Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore

91 reviews

alexander_pendragon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Self harm, Emotional abuse, and Grief

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Torture, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Child death, Animal cruelty, and Alcoholism

sophiareadswaytoomuch's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring 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? Yes

5.0

I loved this book the first time I read it (almost 10 years ago, when it came out in 2012) and I have to say it holds up. On a reread, it’s still one of the best stories I’ve ever read. The set up is a little slow, but the payoff is worth it. The mystery is well handled and intriguing, all the characters are well developed, and the plot itself really grabs hold of you and doesn’t let go. Cashore does a great job of building on the world and characters established in the earlier books. Bitterblue is one of my all time favourite characters. This book also has LGBT+ rep and it handles a bunch of mental health issues (resulting from trauma) in a way that feels realistic, sensitive, and nuanced. It explores the effects of a kingdom under the grip of a tyrant for five decades, and the lingering effects of that trauma. A fascinating and unique read. Could potentially be read as a stand alone, but the pay off is much better after reading the first two books in the series. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Grief, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Self harm, and Rape

muse2323's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad

4.75

Reread in preparation for the recently released 4th Graceling book. I'd forgotten so much of this story, I'm glad I reread it before diving into the 4th one.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

strange's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad 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

4.75

I never thought my love for a book could grow so much on re-read— a great start to the year and one I hope will be reflected throughout. (May be 5 stars but I want to let it sit a while before deciding)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, and Suicide

Moderate: Torture, Self harm, Rape, and Pedophilia

harrownova's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Fire/Fire injury

readjoyfully's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Child abuse, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Rape

Minor: Alcoholism

nofy's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.5

I FINALLY FINISHED !!

(lmao no one's gonna read this) Yeah this took me forever to read. Now that I think of it, maybe I should've just DNFed but I guess it was still intriguing enough for me to push through. Lovedd and hated this book at the same time.

This book is SO. SLOW. Like literally where is the plot. 75% in and you've only been running around with Bitterblue in her castle,w hich is really big and very much and very FREQUENTLY described explained, detailed in all its aspects. And there's all these characters that are introduced to you one page after the other and you constantly having to process how and why they're relevant to the story or the world building, or should I say the castle building because honestly I don't think I'll ever be able to read anything with a castle in it for a long time. I'm tired of castles. Also, love interest is so unlikeable from beginning to end. And where is the magic system? Oh yeah there it is, in the last three chapters. Also heavy and triggering content. Was not expecting it to get so dark and disturbing after Graceling and Fire.

But loved Bitterblue's character though. She alone is 2 of my 2,5 stars, this is what real character development is. Also the answers at the end were worth it. Loved the friendships in this story, the characters themselves were all nice, even though if you haven't read the previous installments, they wouldn't make that much sense lol. The political aspects were written so well too. And, as usual, Cashore's storytelling is exceptional. 

T'was a decent book, but definitely not one that I would re-read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Pedophilia, and Torture

Moderate: Suicide

neens_m's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

Better than I expected. To tell the truth, I didn't know what to expect, considering that Bitterblue is neither monster nor graceling, but the book was great. Interesting love story. My favorite part was when all three of the heroines met each other. I was so excited to read it!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Self harm, and Violence

miniregrets's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Death of parent, Physical abuse, Rape, and Suicide

Moderate: Self harm

well_read_unicorn's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Death of parent, Rape, and Murder