Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire

11 reviews

amy_in_the_city's review

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Murder, Violence, Death, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Transphobia, Animal death, Eating disorder, and Kidnapping

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia and Vomit

erkoning's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective 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

I found this to be a really beautiful story. I fell in love with the characters, and got very invested in their journeys.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Murder, Blood, Death, Child death, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Gore and Bullying

Minor: Eating disorder, Kidnapping, Acephobia/Arophobia, Dysphoria, Dementia, and War

The book centers around

murders

. There are many things mentioned from the worlds that the children have gone to. The book clearly condemns the transphobia, but there is a "mean girl" type who intentionally and repeatedly calls a trans boy a girl. Past acephobia is mentioned by an ace character, from her own perspective. Dementia is mentioned, but not gone into depth.

xosirenox's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Eating disorder

Minor: Animal cruelty, Bullying, Deadnaming, Kidnapping, Transphobia, Animal death, and Medical content

mayaism_01's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

I've been dredged up from the depths of an intense month-long reading slump by this book and I adored every page! After reading many 500+ page fantasy books it is truly a feat when you read a fantasy book that has mind-boggling (positive) world-building, an incredible cast of characters you can get invested in, and lovely prose all packed nice and concisely in less than 174 pages!

I've read from Seanan McGuire before under her pen name Mira Grant, and though I enjoyed the book I wasn't really in love with Into the Drowning Deep because of its slow pace and slightly convoluted story. This feels like a complete 180 in both style and content and I'm definitely a lot more interested in picking up more by McGuire, especially within this series!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Child death, and Gore

Moderate: Eating disorder, Kidnapping, and Transphobia

Minor: Deadnaming and Dysphoria

spooderalec's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I would’ve enjoyed a few more pages to expand some detail so it’s less rushed. The ending is good but would’ve loved what was being set up instead of it.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Blood, Gore, and Body horror

Moderate: Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Violence, Kidnapping, and Vomit

Minor: Transphobia, Addiction, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Eating disorder, and Animal death

walkie_check's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.25

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Murder, Blood, Deadnaming, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Transphobia, Death, and Bullying

Minor: Transphobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Bullying, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Abandonment, Child abuse, Child death, Dementia, and Violence

pastelkerstin's review

adventurous dark mysterious

• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I feel like this story suffers from its short length, especially once shit gets serious and it seems like everyone is moving on way too fast.

Also, when this came out it was on every ace rep recommendation list. And I get it: The main character is ace and it's mentioned explicitly and this is (was?) a popular book.
But the ace rep in this seems contradictory at times? I don't really know what to make of it. One moment Nancy says it's important to draw a distinction between asexual and aromantic and that she has had boyfriends and has romantic feelings. But then in another scene she says she doesn't want to date anyone. The thing is, it's not like Nancy's experience couldn't be a real person's experience. Attraction is complex and confusing. To me, Nancy seems to be somewhere on the aromantic spectrum, but the narrative doesn't confirm that. It just feels underexplored and odd to me (as an asexual aro-spec person).

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, Murder, Animal cruelty, Gore, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Deadnaming, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Eating disorder, Terminal illness, Grief, and Kidnapping

Minor: Acephobia/Arophobia

Eye trauma

wickedwitchofky's review

dark hopeful inspiring reflective 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? It's complicated

4.5

I really enjoyed this book! I had had it on my bookshelf for quite some time and had read part of it and then got distracted. 

I finally read it over a snowy weekend and read all 170ish pages in about 24 hours. 

Very refreshing to see LGBTQ+ represented characters in a fantasy setting. 

I love all of the characters very much and as soon as I finished this one I ordered the rest of the books available in the series. 

My .5 start deduction - the ending seemed a little rushed; the aftermath of the main conflict wasn’t really discussed. I’m hoping we talk about it more in the next one. 

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Body horror, Child death, Death, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Murder, and Transphobia

Minor: Eating disorder, Gun violence, and Kidnapping

The transphobia comes from an antagonistic character towards the trans male protagonist and is not an attitude reflected from the author.

birdy's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Medical trauma and Murder

Minor: Child death, Deadnaming, Eating disorder, Grief, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Vomit, Violence, and Acephobia/Arophobia

keenanmaree's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Eating disorder, Kidnapping, Medical content, and Transphobia