Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo

339 reviews

justamy's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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: Child abuse, Death, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Rape, Torture, and Death of parent

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

sierraclimbs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense slow-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

3.75

Unfortunately didn’t enjoy this one as much as the first. Something about it did not resonate the same way. 
I read Six of Crows thinking this duology was a prequel to The Shadow & Bone Trilogy, but in Crooked Kingdom I found myself confused about characters being brought up as if I should know who they are. Upon asking a friend, they informed me those were characters from the trilogy… that’s when I googled it & discovered that it is a sequel duology, not a prequel. 
I also found a lot of the story telling to be heavy handed in this book. There was an attempt to shove a bunch of backstory for characters by having them tell you a story about a memory wherein the character also had a dream in which there is a story. It really took me out of the actual plot of this book. 
The overarching plot was actually interesting. But with all these backstory side quests I found myself loosing interest & not picking the book back up for long periods of time. 
I do overall recommend this series. But I think you’d be just fine reading only the first in the duology. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Torture, Forced institutionalization, and Blood

the child death is a fake out, but the description is pretty disturbing

lanid's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Gun violence, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Gore, Slavery, and Torture

amypalmer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.25

I think this is the best grishaverse book, I feel like it slightly exceeded six of crows as the character development was a lot more rich. There are many sad moments.  

The crows are all lovable in their own way. I particularly looked forward to Nina, Jester, Matthias, and Inej's chapters. Though Kaz and Wylan are great I much preferred the others. Though towards the end all of the crows have some truly jaw dropping moments.

I did have a few minor issues with the book - I did slightly feel that the crows get fumbled too many times and none of their plans seem to ever really go to plan. That was however till the final section (the last 100 pages) where everything starts to come together. 

I wonder if the crows appear in the second duopoly as some of their plot points still feel unfinished. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic

rookbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense

2.25

Yeah...no.

At least now I know to avoid this author.


(Inej is, and always will be, the only good appreciable character in this book)


/ Ouais... non.

Au moins maintenant je sais qu'il faut éviter cet auteur.


(Inej est, et sera toujours, le seul bon personnage appréciable de ce livre)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

The bromance was probably what officially ruined it for me.

oxfordcommas91's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

A satisfying conclusion to the Grishaverse and the Six of Crows duology!
A super fun, fast paced, keep you on the edge of your seat type read. I love complicated heroes and morally ambiguous characters, so this series really worked for me. You never knew what hairbrained scheme Kaz was going to come up with next, and the deepening and changing of the relationships between the characters made this book somehow even better than the first. While long, this book was definitely a page turner for me - compelling and very well written. This duology was a real win for me and goes to show that you don't need a super long series to write a detailed and complex story. Kaz and his crew will live rent free in my brain for quite some time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic

strawberrytheauthor's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad 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

This book is SO GOOD! I can’t believe I didn’t read it before now! I laughed and cried and screamed and that’s all you need to know. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Racism, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Slavery, Fire/Fire injury, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Ableism and Sexual content

franklloydweft's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

Copied from fable:
I only give 5 stars to things that send chills down my spine and give me quotes I’ll be thinking about for a long time, and this one definitely did that. Such a fantastic conclusion for all of these characters, all of whom you grow to love over the course of the two books. I always thought I knew where things were going but I was proven wrong every time. Made me laugh, tear up a bit, and pump my fists. I even had a huge spoiler figured out from reading material about other Grishaverse novels and the reveal still hit me! Cannot recommend reading this duology enough (especially if you liked the crows in the Netflix show, they’re on a whole new level in literary form)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Death

Moderate: Sexual violence, Torture, Xenophobia, Trafficking, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Eating disorder

MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH

boop_2's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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: Gun violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Rape

annikenr'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Drug abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Torture, Grief, and Pregnancy