Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

131 reviews

evelynnnn33333's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Torture, Blood, and Trafficking

Minor: Confinement, Sexual content, and Grief

glund_01's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, and Abandonment

garrettcz's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted 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

5.0

I wish there was more in this series because I couldn’t possibly get enough of these characters. 

I didn’t super love the Shadow and Bone trilogy but this duology is incredible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Murder, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ailiaris25's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, and Murder

madalina0_0's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Torture, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, and Death of parent

Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, Slavery, Medical content, Medical trauma, Stalking, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

arobear's review against another edition

adventurous 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

5.0

I haven't stopped thinking about this book yet. It's going to be all I talk about for a while... Characters are immaculate, I cried multiple times for just about everyone. The struggles they go through are real and visceral, which makes the sweet moments that much sweeter. Every twist hit me like a train, but none of it felt overdone. 10/10, already started a re-read with the audiobook. Love and light to all my baby crows <3 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Child abuse, Death, Violence, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

Minor: Sexual assault, Xenophobia, and Classism

nineinchnails's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

this was such a strong read and a great follow up to six of crows!! i think having a

major character death

spoiled for me years ago might have slightly ruined my reading experience since it felt like i waiting most of the book for that event to come to pass, but it's equally likely experiencing that blind could have also ruined my experience. i am not really one to nitpick with YA when

everyone lives/nobody dies

because it's too unrealistic unless it gets taken too far so if it was an adult fantasy i might have appreciated it more. that being said, it was written well and didn't feel out of place or as if it was purely for shock value - i loved this book overall, so it's a very small gripe i have with CK.

i love that the romance is a subplot but for one of the relationships specifically it did end up a little vague - that doesn't bother me since i didn't read this for the romance but just a disclaimer for anyone expecting typical romance-style HEAs for everyone! the characters did start to feel a little caricatural after a while but it didn't help that i read both books one after another whilst watching the show adaptation and i found it pretty endearing if anything. it isn't often that a series offers so much representation without giving me the impression they were written to tick off a box and i am genuinely sad it's the end of these characters (outside of nina + some cameos in KoS/RoW) for now :(

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gun violence, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, Stalking, and Death of parent

Post traumatic stress disorder, Loss of appetite, Starvation, and Prostitution/sex work

queensplay's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny tense 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Abandonment

david_slack110507's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

I had an awful reading slump whilst reading this book and I feel like that may have affected my rating for this book (Even though I am giving it 5 stars, it is more of a just about 4.5 stars because of the reading slump and the reading slump only type of situation) but even with that I still majorly enjoyed this and my reading experience cemented the Grishaverse series and particularly the Six of Crows duology as some of my favourite series of books. If I had been more consistent with reading I would have liked Crooked Kingdom even more than I already do. 

I absolutely love the Crows and their dynamics with one another. It expanded on them even more from Six of Crows, particularly with the relationships of Kaz and Inej, Jesper and Wylan, Jesper and Kaz, Nina and Inej etc. It was so fun seeing all of the characters continue to flourish and to expand upon their already established relationships as well as build new ones and it was one of the main things that kept me coming back even with my reading slump in full force. I liked the endings we got for our Crows as they felt both satisfying and open-ended enough to allow for a sequel or for them to show up in other stories like Nina in the King of Scars duology. 

The plot, while I don't think I loved it as much as the Ice Court heist, was still very interesting and was not what I expected going off of the ending of Six of Crows and where this book started off as the plot twists felt cleverly planned out and implemented without feeling like they were done to simply progress the story lazily. The last part of the book - Part 6: Action & Echo - was extremely interesting and one of my favourite parts of the boom because the chaos flowed very nicely to make it an unpredictable, fun, and memorable reading experience. Matthias' death was unexpected and while it wasn't extremely emotional for me as Matthias is one of my lesser favourite Crows (though I do still really like him as a character), it was still effectively done and I'm interested in seeing how this will affect Nina's story going into King of Scars. 

Overall, I really liked this book and while I do feel like reading this through a reading slump affected my opinion on the book, though to no fault of the book, I think it was very successful and met my expectations on how to end this duology yet left it in an interesting place to open up into another book to make it a trilogy, which I would not be totally against. I'm most likely going to continue on with my Grishaverse binge and read Nikolai's duology with Zoya and Nina, King of Scars, next as well as hopefully soon rewatch season 1 of Shadow and Bone as well as finally watch season 2 for the first time as I've been waiting until I finished this book as I have been unsure whether or not they included elements of this and Six of Crows into season 2 or not.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Ableism, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Vomit, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Classism