Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie

21 reviews

bookbelle5_17's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense 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

5.0

Review of The Last Argument of Kings

By: Joe Abercrombie

In this final installment in the First Law trilogy, our characters find themselves at war with the Gurkish.  Each of our characters are in places they never thought they would be and having to make difficult decisions.

This is a great finale that just pulls no punches as so many surprises and twists and turns happen throughout the story.  Jezal dan Luther has had the most character growth and finds himself in a leadership position that forces him to be selfless rather than self-centered.  I felt bad for him a lot throughout this book, because he is struggling and feels so alone.  Logen also finds himself in a leadership position and has accepted that he has a dark side.  My suspicions, are confirmed about Bayaz being an antagonist.  This goes in a direction of having a bunch of secondary antagonists and revealing one major antagonist later.  I like how this shows a hierarchy of enemies and there’s not always one bad guy.  This also reflects how everyone has their own definition of righteousness. In the real world, things aren’t black and white and there are no true villains or heroes We do finally get an appearance of Bethod, but I wish he had more page time and we got more of his side of the story.  Of course, Bethod is just a secondary villain and just villain they have to take care of to get to main villain.  .  This story has no heroes, just people trying to do good, and villains, who feel like they are doing what is best for running things.  Abercrombie continues to describes things in graphic detail, like the scenes where Glokta is torturing people for information, or the brutal battles between characters.  I love how the trilogy continues to show how there is a solution, but not always one you will be completely happy with.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Cursing, Torture, Death, Violence, and War

tmidge22's review against another edition

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Cannibalism, Torture, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Excrement, Body horror, Physical abuse, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: War and Alcoholism

catsy2022's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• 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

4.5

Rating: A

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Blood, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Slavery, War, Murder, Sexism, and Torture

Moderate: Alcoholism, Vomit, and Xenophobia

Minor: Excrement, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

marthadude's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Body horror, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexism, Slavery, Vomit, War, Addiction, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Cannibalism, Child death, Classism, Chronic illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, and Violence

The book is filled with violence and war. There is some slight lesbophobia at the end,

throughout the book, Queen Terez rebuffs Jezal's advances despite their royal marriage. At first, the implication is that she merely looks down on him due to his status as a bastard. However, it is later revealed that she is in a relationship with her handmaiden/childhood friend. Glotka imprisons her lover and blackmails her into producing 4 heirs for the king before she is released. While I don't think Glotka is a lesbophobic character, this scene is extremely unsettling.

btrz7's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, War, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Violence

coulro's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Toxic friendship, Cursing, Excrement, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Pregnancy, Torture, Vomit, War, Grief, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Violence

ioana00's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Physical abuse, War, Body horror, Blood, Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Torture, Violence, Slavery, and Vomit

jw03's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Medical trauma, Death, Violence, Blood, and Gore

avscarlett's review

adventurous dark emotional funny tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Torture, Gore, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, War, and Murder

Minor: Sexual content, Pregnancy, Terminal illness, and Alcohol

podanotherjessi's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• 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

4.0

I have such complicated feelings about this book and ahve been sitting on rating it for hours because I just don't know how to sum up what I think. Abercrombie continues to struggle with giving his women agency in this book. There were some absolutely horrific moments that elicited the emotions they were surely meant to elicit but I struggle with whether they were necessary or not. But my lord, there is some absolutely FANTASTIC character work in this. But also sometimes I was incredibly bored by the plot.
And since this is the final book in the trilogy, I need to mention that the ending was... well complicated. It had some amazing moments, but it sometimes dragged on and some of it felt very unneeded.

Characters: 9
Plot: 7
Setting: 7
General appeal: 8
Writing style: 8
Originality: 9
Ending: 6

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Blood, Cannibalism, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, and Violence