Reviews tagging 'Animal cruelty'

The Bone Shard Daughter by Andrea Stewart

27 reviews

chelseanaylor's review

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No

3.75

3.75 ⭐

This book was a little slow and I was interested enough to finish it, but it wasn't until the last few chapters that I decided I wanted to continue the story. 

I really enjoyed the way this story is propelled by themes of power, personal Identity and responsibility, and justice (and all the grey areas these themes create). The switching POVs are a little rough because the story feels fragmented and it took a loooong time to feel connected to any of the characters. In particular, I could have done without Ranami or Phalue's stories, as they didn't do much to the overall plot, except, when the time came, to propel another character's development. Maybe they'll have a more interesting role in the second book. 

Aside from the pacing, the premise of the story is fascinating, though the plot twists were a little overt and lacking nuance for me, it's still an interesting world Stewart built; I hope book 2 has more action and a little less internal monologues about the respective characters woes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Colonisation, Death, and Trafficking

Minor: Animal cruelty

thenexthing's review

adventurous 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Animal cruelty, Blood, Classism, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Slavery, Violence, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Confinement, and Emotional abuse

srm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

Well written with an interesting premise and worldbuilding that I don't want to say too much about, because it was great to discover as I read. Although, I'm seriously worried by ship is dead in the water, darn it. But maybe not. As twisty as this is, it could still happen. *fingers crossed* 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Confinement, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, and Animal cruelty

thoseoldcrows23's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

4.0

 I really enjoyed this! I will say it feels like a first book. I can tell that Stewart has some big ideas for the story, and a lot of this book's time is spent trying to hurriedly get piece into place. As a result, the pacing is a little off, and some of the relationship dynamics between characters feel rushed; however, Stewarts writing is super engaging, the world/magic is cool and unique, and the story is playing with some of my favorite tropes. I think there's room for this series to be something really special, and I'm looking forward to continuing. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Grief, Blood, Confinement, Child death, War, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Gore and Body horror

I'm not sure how to label it (I went ahead and tagged gore and body horror, but that's not exactly it), but the magic system here is bone magic so there's a lot of death-adjacent stuff going on with that. I didn't find it to be particularly graphic or icky, but you know...it's bone magic.

alexijai98's review

adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.25

Love a story where LGBT characters get to just be part of the world!! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Child death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, and Gore

Moderate: Xenophobia

alexalily's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Death, Slavery, Xenophobia, Murder, Physical abuse, Trafficking, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Stalking, Gaslighting, Torture, Child abuse, and Medical content

alphabetseeds's review

dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

3.5

 I'm wavering between a 3 and a 4. This is a good debut - juggling so many POVs can be a challenge. It had a slow start, and because my life was pretty busy, it didn't immediately grab my attention. I was around 1/3 of the way in when I started getting into the groove of the story and became more invested in the various characters and their story arcs. However, the climaxes of each story arc felt a little... rushed? Things happened neatly, for lack of a better term (though people who have read know that there's no bloodless rebellion).

I'm intrigued by the "smaller" mysteries of

construct island

and 

what the heck is Mephi

and 

who even is Jovis, anyway

but the larger mystery of the ancient, long-dead race whose ruins are everywhere perhaps reawakening... that has my attention.

I think what brings this down closer to a 3 for me is that 

is everyone a flipping construct

Because that just raises more questions, and currently, it feels a little like 

the Cylon problem in Battlestar Galactica

. But I'm hoping that things will become clearer and stronger as the trilogy continues. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Murder

Minor: Blood

hapalyn's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Death, Death of parent, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Kidnapping, Murder, and Physical abuse

alt05's review

adventurous emotional funny mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

This was a reread because I wanted to start the 2nd book, and it was as fun and interesting as the 1st time I read it! Andrea Stewart has built a world like none I have ever read before. The magic system, the characters, the plot, are all inventive and unique. The plot is fast and picks the reader up quickly. The twist and turns come at perfect moments in the plot. The characters are complex, funny, intelligent, and occupy both protagonist and antagonist roles. Sometimes, the differing POV leaves some plot holes, but nothing that interferes with the integrity of the story. Overall, couldn't put this book down the 1st and 2nd time! I loved it and can't wait to start the 2nd! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Colonisation, and Classism

kaziaroo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

On the whole I loved this – the characters, the magic system, the mystery were all amazing (plus a queer-normative world!). I would have liked it if the setting was more fleshed out, maybe going more into the cultures of the different islands rather than them all feeling the same, but overall the story was immersive enough and the characters lovable enough to look past that. I loved Jovis and Mephi in particular, and I liked Lin too; there's always a difficulty in amnesiac characters as they have such a short background on which to build a personality and identity, but I think the author did an admirable job. 

I wanted to see more of Bayan, alas... :(

My only real criticism is that I felt the book would have been better without Ranami and Phalue's POV chapters. Their story had an interesting message and moral dilemma but it just didn't seem to fit and their chapters were quite dull to get through compared to the rest of the book. As a novella on their own, those chapters would have been fine, but I found myself skim-reading them to get back to Jovis, Lin and even Sand. Maybe more will come of Ranami and Phalue in the sequel, but I just couldn't get behind their relationship or find the point of their storyline or its impact of the overall plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Trafficking, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Violence, Death, Gaslighting, Body horror, and Medical content

Moderate: Physical abuse, Racism, Animal cruelty, Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Kidnapping, and Mental illness

Minor: War