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cnannery19's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and War
hayleythegoose's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child abuse, Rape, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Cannibalism and Suicide attempt
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.25
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Pedophilia, Torture, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, and Alcohol
zaynascz's review against another edition
- 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
I think Bardugo perfectly balanced the morals of the characters and the idea that the more power Alina had, the more blurry her morals became.
For example, in book 1 (shadow and bone) we’re introduced to Alina, the main character, and her best friend mal. Alina works as a cartographer for the first army and mal is a talented tracker. After the incident in the fold Alina is found to be a very powerful type of Grisha called the sun summoner. Throughout the book we see Alina wishing her power away just to be back with mal in the first army again; and when the darkling, Alinas only match and the leader of the second army, is looking for something to amplify Alinas power, she ends up agreeing to it. She soon finds out that the darkling is doing it for the wrong reasons and runs away. Eventually she finds the stag from the help of mal but hesitates to kill it, from this we can see Alina has a strong moral compass at this point in the trilogy.
However, this heavily contrasts the end of book three when she finds out mal, her boyfriend at this point, is the third amplifier. Without much hesitation at all, certainly not as much hesitation as she had with Morozova’s stag, she puts a knife through him. She didn’t want to do it but eventually her greed for power took over, as we can see from the quote
“I would never know if it was greed or selfishness that moved my hand”.
We can also see that Alina is slowly turning into the darkling throughout the entirety of the trilogy, and if she would’ve kept the power of all three amplifiers and lived eternally, she definitely would’ve.
Another thing i loved about this trilogy is the way Bardugo portrayed the darkling, a morally grey character who’s heart is in the right place, but goes about it the wrong way. For example, throughout the series we start to see the reasons for why the darkling has done what he’s done, like taking control of Alina through the stags collar in order to enter and control the fold. At first, we’re completely against the darkling and what he’s doing but as the trilogy unravels we start to discover more and more of the Darkling’s character and with that, his reasons. It all started out as building a safe place for Grisha to live in peace, without the fear of others ; but then he got greedy. He started wanting more for Ravka, but he went about it the complete wrong way. He tried to invoke fear, and in that he did, but it only hurt Ravka in the end. His greed and hunger for power kept growing and although i will say he lost sight of his morals centuries ago, i wont say that he lost track of his end goal completely. He wanted a safe place for Ravka, and he wanted to do it using the fold. Right reason, terrible execution. I completely believe that if Alina would’ve lived as Long as Aleksander, she would’ve been just as bad, if not worse. Without her friends to ground her, especially Mal, Nikolai and Genya, she Would’ve lost track already.
Anyway Stan Nikolai he’s the loml 🤭🤭 and this book was so sad oml
Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
Minor: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
prettynerdy3's review against another edition
- 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
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
anielabooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body shaming, Gun violence, Rape, Suicide, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Bullying, Incest, and Infidelity
bookswstella's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
In like the end of Siege and storms I started to wondering whether if I wanted Alina to end up with Mal or Nikolai, and that thought followed me through Ruin and Rising too!
My favorite character from R&R is definitely Misha!! I adore the the small little moments when Mal is With Misha, especially when Misha is curled up against Mal! Those moments make me like Mal more!
I think all three of these books had pretty long boring parts, like in my opinion the book was kinda only thrilling when it was ”war”. Those boring parts was what didn’t give the triology the ”Wow-feeling”.
But I love the moments where the darkling shows himself vulnerable because that makes him more human which I like.
And I also love that you get to know his real name!
Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Slavery, Grief, and Abandonment
rosaschaos's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
kaetheluise_nckl's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and War
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment
classicism, victim blaming, discrimination, persecution for witchcraft, PTSD, self-sacrifice, sickness, scars, explosion, knife violence, physical assault and poisoning captivity, blackmail, hostage situation, exile and banishmentlimiwh's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment