Reviews with content warning for Death - Water

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Water by Holly Black

27 reviews

seralina's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious relaxing medium-paced

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

3.75

I really love the world building and Kaye, the main character. Everyone else within this book was questionable, like for example I feel like Kyes relationship with Roiben is weird. It feels as though there was no tension or chemistry between the two of them. They never really had any deep conversations, and their attraction to each other felt weak. Corny gave me the ick. I know the fae enchant the humans to make them more subservient and enthralled with the fae, but even before any of that, Corny had a disturbingly gross fascination and obsession with the fae. He gave me the ick in a way that a creepy old man leering at me would. And although I do quite like Kaye, her sense of intuition and her judge of character is literally the worst I have ever seen in my entire life. Like, not one of the people in the book other than Kaye herself is someone I would consider a decent human being that I would be willing to spend any amount of time with. Literally everyone is sketchy, over-all weird, or rude. And I mean EVERYONE. But I truly love this world and I love the cruel prince trilogy, which is why I picked this up. The political intrigue was also lacking, whereas in the cruel prince is was marvelously scrumptious. The reason I say the diversity of the characters is complicated is because well, a lot of the characters aren't human. For the character's that were set in the human world, I can't really remember if they were diverse because I read 60% of this book then stopped reading it for a few months and then picked it back up and finished it. So all the introductions of the human characters had already occurred and I could barely recall much about them.

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natashalg's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

While I loved the last half of the book, the beginning was kind of dull. I also felt like the ending was rushed and the characters were not fully explored.

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e_neu's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

Holly Black writes wonderful pieces and this is no different. This book dives into fantasy worlds, wonderful and interesting characters, and a plot that was great from the very first page. It and the following books can be read as a stand alone and if you read or would like to read the Cruel Prince, it gives a lot of input on some of the bellowed characters.

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bookishfoxes's review against another edition

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dark medium-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

I have to say I'm very disappointed. I went into this thinking I would love it. There was no doubt about it, it felt like a fact. Roses are usually red, my cat is a lovable idiot, and I will like Holly Black's books. Sadly, this was not the case.

I could've known this was a possibility. While I absolutely adored the folk of the air series (minus the lost sister novella, yikes that one) and enjoyed the first book on the middle grade series Black has written with Cassandra Clare, I was also deeply disappointed with the Spiderwick Chronicles. But I just thought it would be a one time thing - 2 if you count the TFOTA novella.

As soon as I started this book, I disliked the main character. And, ok, she got a tiny bit better by the end. But honestly? I didn't care for anyone but Roiben. I kept on reading because I am not about to DNF a Holly Black book.

And, yeah, it took a long time for me to get into it, but eventually I did a bit. Because even though it felt rushed and downright sloppy, Black's writing is still pretty addictive. And as I said before, I did quite like Roiben. I think if it wasn't for him this would've been two stars.

At the end, I don't know how to feel about this. I wouldn't put it on any recommendations posts. But I don't hate it as much anymore as I did the first 100-ish pages.

As for the rest of the series? Who knows. Since I was so sure I'd love this, I had already bought the sequel. Maybe I'll give it a chance some day so my money was at least worth something. But maybe once I started reading other books, this will slip from my mind and I'll never find myself interested to dive into this series again.

I'm glad that this was released in, what, early 00s? Because I very much enjoying TFOTA and that shows that Holly Black's writing has improved a lot since then, meaning I won't be scared off from her recent books.

I'm hoping to read the TFOTA spin off series this year, or at least the first one, because now I've read 2 books by this author and both are rated badly.

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rory18's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

3.75

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phena223's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing 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

4.0

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sop17hie's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense 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? No

3.0

I didn't remember a lot of these characters from the Cruel Prince series, and that was a good thing because it would have spoilt it.

Slow going at first with depressing teenage life.

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hullomoon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark fast-paced

3.75

I haven't read the book since I was in high school and it held up better then I expected. The plot was engaging and I appreciated how the main characters have depth and aren't one-note instantly lovable people

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ceruleanshelves's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny 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

4.5

“If curiosity killed the cat, it was satisfaction that brought it back.”

the unseelie court makes the greenbriar family look downright laidback.

You can break a thing, but you cannot always guide it afterward into the shape you want.

written about 10 years before the folk of the air, i can definitely see holly black's growth as a writer. though i like tfota more, i still really enjoyed tithe! more of a contemporary urban fantasy setting (a major portion is in human side of new jersey lol) there was more brutality to this one imo bc of the faeries proximity to humans and the general nature of the unseelie court.

“Just so you know, I trust you.”
“You shouldn’t,” he said automatically. Nevertheless, he found himself no longer wanting to punish her for her faith in him. Instead, he found himself wanting to be worthy of it. He wanted to be the knight he had once been. Just for a moment.

as always, i love holly's protagonist kaye and the tortured knight lord roiben rath rye (say that three times fast). i also really enjoy corny and can't wait to see what happens next with his character 👀

“Kiss my ass, Rath Roiben Rye.”

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creatureof_nature's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? No

4.0

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