Reviews tagging 'Gore'

Sharp Ends by Joe Abercrombie

4 reviews

da3m0nic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Blood, Violence, Cursing, Alcohol, Grief, Toxic friendship, War, Gore, and Sexual content

Moderate: Mental illness, Misogyny, and Stalking

surdiablo's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense 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

3.0

These stories possess Abercrombie's signature charm and are entertaining, but for the most part, they are pointless. Some of these stories are deleted scenes that offer further insight into things we already know, while others start and end rather abruptly, just when you are getting invested. Some introduce new characters that are featured in multiple stories, which I was ambivalent about. Only a few stories offer a glimpse of what's to come in the next trilogy, which I can't say for sure without reading them. I enjoyed it overall, especially the last story, but I wouldn't say it's a must-read collection. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Cursing, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Kidnapping

josiah17's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

3.5

This collection of short stories was nothing spectacular. But it was nice to see some familiar faces at earlier points in their lives, as well as new ones with new povs and entertaining interactions as Abercrombie always manages to write. There were also some bits of world exploration which I found intriguing. I'd love to visit more locations in the Circle of the World. Hopefully that happens in Age of Madness.

My favorite stories were "A Beautiful Bastard", "Made a Monster", "Two's Company", "Hell", and "The Fool Jobs".

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gore

Moderate: Cursing

Minor: Sexual content

bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny tense fast-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? Yes

3.5

Reading this so soon after binging the entire preceding First Law series via audiobook meant that all the stories and characters within were familiar, made sense, and a lot of rip-roaring fun. As with most short story collections, some of them are excellent and others less so. Some aren’t really short stories so much as companion pieces or extra behind the scenes stuff that don’t really make sense or resonate without the reader being familiar with the original source.

Shev and Javre are wonderful and I really hope we see them again in other books, though time is pressing on them a bit by the end of The Age of Madness so not sure how feasible this is!

‘Two’s Company’ is God tier. The end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Alcohol, Murder, Violence, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Vomit, War, Death, Drug use, and Gore

Moderate: Kidnapping and Lesbophobia

Minor: Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Animal death

The usual Joe Abercrombie fare so expect a lot of swearing, sex, booze and violence etc. At one point, one of the main recurring characters—who is a lesbian—is addressed with the slur

gash-licker

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