Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Der Hexenzirkel Ihrer Majestät. Das begabte Kind by Juno Dawson

63 reviews

risaleel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Transphobia, Death of parent, Outing, and War

Moderate: Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Confinement, Drug use, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative tense medium-paced

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

4.0

I loved this book. It was well written, modern, fresh and topical and full of twists and turns.

I see from other reviews people have commented that the writing style seems too informal and littered with slang and references that are shoe-horned in. I personally don't agree with this criticism at all. The informality works for its contemporary setting. Also, Niamh and the relationship she has with her friends and their children felt very familiar to me and my own experiences as an adult who lived as a child through the 90s.

I also really enjoyed the examinations of intersectional feminism (or the lack of it in many white women) and its flat-out codemnation of TERFism. This was very clearly written in response to J. K. Rowling's transphobic essay published in 2020. It's not subtle, but then TERFs are not at all subtle with their transphobia in the UK, so did I care? No. Fuck TERFs. Their mindset makes ZERO sense and Juno Dawson does a really good job of showing just how completely nonsensical it is.

I do think there are some segments that could have been better fleshed out/made relevant to the main story (pretty much everything to do with Leonie and her breakaway coven, Diaspora). However, this is the first book in a trilogy, and in the author Q&A with Juno Dawson I attended a couple of weeks ago, she told us that Leonie comes more into play in subsequent books.

I also seriously disagree with those pointing out that for a book about feminism, the women are awfully divided and therefore the book is not feminist. That is the point. Division over these issues is not feminist because the division is caused by bigotry and intolerance. Therefore the people who do not fight for the rights of women—all women, including transwomen and BIPOC women—are not feminist and they absolutely must be challenged in their views. We're all getting fucked over by the patriarchy here, some moreso than others. Acknowledging that divide, difference, and the very real divisions in friendships and families who disagree over fundamental human rights is important.

This book made me really really angry in the best way and I can't wait to read the next one. Might have to borrow it from a friend as the copy I plan to buy isn't due for dispatch until November, gah.

Anyway, loved it. Highly recommended.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Transphobia, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, Outing, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail

niamhyjay's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Misogyny, Sexism, and Transphobia

Moderate: Child abuse and Domestic abuse

Minor: Infidelity

samreadsthings's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Racism, Transphobia, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and War

traa's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and War

Moderate: Fatphobia and Outing

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

alexiab's review against another edition

challenging funny tense 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? Yes

5.0

I'm breaking my self imposed review hiatus for this book because I am ABSOLUTELY LOSING MY MIND OVER HOW GOOD IT WAS. Every single aspect is just OUTSTANDING.

While there are a ton of excellent commentaries happening throughout this story about racism, homophobia, transphobia, and sexism there is also an INCREDIBLE fantasy plot with exciting action and heartstopping twists. I can't BELIEVE the exciting and emotional way it ended, and I am champing at the absolute bit for the next book. I'm obsessed with this writing, the balance of character study/women's fiction aspects, world building, and fast paced plot is fabulous. I would read another one of these books for the characters alone, but THAT PLOT! OOOOH THAT PLOT SHE IS SPICY SHE IS EXCITING SHE IS DESTROYING MY VERY SOUL FROM THE INSIDE OUT.

And god, the social commentary on trans women and their place in women's spaces? The white feminism and how it doesn't benefit women of colour? The raging white women fighting for "women's rights" but only women who look like her?! GOD. JUST AMAZING.

A huge part of me thinks this book was written as a direct response to JK Rowling and her bullshit TERF rhetoric, and my god is it incredible.  The setting, the fantasy elements, and the themes work so beautifully together and paint the biggest "fuck you" to every TERF out there, I couldn't be more thrilled.

A huge part of me expected Helena's story to go a very different direction, and I am SO thrilled that this didn't remotely pander to the "we're better than them, show them kindness" bullshit that some people spew. every TERF deserves to burn in hell, I'm not sorry. RIP Helena, you crusty bitch.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Transphobia, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and Dysphoria

Minor: Self harm and Alcohol

georginathelibrarian's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

4.0

Great story, love the characters, I did find the pace a bit too much at the beginning though. It almost put me off reading more because I felt I’d been plunged in the deep end not knowing what was going on. By about 25% I was glad of the pace though as it made me not want to put it down.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Violence, and War

Moderate: Deadnaming, Death, and Murder

Minor: Infidelity, Forced institutionalization, and Car accident

maregred's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Blood, Kidnapping, Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Abortion, and Pregnancy

th18's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Heres a few points I noted down whilst reading:

• Fast pace and seemed more YA than anything, too many modern references for me personally but each to their own. 
•  This also felt like the second book of the series at the start there was just so much unexplained things thrown in.
•  Whilst the book did deal with modern topics such as race and trans rights, I wish it also talked a bit about harmful beauty standards due to Elle literally hiding her true self from her husband. 
•  I feel like the amount of swear words was also unnneeded.
•  I love the idea of queer witches and empowered modern women but I feel like the talk about adulthood was very bleak
•  The writing and worldbuilding also felt quite underdeveloped which was disappointing 
•  Finally the use of the d slur was completely unneeded

 Although I've only mentioned the negatives, I did have an okay time reading this and it was quite engaging but it could definitely have been better. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Transphobia, Blood, Grief, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Classism

Minor: Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Abortion, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

miniingrid'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

Tiene puntos interesantes y que son necesarios visibilizar. Pero ha intentado acaparar tanto que la mayoría se quedan en poco más que una mención.
La historia es un cliché detrás de otro, y quiero creer que el dumping superficial de la diversidad en los personajes de debe a que es la primera novela de la serie. Quizás sea el tono, que me parece muy básico y simple.
En general me gustan las novelas de fantasía/ciencia ficción que tratan temas importantes y duros, pero sin perder ese punto de desconexión con la realidad que te permite evadirte aunque solo sea un poco. Aquí se recrea tanto en la transfobia sin aportar una réplica al mismo nivel, que me parece una oportunidad perdida y un simple (pero perfectamente comprensible) desahogo. Y me ha dejado con la sensación de estar leyendo a las terfas de Twitter más que una novela de fantasía.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Death, Hate crime, Infidelity, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Murder, Outing, and Alcohol

Minor: Domestic abuse and Racism