Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Assassin's Blade by Sarah J. Maas

24 reviews

tea_cup1236's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense fast-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? It's complicated

4.75

I loved Sam Courtland so much, that is all I have to say.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, and Slavery

Moderate: Alcohol, Torture, Violence, and Trafficking

Minor: Vomit and Kidnapping

Gets pretty graphic towards the end.

britwalsh16'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
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Gahhh!!! Sooo good!!! 
Now I’m glad I waited to read this one after reading books 1 & 2, so I know who Celaena is now, & then reading this book gave me more of an insight into why she is the way she is. And I just love it! I love her!  Amazing!!! 
But also, a part of me wishes I started with this book, because falling in love with Sam & his character, knowing that by the end he is going to die, is pure torture! It just made finishing the book so much harder! & yes I cried when he died even knowing ahead of time it was going to happen!
And Arobynn, I never liked him, and always had an inkling he was the one that betrayed Celaena, but to actually meet him, & get to know him, gah! He’s despicable! He might actually be worse then the King of Adarlan! Keyword, might. We’ll have to see what happens as the rest of the books play out. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Confinement, Cursing, Gore, Kidnapping, Torture, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Physical abuse, Violence, Toxic relationship, Murder, Stalking, Death, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Slavery, War, and Vomit

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Death of parent and Fire/Fire injury

amanda_reads13's review against another edition

emotional sad tense fast-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

4.0

A collection of novellas following Celaena's journey leading up her being thrown in Endovier. 

I really enjoyed this collection of novellas and seeing the journey that Celaena took before Throne of Glass. I really liked how the novellas didn't jump all over the place, but together they created a linear and cohesive story. I read this after Crown of Midnight and I am really glad I did. I felt that I had a bit of a stronger connection to the characters having read the first 2 books in the series.

Calaena is blind when it comes to Arobynn. It was pretty obvious to readers what was going on behind the scenes with Arobynn and his sketchy behaviour. Calaena was too blinded by their past to even fathom that he could be responsible for setting her up. I wanted to scream at her through the pages. 

I loved Sam. I am really sad that we lost his character before the series really even began. 

I am hoping that at some point in the series this all loops back and we get to see Calaena get her revenge on Arobynn for what he did to her and Sam. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, and Torture

cait's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Physical abuse, Gore, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Trafficking, Blood, Slavery, Stalking, Violence, Vomit, Abandonment, Child abuse, and Torture

wavephase's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Body horror, Grief, Death, Blood, Kidnapping, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence, Torture, and Vomit

Minor: War, Slavery, and Trafficking

ashleynp24's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

4.5

I really enjoyed that it was cut up into smaller stories with subplots with so many different characters. I’m really excited to see how they play into the series later. 

I knew Sam died because I read Throne of Glass first, but the death was still so sad it had me sobbing. I didn’t expect her to get betrayed like that with him being the bait. It ruined me. I’m interested to see her relationship with Arobynn later because of it.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Gaslighting, Torture, Stalking, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Blood, Slavery, Physical abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Death, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Violence, and Murder

chlo_po's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

I read this book after Heir of Fire and before Queen of Shadows which felt right. It set so much context for the coming storyline and also made me feel the love and pain of Celeana’s experience on a whole other level. Loved the novellas!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Kidnapping, Violence, and Slavery

readwithria's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

The Assassin’s Blade was both exactly what I expected and not at all what I expected. 

I have read the other books in the series before, so I knew going in that there would be stories about specific people, and I had a general idea of how they would end. What I wasn’t expecting was to be so annoyed by Celaena.

She is such a bad friend and romantic partner, and I realize that part of the issue is that she’s 17 years old but part of the issue is that she hates so strongly that it’s hard to see another side to her. She’s mean, and heartless, and I really didn’t believe her relationship with Sam was as deep as she makes it out to be in Throne of Glass and Crown of Midnight. I don’t believe that he could love her so strongly when she’s so terrible to him.

Beside that, this book makes Celaena’s lack of female friendships really obvious. It’s one of the things I don’t love about SJM’s writing - where are the friends?? 

Anyway, now onto the things I did enjoy. I really liked who Celaena was in the second and third stories. I think they offered growth for her that the other stories didn’t. I also liked seeing more of Rifthold and the training process. Even with knowing how the book had to end, the tension was built quite well and kept me reading the last 20-30 pages when I had previously been tempted to skim.

Is this book necessary? No. Would I recommend it? If you really enjoy TOG and COM then this is very similar in content and writing style. But if you didn’t enjoy those books, I would personally skip this one. 3 stars.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Blood

Moderate: Kidnapping, Murder, and Violence

Minor: Sexual content and Sexism

teardropsonmypaperback's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Grief, Death, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, and Vomit

kjci's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.75

I enjoyed the individual novellas in this book. I'm excited to see how this story progresses. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Alcohol, Blood, Confinement, Physical abuse, Gore, Violence, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Abandonment, Death, Domestic abuse, and Death of parent