Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Estas brujas no arden by Isabel Sterling

49 reviews

koraisreadingnow's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

4.75

If not for Veronica's character bugging the complete shit out of me, i would have given this book a 5 out of 5. I normally don't cry at books (especially when my suspicions were confirmed) so this one really surprised me. I already got the second book, beside me so i'm excited to read more!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Stalking, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Bullying, Blood, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Genocide, and Car accident

Minor: Animal death, Outing, Kidnapping, and Gun violence

sophie42's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Car accident, and Grief

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail and Murder

Minor: Lesbophobia, Animal death, Alcohol, and Biphobia

wishbea's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

The characters weren't very compelling, the magic was interesting and story was okay but Veronica is abusive, manipulative and hypocritical and I hated reading about her, and because Hannah isn't over her ex, she spends a lot of time thinking about Veronica.

Many of the characters are stupid, including Hannah herself and every single responsible adult character that just let Hannah and Veronica wander about and do whatever they want despite the danger to their lives. Gemma's dialogue in particular got worse as the book went on, becoming extremely generic, Morgan was fine but it felt like she was just there to make the point of not all insert group of people only portrayed as being terrible up to this point are bad.

I will happily praise how this book deals with a teenager grieving though, it felt realistic, you can tell how raw Hannah is at that point and her actions are driven by those feelings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Car accident, and Death of parent

Moderate: Homophobia, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Lesbophobia, Sexual violence, Medical content, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cursing, Stalking, and Biphobia

sapphic_in_the_stacks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent

Moderate: Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

shockyreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Blood, and Car accident

Moderate: Death of parent, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Grief, Gun violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Medical content, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia

karapillar's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, Kidnapping, Violence, Stalking, Animal death, Blood, Car accident, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

caitlinemccann's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Grief

Moderate: Alcohol and Toxic relationship

amandalorianxo's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

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

3.5

Now I came in expecting a light cozy mystery with witches and lgbtq rep. This book is definitely not cozy, has a handful of tragic moments in addition to homophobia  & manipulative ex’s who gaslight/emotionally damage their ex girlfriend’s. Hannah on her own of course has a lot going for her as do Gemma and Morgan. Unfortunately, a few of the plot lines I kind of sort of already saw planned out when certain key words from the dialogue jump out at you. Overall, I do wish there had been more people of color (for a novel set in what I assume is “present day” Salem you would think more diversity in skin tone would have made an appearance ? But you write what you are familiar with and possibly Sterling wasn’t ready yet to write a poc character.) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death

Minor: Blood, Kidnapping, Homophobia, and Car accident

lindseyhall44's review against another edition

adventurous 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

3.5

These Witches Don’t Burn follows Hannah, an elemental witch living in Salem, who must uncover the truth behind mysterious events affecting her her and her coven. Of course, amateur sleuthing is not a one woman job, and she must team up with a band of unlikely allies: her (recently) ex girlfriend, non-witch best friend, and new crush. Easy right?
I read this book as one of my fall reads, and would absolutely recommend (especially the audiobook). The characters are fleshed out and complex, the plot is engaging, and the relationships are heartwarming to read. However, the writing may not be for everyone, but I did not have too much of a problem with it.
This is a thriller, which I did not necessarily realize when picking it up, so please check trigger warnings before reading. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Murder, Medical content, Death of parent, Death, Gaslighting, and Grief

theespressoedition's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

So, the story behind reading this book goes a little something like this:
1) I saw the cover for the sequel, loved it, and added it to my TBR (completely unaware that it was a sequel).
2) Upon finding out it was a sequel, I removed it and added the first book in the series to my TBR.
3) It happened to be available on Libby at the start of October, so I checked it out as an audiobook.
4) After listening to it, I was immediately thankful for the fact that I'm not a cover-buyer and that I wait to purchase books after I've read and loved them.
5) As fun as the cover is, I was not the biggest fan of the book itself (and I'm still debating whether or not to read the sequel).

This book wasn't a fun read in the slightest. It featured incredibly toxic characters in even more toxic relationships. It had a huge focus on death and grief that really altered the vibe of the book at a certain point. There were so many dark, heavy moments that it took away from any of the interesting, mysterious plotlines. The entire time I was listening, I kept hoping that it would pick up and things would be more of the typical "YA pep" I was in the mood for, but instead, I felt very melancholy by the end.

This just wasn't for me. I think the writing was good and so I gave it stars for that, but I just didn't enjoy the story much at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, and Lesbophobia