Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

66 reviews

itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

3.5

I remember seeing a lot of hype surrounding this book. While I'm not the type to fall for hype after reading the blurb, I came to the conclusion this book wouldn't have the same tired old problems as books that tend to get hyped (glorification of abusive relationships, gender bioessentialism, characters that act like walking tropes) and should give it a go. I was mostly right.

I think if you read books purely for vibes and you enjoy richly described dark fairy tales you'll probably enjoy this boom greatly.

What I liked:

• Vasya was a realistic protagonist who was easy to empathise with. Though set mostly in the Russian countryside, I think anyone growing up on the fringes of society in some capacity can relate to Vasya's struggles as our world seems to be heading in a darker direction and we're expected to keep our heads down and not question anything.
• I also enjoyed Vasya's family's dynamics with each other.
  It really paid off when Dunya died and eventually came back as a thrall of The Bear, and Pyotr chose to sacrifice himself to bind The Bear. Dunya's ghastly resurrection was especially hard to read.
• Vasya did not end up in any last minute unnecessary romantic relationships or forced by the plot to "find the right man". I don't know if she is explicitly aromantic, asexual or aromantic asexual but it was depressingly refreshing to have a female lead whose freedom from romantic or sexual relationships was seen as a good thing. It would have been so easy to have her hook up with the Frost King at the end and major kudos to Arden for not going there. More MCs like this please! The bar is subterranean!

What I didn't like:

• I feel like the bulk of the plot was backended towards the last third of the book. While it was necessary to build up
  the village's conversion to Christianity through fear and the consequences of ignoring the demons that used to help them
  the same things kept happening and got very repetitive to the point of it being accidentally comedic. Seeing how this is Arden's debut novel, I'm sure she can improve her pacing in later novels.
• Some of the characters do end up feeling kind of tropey. While this is to be expected in fairy tales, said characters feel more like a means to progress the plot rather than be organic characters or twists on the trope they were embodying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Death, Death of parent, Blood, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Mental illness, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Animal death, Child abuse, and Child death

Minor: Sexual assault and Rape

valpyre's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

4.5

one of my fave authors reviewed this, so i had to check it out for myself and i'm so glad i did. this was a really refreshing read. 

i'm not super familiar with russian mythology and folklore, and i appreciated the way this wasn't just a beat for beat retelling of a fairy tale. the way magic was intertwined with the way of life in the country, and with the main character in particular, just made sense -- i never felt too overwhelmed by new information, but there is a glossary at the end for reference.

i wasn't sure how to feel when i saw that the narrative involved multiple pov's but i really appreciated them all in the end as they lent sympathy to all the characters. the chapters/sections of different pov's were also brief enough that i appreciated the information i was learning, as opposed to just wanting to get back to the main character. even the omniscience of the prose was so smoothly written that it didn't break flow for me. 

i'm really interested to see the development of the mc's magic so i'm diving right into the second book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Gore

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Death, and Child abuse

Minor: Sexual assault

the_rabble's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious slow-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

4.0

This book is all vibes and worldbuilding. The next books are now on my "to read" list.

Takes until about halfway through to get going, but you've been primed with so much lore you're still having a good time before some of the set up action hits.

When it does hit, it's hard to put down and stays true to the style of the book.

I'm not big on kid protagonists, but this was like if Anne of Green Gables was a horse girl who had a cadre of friends from Russian folklore and maybe

Gilbert's

an ominous, timeless embodiment of winter with questionable motivation.

Narrator: the Kathleen Gati recording is really clean. Voice acting was good- deploys Russian accents in dialogue. The pace could have been faster at times in prose. She's got an excellent fairy tale quality to the read.

Who I Wouldn't Rec This To: Misogyny and casual domestic violence is part of the setting, so if you're not in a headspace to deal with that allll the way through, wait on reading this one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Child abuse, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

doodeedoda's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry

Moderate: Pregnancy, Child abuse, Grief, and Misogyny

Minor: Death of parent

furreverreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

So good! 
Chilling, exciting, atmospheric. A perfect mix of frustrating characters, and lovable characters; villains and heroes.
Arden wrote it beautifully, incorporating the Russian language and traditions well I think. I was not ready for it to end, but do think she ended it well. 
Ugh! So far definitely the best book I’ve finished in 2024. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Blood, and Death

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gore, and Animal death

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious slow-paced

4.5

Sometimes too descriptive but this was mostly only in the beginning to set the background, introduce everyone, etc. That made it hard to get into the story but finally around 65 pages I was intrigued!

Who is this stranger? What does he want with Vasya? I was hooked and didn’t want to put the book down! I loved the folklore and “spirits” throughout the story. It was very atmospheric and tense! The characters were confusing at first and it would’ve helped to have a guide to everyone’s names and their nicknames to keep track. I got used to it after awhile luckily!

Overall an exciting and interesting tale 😍 I can’t wait to continue the series and see what happens with the characters! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexism, Grief, Gore, Animal death, and Religious bigotry

bookycnidaria's review against another edition

dark emotional funny inspiring sad slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Sexism, Violence, Mental illness, and Rape

chloebaboey's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Animal death, Death, Violence, Religious bigotry, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Blood, and Sexism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, and Rape

Minor: Animal cruelty

seekerxr's review against another edition

there's an uncomfortable amount of child abuse in this book, for me. i know different people can handle different things but the amount I've already seen, 46% in, is just too much combined with all the rest of the sexism and religious bigotry and assault. i don't doubt the rest of the book will just be more of the same and i just don't want to read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Suicide, Body horror, Gore, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Blood, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Self harm, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Child death, Death, and Violence