Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

El Rey Marcado by Leigh Bardugo

37 reviews

emily_mh's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

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

4.5

I went into this book fully expecting it to be completely centred around Nikolai and for him to be the star of the show, but this was definitely not the case in a surprisingly good way. Instead, the female characters absolutely SHONE in this book and completely stole the show. They were just incredible. It was a joy to read from Nina's perspective again, but it was actually Zoya who I fell in love with. She's had such an incredible character arc over the course of the Grishaverse and that was really revealed and expanded upon in this book. She's such a bad ass and doing a much better job of being the main character than Nikolai is. 

Being back in the Grishaverse was a delight, but so was reading Bardugo's writing again. It is wonderfully descriptive, and her plot development here is truly on another level in comparison to Shadow and Bone and Six of Crows. I really enjoyed seeing her expand her world-building, and she REALLY knows how to write incredible endings.

I docked a half-star for two reasons. The first is that I felt extremely disconnected from Nikolai, to the point where (shockingly, given he was one of my favourite characters in Shadow and Bone), I was dreading his POV chapters. The second is that for the first half of this book the plot felt a little directionless in that I didn't really know what the book was going to be about until like 250 pages in.

Also, the return of the Darkling kind of feels like a cheap enemy and I'm worried about how it's going to impact my enjoyment of Rule of Wolves.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and War

Minor: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Excrement, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Alcohol

luluslittlelibrary's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

3.5

I really liked this book more than I expected. The beginning is painfully slow, so it was hard to get into, but once things started moving at a faster pace, I was hooked. I loved getting to read Zoya and Nikolai's POVs for the first time. They both have very clear "voices" so it was super engaging to read from their perspectives. I would have also been interested in getting a POV from Genya or David as well in this book. 

I LOVE Nina's storyline. For me, I was a lot more interested in what was going on with her in Fjerda than I was with the others in Ravka. I'm not going to give any spoilers but I would recommend this to anyone interested in reading more about Nina and what she's doing as a Ravkan spy in Fjerda.

And then there's the sequel. I definitely liked Rule of Wolves more than King of Scars so I would recommend reading it even if you didn't love King of Scars (I think it is much better). Once again I love everything that happens with Nina (and Hanne!). And I think the connection between Zoya and Juris is very interesting. I'm not big on the storyline surrounding the darkling, I think it was interesting but maybe didn't belong in this book (?). Also, the ending is SO GOOD.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

citymouse's review against another edition

3.0

Nina deserves to have her own series and her story entwined with Nikolai makes quite literally no sense. The book was good, but I would have preferred to see them as individual books rather than alternating between stories many lands apart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use

Moderate: Child abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, and Abortion

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Infertility, Medical content, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt

betweentheshelves's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-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

3.5

Not my favorite Grishaverse novel (that still goes to Crooked Kingdom), but I like seeing what's happening with some of the characters after that! I'll admit, there's definitely a cliffhanger here and I've heard that Rule of Wolves is even better. My library copy needs to get in now so I can read it!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Violence, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, and Miscarriage

gothicmoon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

revisiting nikolai and zoya in their own stories, by a much more experienced author... i am overwhelmed. i loved the main characters of this story. recurring characters such as adrik, leoni, and the rest of the triumvirate remain weak and rather unmemorable as side characters.

not five stars because nina's story doesn't really connect with nikolai and zoya's. it just feels like two books smashed together, and even though i was interested in both, the cuts were annoying. i didn't want to put nikolai's story down nor nina's once i got back into it, but together they were disconnected. it doesn't help that nikolai's story branches into two later and the three stories just get in each other's way. 

nina is bi

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Murder

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Drug use, Hate crime, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicide, Vomit, Trafficking, Grief, and Pregnancy

valyn_grebe's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny hopeful mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Gun violence, and Grief

Minor: Animal death, Child abuse, Miscarriage, Sexism, Slavery, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy

emmagrace's review against another edition

adventurous tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Slavery, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Miscarriage, Xenophobia, and Religious bigotry