Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

69 reviews

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

moonchild_cos's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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: Religious bigotry, Animal death, Death of parent, Blood, and Death

Moderate: Child death, Body horror, Child abuse, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Grief, Pedophilia, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.25

The beginning was very slow, and for the first quarter or so of the book, half of it was not that prevalent to the book’s plot, but rather setting up for future books in the series. I was not particularly fond of this choice. The writing was very atmospheric, which I liked, but I didn’t feel the need to keep picking up the book to continue reading, so that’s why I can’t rate it too highly. I found the topics surrounding religious bigotry interesting, what with the prideful, fear-mongering priest and what not, as well as the consequences of actions persuaded by fear and the topic of offerings.

However, I do not wish we got more vengeance bestowed on the priest in the end. The irony of how he acted in the bear’s name, believing it to be God, as well as the fear of death Vasilisa put in him at the end, was quite good, though.

I am not sure whether I will continue the series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Misogyny, and Child death

Minor: Sexual assault and Blood

sustainably_lucia's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

I struggled to get a handle on the story and characters in the beginning but then I settled into it nicely. This is the first book in a trilogy so it makes sense to take time to set things up. The ending was awesome! Vasya is a badass heroine and I love her!

The synopsis makes it seem like Anna is the villain when it is Konstantin who does much of the damage. They are both afraid of what they do not understand and take it out on others. Pyotr is a little misguided but he loves and cares about his children and wants them to be happy, even if he doesn’t understand them.

Themes: People choose to believe what makes them feel safe even if it is harmful. They also push away and villainize what they do not understand.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Blood, and Misogyny

Minor: Child abuse

bellyreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.25

If you're looking for a fast-paced, plot-based fantasy (which seems like the main talking points of several negative reviews here), this isn't it. It's slow, coming-of-age and character-focused, and the "physical" aspects of the plot and battle with the "Big Bad" is in service of the character development rather than the plot (i.e. the character development IS the plot!)

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Content Warnings

Minor: Gore, Rape, and Child abuse

raptorq's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Blood, Child abuse, and Misogyny

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Child death

bridge_to_narnia's review against another edition

adventurous hopeful inspiring mysterious slow-paced

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

5.0

The storytelling was enchanting. The prose was beautifully written and every scene was given the same care. This fairytale is a wonderful story to get lost in on a cold day with a cup of tea. You need barely any imagination for the rich text to come to life in your mind. The story told is also worth while and the protagonist is love-able and even the step-mother antagonist is someone to sympathize with. As always, it seems men create their own problems, but this was a fresh telling of that type of plot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting

Moderate: Death of parent, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Child abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Mental illness

Period typical misogyny/sexism/religious bigotry - these are central plot points to the story, but they aren’t traumatically enforced. The protagonist continuously defies convention the whole story and is never broken down, though there are threats of it.

shadereads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Animal death, and Death

Moderate: Body shaming

Minor: Fire/Fire injury and Child abuse