Reviews tagging 'Deadnaming'

The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon

99 reviews

simplyammee's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-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: Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Infertility, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Deadnaming, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Blood, and Gaslighting

Check the tw!! The deadnaming & misgendering in this book are done very compassionately

abarnakwn_ourcolourfulpages's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Outing, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Sexual content

buttermellow's review

adventurous reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Infertility, Physical abuse, Violence, Sexual harassment, and Colonisation

Minor: Deadnaming and Death

demawenda's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted 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

3.75

Przez pół książki sądziłam, że ta recenzja nie będzie zbyt pochlebna... Książka zdecydowanie skierowana do młodszego niż ja czytelnika(albo to ja jestem za stara ducjem z moim lvl22). Postacie są lekkomyślne i niezbyt "myślące". Szybkie zmiany zdania, które powinny zachodzić stopniowo, dwie postacie się nienawidzą, a w następnym rozdziale mają w pełni kochającą relację, dla mnie to mało realistyczne. Sam świat stworzony bardzo ciekawie, mimo małych niedopowiedzień i dziwnych sformuowań (mówię tu o rogach, które mogą się poruszać i zmieniac barwę? Nie wiem czy to moja interpretacja opisu czy naprawdę takie rzeczy się dzieją). Na samym końcu spotykamy żółte słoneczko Polsatu, ostrzeżenie dla wszystkich czytających przed wyjściem drugiej części w naszym ojczystym języku. Podsumowując, książka nie była zła, naprawdę wciągnęłam mnie gdzieś za połową.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Deadnaming, Death, Rape, Blood, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

bookishchef's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-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

3.25

I wanted to love this so much. 
And part of me does. The characters were great, I loved the representation and I thought Wyatt was a really enjoyable narrator. The writing style was good too...

But the plot was all over the place. The pacing was inconsistent. And the story couldn't seem to focus on literally anything. To the extent that the main plot point of this book doesn't get a resolution by the end. 

I thought Wyatt acted a bit old for his age too. A 17 year old with multiple years of sexual experience and sexual partners? Like... it isn't impossible and I guess some teenagers do mess around a lot but idk.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Drug use and Transphobia

Minor: Self harm, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Dysphoria

cryptidstar's review

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Deadnaming, Death, Mental illness, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Dysphoria

discarded_dust_jacket's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

This is a solid YA fantasy, don’t get me wrong. I think it has some strong elements as well as some it could’ve executed better. But overall, I did enjoy reading it. I finished it in a day.

The queer representation was good. I empathized with Wyatt—his self-loathing, his anger, his tendency to lash out instead of facing his emotions, and his selfishness—even when he frustrated me SO MUCH.

I did like a lot of the secondary characters as well, but overall it seemed like the author was so focused on examining Wyatt’s internal struggles that not enough focus was spent on making any of the other characters very nuanced or multi-dimensional. (Tessa’s arc is, I think, meant to involve growth and development, but it comes across more as a clumsy and sudden about face.)

I also didn’t think the author did a good enough job of making us understand why Emyr found a marriage to Wyatt so necessary that he was willing to force him into it under penalty of death. It just didn’t feel fleshed out enough to read as believable, which gave the entire premise of the story a sort-of unmoored quality. (Maybe multiple POVs would have helped here?)

Plus I felt like a lot of the plot development got squished into the last 20% or so of the book, making it read very much like an attempt to quickly tie up lose ends and insert twists where they didn’t feel necessarily natural just to set up the events of the second book. (The big “aha!” moment at the end when the villain is confronted felt very similar to the end of a Scooby-Doo episode: “and I would’ve gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids!”)

Finally, a lot about the way witches in this story are born to (and subsequently rejected by) Fae families seemed to be an allegory for the queer experience, especially when at one point, that similarity is explicitly pointed out on page by Wyatt.

You have the Fae (conservative) businesses refusing service to the witches, then the guard (police) siding with the Fae when they protest/incite violence against witches using language most readers would immediately associate with white supremacists. 

But at the same time, this allegory breaks apart when you consider this magical realm is also supposed to exist WITHIN the current, human world (and that there also exist Fae queer people). If an allegory is meant to be a fictional representation of a real-world people, institution, or concept, how can that allegory exist in a fictional story where the very real thing it’s meant to be representing ALSO exists? So maybe it’s not meant to be allegory at all, I don’t know, but I found my confusion over it very distracting as I was reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness

Minor: Infertility

tiredreader51's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious 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

I really enjoyed this book and love the analogy that it is. Fyi there is a lot of current day lingo/phrasing when the characters talk/text, a lot of it is hilarious though.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Death, and Transphobia

Moderate: Sexual assault, Blood, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Colonisation

mxemma's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

This book was enjoyable in some ways, but suffers from a whole lot of tonal dissonance. It felt like every couple of pages we swung from fluffy fanfic romance (there was only one bed!) to horrifying gore and betrayal. The writing itself is beautiful, but I think cutting a few lines and a couple plot-twists would have made the story flow more smoothly and strengthened the book as a whole. They may be setting up the sequel, but the ending felt rather abrupt because of it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Deadnaming, Pregnancy, and Dysphoria

itsapaxycab's review

adventurous emotional funny 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

4.5

I loved this book and it will definitely be one i reccomend to other people. A very sweet story with a strong queer backing, interesting plot, and gripping tension. While i felt the conclusion/reveal was a bit rushed and a little tooo perfect, u still enjoyed the story so much, and loved the enemies to lovers plot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Deadnaming and Transphobia

Minor: Child abuse, Infertility, Death of parent, and Abandonment