Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Language of Thorns: Midnight Tales and Dangerous Magic by Leigh Bardugo

24 reviews

cephalopodbot's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Violence, Torture, Murder, and Misogyny

casthefanby's review

dark emotional reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Gore, and Violence

Moderate: Toxic relationship

Minor: Cannibalism, Animal cruelty, and Alcohol

icy_queen's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Death, Blood, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Sexual assault, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Alcoholism, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, War, Bullying, Classism, Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, and Child death

wrinnola's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Blood, Confinement, Child death, Violence, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, Murder, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Classism, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Self harm, Body horror, and Bullying

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, and Addiction

jaye_birde's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

My favorite book of original and retold fairytales! Gorgeous artwork and stories that will haunt me for quite some time. Appropriate for High school or older readers 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Child death, Animal death, Body horror, Gaslighting, Cannibalism, Blood, Murder, and Bullying

magdie's review against another edition

dark emotional lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

5.0

THE ILLUSTRATIONS PROGRESS ALONGSIDE THE STORY!!!! But in all honesty, I just loved it! I practically inhaled it in one afternoon after struggling to get through few pages of 3 different books the previous weeks. The genre just hit right ig. It's very whimsical but dark (it can get REALLY dark) and you can easily see the inspiration in popular fairytales, but it's not a retelling per se. They felt just right, enough fairytaleness, poetics and morals yet quite realistic characters. I also loved the tidbit easter eggs and references to other grishaverse books.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Classism, Bullying, and Abandonment

Minor: Incest, War, Trafficking, Miscarriage, and Pedophilia

peggy_racham's review against another edition

4.5

Six childrens stories that the grishaverse characters probably grew up hearing. They were all unique, interesting and diferent even when taking inspiration from some of our stories. 
(TWs are mostly of page and mention only, but these are stories similar to grimm original)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, Child death, Death of parent, Infidelity, and Murder

infjkiki's review

dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Pedophilia, Cannibalism, Murder, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Blood

apalershadeofwhite's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I had already read three of the tales in this collection after binge-reading the Shadow and Bone series: Little Knife, The Too-Clever Fox, and The Witch of Duva. Therefore, I already knew I was going to enjoy this book and I was right and then some! Bardugo is great at grabbing you from the very start of anything she writes. A lot of books aim to interest a reader through the first chapter or even the first page, but no one grabs your attention from the first line like Leigh Bardugo does. She is so good at what she does. She tells these amazingly intricate and insanely creative stories in a way that is so gripping and attention-grabbing, but also in a way that just hits you completely. These stories have morals that are quite common in fables and fairy tales, etc., but she writes them in a way like no other.

I think The Soldier Prince might not only be my favourite story in this entire collection (which is a big feat considering all of these tales are stunningly written), it may also be one of my favourite beings of writing of all time. I felt myself getting to emotional reading it, which I think was down to my emotional attachment with the story of the nutcracker more than anything else, but it was still an insanely good tale. I felt so nostalgic and happy reading this that I found my cheeks feeling warm and my eyes having a slight sting at the back of them. I grew up loving the tales of the nutcracker, from movies to the soundtrack to watching the ballet when I was a little older. The story was both on the surface - via content and visuals - beautiful but it was also stunning linguistically. Overall, it was just an indescribable experience to read it.

I also adored the last tale, When the Water Sang Fire (which we can all agree is a badass title). It was odd that it was chosen to be the final story because it was the longest of all of the short stories, and you often seen the tales get a little shorter towards the end of a collection. This took nothing away from the reading experience, though, and I thoroughly enjoyed this entire book and struggled to put it down when I needed to do other things and actually be a contributing adult in society lol. I will definitely be coming back to this book and rereading it, probably multiple times. The entire collection was just written so stunningly and it was so evocative. I love it. Completely.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Death, Violence, and Murder

oceanic_rabbit's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional relaxing sad fast-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

This is a vivid, creative compilation of short stories fashioned to be like those we would read as children. Some of the influences of classics are present and visble but this makes the new twists and turns of these adaptations into their own entirely original ideas.

It is beautiful in an almost haunting way, and illustrated clearly and cleverly with often monotone palates with occasional contrasts.

Definitely a book I will revisit for a quick read, or just to look at the pictures. Very happy to have this in my collection.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder and War