Reviews

This book was actually so fun to read. I enjoyed every second of it (except the last like 3 chapters)
Nina still remains my favourite grishaverse character. I loved how she tried to overcome Mathias. She is badassary. I loved her journey in fjerda.
Now let's talk Zoya and Nikolai. Even though the books title is king of scars i felt that Zoya was more of a main character (i was not disappointed by this i love her). We got both of their backstorys and it was devestating. I love Zoyalai tho its honestly so amazing.
I adored the new characters. Leoni (her backstory!!!!) Isaak (my 2nd favourite charcter in this book) and Hanne obviusly
And we also got genya and david whitch was so fun i love them
I hate the apparat and the darkling

ablotial's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.5

Here's another book I got on Audible a few years ago and finally got around to listening to. It was through their recommendation system as similar to other books that I liked. This one was alright. The setup took a long time and it definitely had that "angsty young adult" feel ... which I knew it was marketed as YA but some YA books feel that way moreso than others. During this book, I didn't love the characters, the story was kind of slow... it didn't feel like the sort of fantasies that I love. Not only that but I wasn't impressed by the narrator of the audio book. It felt like she was reading, a bit stiff.. and it was clear that some of the reading was a first pass for her, the voicing was wrong more often than I like (sounding excited and then reading "she said sadly" or whatever... or using the wrong character's voice for a section). I was also frustrated at times because of a lack of explanation about the world and magic ("it's not magic, it's the small science!" ... what?) system that I felt was needed, not realizing that there were other books set in this world. So even though this is a "first book of the series", some people are already familiar with Grisha and this world.

The last 20% of the book won me over though. Finally the setup was complete and the heroes traveled into "the fold" to attempt to free the king from his curse and save the world. And of course, just as the book gets good, the story ends and leaves me ... if not exactly on a cliffhanger, with some developments that made me want to know more. Some characters were introduced near the end that I wanted to follow and know more about. I learned there is only one more book in this particular story, and it's not too long, so I got that from Audible and started listening immediately. I'll leave my real review of this whole double-book series for that section... but I am almost done with the second book and I like it much more than this one. So I'll leave this off by saying, if you have a lukewarm reaction to much of this book but are intrigued by the ending ... keep going. It's worth it. (at least, so far)

smateer73's review against another edition

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4.0

This book was good. It took me a while to really get into it at first, with the new characters and perspectives, but once i got into the second half, it flew. The characters come alive with all the depth Leigh Bardugo always brings to the table.

trin's review

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4.0

This book is meandering, oddly paced, confusing at times if you haven't read every book in both prior series. I still enjoyed the heck out of it.

I'm a reader who came to the Grishaverse through Six of Crows, and was subsequently very disappointed in the disparity in quality between those books and the original Grisha Trilogy. King of Scars is playing much more in the original trilogy's space, with far more of those books' characters -- but I think Bardugo must have really grown a lot as an author, because as they're presented here, I kind of love everyone in this bar? Nikolai is precisely the kind of trash prince I always fall for; Zoya is a badass whose strength is portrayed three-dimensionally; Nina, as I already knew, is an absolute queen. Despite its flaws, I liked this book so much I may actually go back and force myself through the second and third volumes of the Grisha Trilogy, which I previously gave up on.

...Maybe. It's significantly more likely than before, anyway.

But I certainly can't wait to see where this new series goes next.

oscarreads's review against another edition

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3.0

3.5/5

caroline_czyta's review

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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