, so the story only really picked up for me in the last quarter of the book, when he began establishing and using his relationships with others. This book has a very straightforward style of writing, which occasionally read as telling instead of showing. It’s a complex book with a lot of moving parts, and you have to explain them sometime, but it did result in somewhat dense chunks of text sometimes. I wasn’t sure at the beginning but I’m definitely curious to see where this goes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Eating disorder, Infertility, Infidelity, Rape, and Death of parent

grimdark_dad's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

niknakreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

If you've not read any Robin Hobb, please start soon because you are missing out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Death of parent

Minor: Child death, Physical abuse, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

brynalexa's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Adorable and cruel magic system. Heart wrenching. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Blood, Grief, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Medical trauma, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Rape

zombie_loves_books's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

5.0

I finally started reading this series with a group and what a great start to a series! I ate this book up. The beginning was a little slow but necessary. I loved learning about the world through the eyes and growth of a child. It made finding out about the culture and ways of the world feel natural and not forced. Once I got to the last quarter I couldn't not put it down. There where moments where I couldn't breath it was a such roller-coaster.

Sorry to the group but I can't wait to start the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Emotional abuse and Death of parent

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Infertility, and Suicide attempt