Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Cursed by Marissa Meyer

15 reviews

greenlivingaudioworm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Murder, Confinement, Death of parent, Violence, Grief, and Pregnancy

mykday's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Child death

passionatereader78's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious fast-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

4.5

This book is well written. I liked the overall story. I was frustrating at times because the main character has all of the information in front of her but can't comprehend it. I loved the guilded prince, the princess, the forest folk, and the ghosts. The dark castle was spooky and creepy with the different creatures.  Serilda is now cursed with the guilded prince. They are trying to find a way to break the curse and set everyone free.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Torture, Death of parent, and Child death

Moderate: Bullying, Death, Confinement, Slavery, Violence, Animal death, Murder, and Toxic relationship

abby_can_read's review

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

I enjoyed this book. I think it was a good sequel. This is a dark fairytale retelling. The characters are entertaining and there is come character development. The relationship between the characters is interesting. The plot is a little predictable though I did enjoy it. The writing style is lovely. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Death, Gore, Blood, Emotional abuse, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, War, Torture, Animal death, Child death, Murder, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Abandonment, Body horror, Death of parent, Infertility, Kidnapping, and Confinement

beckyyreadss's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

 I wanted to read this book as I enjoy most of Marissa Meyer’s work. However, with all three series that I’ve read, I have always struggled with the first book. This book was the same. I was waiting for a big reveal or plot twist, and it sort of happened, but I wanted it to be bigger. 
 
This book is told from Serilda’s point of view. She was cursed by the god of lies and has developed a talent for storytelling. Serilda and Gild cannot break the curses that tether their spirits to Adalheid’s haunted castle. There they remain trapped for eternity. On the night of the Endless Moon, the Erlking means to capture one of the seven gods and so be reunited with his lovers, Perchta, who has been banished to the underworld. But it soon becomes clear that the Erlking’s hunger for vengeance won’t be satisfied with a single wish, and his true intentions have the power to alter the mortal realm forever. Serilda and Gild have no choice but to thwart his plans, all the while solving the mystery of Gild’s forgotten name and freeing all the ghosts kept in servitude to the dark ones. As the evil forces gather, it seems only their love is strong enough to sustain them. This book is a young adult fantasy. 
 
This series has been difficult. The world building wasn’t there and there wasn’t much character building expect that Serilda is a storyteller and she’s trying to save her boyfriend and she’s pregnant and protecting kids. I think I also struggled with this book as I didn’t understand all the God analogy of it. Serilda was a damsel in distress that was trying to save herself but just couldn’t and then rejected help and is still wanting to save herself but won’t leave Gild. Erikling’s got some back story in this, but I would have loved to have fallen for villain in this book rather than the MCs. Gild’s sister sort of saved this book and I would have loved for her to be the hero and then had to be getting the sunlight. I hated how it ended and I don’t think Serilda deserved the happy ending for being a mischievous liar.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Blood, and Pregnancy

Minor: Death of parent

halfbloodprincess_hogwarts's review against another edition

I was reminded how heartbroken the first book left me and felt it going further downhill starting this title. Honestly, I am not trying to read any books that will further upset me and am throwing in the towel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Child death, Confinement, Pregnancy, and Emotional abuse

trulyhopelessromantic's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Murder, War, Blood, Pregnancy, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death, Gore, and Violence

nrogers_1030's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I liked this one much more than Gilded.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal cruelty, Grief, Pregnancy, Animal death, Death, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death

Moderate: Torture and Confinement

Minor: Infertility

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

Lengthier than a lot of Marissa Meyer's books, this sequel to Gilded tells the rest of a story woven from fairytales that might seem familiar to us. The structure is broad in scope but rumbles along at a good clip.

This fairytale retelling is quite different to Meyer's more futuristic Lunar Chronicles, as it keeps its roots firmly in the pseudomedieval past. It does have twists though. It's not set in OUR past. It is a distinct world with different (but similar) gods and monsters. I found myself well at home with griffons and basilisks (though I did go wandering to figure out whether it's a basilisk or a cockatrice, and found that in most literature the two names are interchangeable).

Having a character who is blessed/cursed to be a storyteller, prone to lying or withholding the truth, was agonising for me to read (as a compulsive blurt) but it was consistent and true to the character. It was good to run into some of the bit-characters that were in the first book too.

Having been grossly disappointed by the Stars Above short story collection and it's frustratingly boring weddings and heteronormative drivel, it was really refreshing for me to see how Meyer challenged that in this book. For starters the gods in her pantheon transcend gender. Each of them is referred to as They, rather than He or Her, and why not; these are powerful beings who can change their form at will. The other thing that made me smile was that two of the weddings in the story were gay marriages (not an eyelid batted nor an eyebrow raised thank goodness!). Having a huge celebration and joyous whimsy directly after a huge boss battle felt like a load off from the drear and tense parts of the story, and I enjoyed it despite myself. (Bring it in Marissa, all is forgiven). 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Animal death, Confinement, Death of parent, Gore, Animal cruelty, Death, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, and Torture

uranaishi's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Blood, Toxic relationship, War, Child abuse, Slavery, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Classism, Confinement, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Violence, Infidelity, and Kidnapping

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Sexual harassment