Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Kingdoms by Natasha Pulley

8 reviews

lizzie24601's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-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

4.5

God, Natasha Pulley knows how to tell a story!!!!!! She uses the same trope in all of her books and I gobble it up every time! And as a fan of stories set on ships in the early 19th century, this hit the spot. I would read a whole series about Joe and Kite. I felt out of breath reading this because I was so excited to get to the next chapter. Ugh!! Incredible character building and a suspenseful relationship and plot. 

Half a star taken off only because the opening is so slow - until you get to part 3 and it takes OFF. If you haven't read a Natasha Pulley book before, read The Watchmaker of Filigree Street or The Bedlam Stacks before this one - they both are better introductions to her writing style since they start off a bit quicker and are written more chronologically. Then come back and enjoy this one. :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and War

Moderate: Child death, Death, Gun violence, Murder, Colonisation, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Slavery

Minor: Death of parent, Self harm, Genocide, Sexism, Alcohol, and Blood

quirkilybookish's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

An excellent time travelling/alternate universe historical fiction that really sucked me in! It jumps between times and perspectives and has some epistolary writing as well, all of which was very fun to piece together. I picked up a copy in Edinburgh and the world-building was extra special having explored the city and castle it describes. And who doesn’t love some gay sailors/pirates? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Slavery, Racism, and Self harm

Minor: Murder, Suicide, Sexual violence, and Child death

cocacolor's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.5

A brisk, clever time-traveling, alternate-dimension-hopping adventure. The characters are immediately likeable and memorable, although they don't have much interiority;

even after Joe/Jem regains all his memories, it's difficult to place his relationship with Kite in the context of his marriages to Alice / Madeleine, and what Agatha and Jem also felt for each other is a mystery

. Pulley's style is delightful, lyrical and lucid at the same time. It feels strange to be rooting for the British Navy, here buckling under French colonialism; on the one hand, a keen attention to historical detail is counterbalanced by the narrow scope of telling a story of British soldiers fighting French occupation with barely a mention of Britain's own empire. I'm still discontented with the way some threads are tied up:

When does Kite reckon with the consequences of killing a teenage boy? A freak change killing off Toby and Alice and dropping children into Kite and Joe's laps seems like a cop-out way to give them a nuclear family.

But overall, a thrilling tale with immediate, powerful characters that turns on the tropes of amnesia and the horrors of war.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, War, Colonisation, Animal death, Death, Hate crime, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Confinement, Racism, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Suicide, Blood, Child death, Classism, Homophobia, Physical abuse, and Sexism

Minor: Alcohol and Genocide

On rape:

though the narrative seems to acknowledge that the main character is forced into sex by his wife, it stops short of condemning her.

On racism:

The aforementioned wife is one of the only Black characters in the novel, and also killed off in order to give the white and white-passing main couple her children.

anxiousnachos's review against another edition

emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I don’t think I have the words for this review. This was absolutely exquisite, this *destroyed* me. It’s one of the most beautiful love stories I’ve ever read, I just immediately want to reread. The moment everything kind of clicks together and you realise what happened is soul shattering. It was stunning. How can your heart not break into a million pieces at this quote: 

“You’re my family! You were family before any of them. I’ve missed you even when I didn’t remember you. Everything I’ve done since losing you has been about getting back to you.”

Please excuse me whilst I go scream.

Content warnings: slavery, graphic depictions of war, graphic depictions of blood/gore, epilepsy, amnesia, murder, violence, child death, burn injury, lashing injury, physical abuse, imprisonment, rape 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Child death, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Rape, and Slavery

btrz7's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Colonisation, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Slavery, and War

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

5.0

I'm not okay. I just couldn't stop crying for an hour straight while finishing the last 50 pages of the book. Had to take my glasses off because they were filling up with tears.

I did not expect this tbh. I couldn't remember how this book ended up on my TBR pile, and the only thing I did remember was that there was time travel involved in the plot. This is usually enough for me to be interested. But I was skeptical when I started reading because I didn't know what to think about the beginning. But when things stated.... moving, I fell in love with the setting and the atmosphere and the writing, and then I got attached to the characters and that was kind of too much for my poor little heart. It was shattering to pieces every few pages, and I was having one emotional breakdown after the other. And even though I guessed a lot of the mysteries early on, it made everything even more emotional. Plus, the ending kept me on my toes until the very last page, and this is something that doesn't happen often.

Be warned, though, this book is gruesome. It takes place during a war and all the horrors you can think of will be described in details. It was hard to read sometimes, but it made everything very believable and kept the stakes pretty high. (I like to pretend that one scene especially didn't happen, though. It was not the most bloody scene but a very much unnecessary one in my opinion.)

I will have to reread the book at some point knowing what I know now and also note down all those beautifully heartbreaking quotes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Suicide, Violence, and War

seanml's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad 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

5.0

This is most definitely one of if not the best books I’ve read all year. I had no idea what I was getting into when I started it, so I kept questioning myself “Is this horror?” “Is this romance?” There are few things I’ve read that allow the reader to sink into a scene as well as this does. Masterpiece. Missouri Kite is one of the best characters in literature. 10/10. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, Misogyny, and Slavery

Minor: Alcohol, Colonisation, Death of parent, Genocide, Sexism, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

jamieleepilk's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

Hooooolllyyyy shit, this book. End of review. Bye.

God damn. I adored this twisty turn story, full of action, romance and different timelines all smushed together in one epic book!
The characters are extremely well written and complex, you can't help but fall in love with them. You want to know everything about what happened and is happening to Joe as his life and his memories don't seem to match up. The world is so vivid it's easy to escape into even though I did find myself at points having to force myself to stop reading because I just didn't want it to end. All the twists and turns in this book kept me guessing and I really liked the notion of not knowing what the outcome was going to be. This book was an utter masterpiece and a joy to read.

This is my first time reading anything by Natasha Pulley but I will be immediately purchasing everything she's ever written to correct the error of my ways as she will 100% become an auto-buy author after this

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence

Minor: Rape, Racism, Alcohol, Animal death, and Medical content