Reviews with content warning for Death - A Venom Dark and Sweet

Reviews tagging 'Death'

A Venom Dark and Sweet by Judy I. Lin

51 reviews

gatorademachinegun's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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? N/A

5.0

Holy shit what a ride. Amazing read, the switch from 1st person to 3rd when changing character perspectives is something I’ve never read before but Judy I Lin, does it so well.

Absolutely loved this book, the characters are so real and the medium to fast pace kept me on the edge of my seat.

10/10 stunning cover, stunning contents

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allisonbrooke's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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yaoipaddle's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

I did not like this as much as the first book. Sorry! Minor spoilers in review, major ones hidden.

It had a very similar problem to the first book where the beginning and middle drag on and the end is SUPER fast paced and action packed.

For characters, I found Ning to be less likeable than in the first book. Maybe because she feels very repetitive and single minded in everything she does here. She also has a lot of rage that comes quite suddenly and remains for a lot of the book. I just didn't like her as much because of it. The very frequent moments where she was pining after Kang also annoyed me.

I also found this concept of her wanting to give in to the serpent's demands for power just shoehorned in for "tension"

What I did like was the magic and the growth of her powers. I think Lin did a wonderful job creating the magic system in the first book and it does not disappoint in the second either. I think the ways in which it was expanded were nice.

Shu was a lot more likeable than I thought

But she is basically thrown off and not mentioned in the last parts of the book. Very lame!

and Zhen and Ruyi were great too. I wish there was more of them.

I liked the chapters from Kang's point of view especially by the middle. They kept me reading despite the lull in Ning's storyline. The mystery in them was quite interesting even though some of the parts felt like they were forgotten by the end of the story. :/

Overall I felt let down by the book because the pacing was always either too slow or too rushed. It made the story a drag to read through and I forced myself to push through the middle.

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kou_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad 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

3.5

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ch3m15t's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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whewtaewoon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A

4.5

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pikitat's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes

3.0

It was alright. I didn't enjoy it quite as much as the first book and the conclusion of the story felt a little rushed and anticlimactic to me. It wasn't a very satisfying end to the story. Although,

I thought the part where Lady An pulled the centipede from Ning's arm was an amazing reveal. I enjoyed the Bamboo Forest, too.

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mattiedancer's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

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

3.75

Writing: 3.5⭐️/5

I’m torn on this one. Some of the passages were beautifully crafted, little snippets of perfectly crafted prose. Then, at other times, the writing (and grammar) was jilted and murky, their disjointedness making it hard to follow the simplest of moments. Lin also has a tendency to use sentence fragments and, while that can add to certain scenes, it often read more like a mistake, and less like an intentional choice. This jarringness really marred the otherwise lovely writing. So, if you’re picking up this novel, expect both fine and poor prose to appear.

Characters: 4.5⭐️/5

The characters were the highlight of the novel, along with several poetic passages that I thoroughly enjoyed. Like the first novel in this series, the characters were loveable and believable, helping to keep me engaged when the plot and writing were pulling me out of the story.

Plot: 3.75⭐️/5

The second half of the plot was infinitely stronger than the first portion of the book. While the first book ended with a great amount of tension and intrigue, the second book felt like it was actively working to slow down the momentum of the plot. It became a bit of a chore to read through the first 150 or so pages, but once the story got going it was an easy read.

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