Reviews tagging 'Stalking'

The Witch Haven by Sasha Peyton Smith

8 reviews

pixelpigeon's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Oh my gosh wow this book was so fun. It's like if Harry Potter was all girls and feminist and actually diverse. GIRL POWER.

The twists! The turns!

I love stories about women saving each other.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Stalking, Gun violence, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail

anoveldestination's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Stalking and Sexual assault

Minor: Confinement, Racism, Classism, Sexism, Forced institutionalization, Colonisation, and Addiction

shannnne_reads_words's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Grief

Moderate: Death, Stalking, Misogyny, Classism, Sexism, Violence, Abandonment, and Gun violence

Minor: Forced institutionalization, Racism, Colonisation, and Sexual assault

calamitywindpetal's review

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Blood, Murder, Death, Misogyny, and Grief

Moderate: Gun violence, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Confinement, Racism, Gore, Vomit, and Sexual violence

Minor: Stalking, Alcohol, and Sexual content

levesc17's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

Some of the plot points were rushed, I would have happily read an additional 50 pages for things to feel paced effectively. Unclear if there will be a sequel but if there is I would read it because a few of the mysteries weren’t revealed or solved. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Sexism, Stalking, and Toxic relationship

molliemoments's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual harassment, Misogyny, and Grief

Moderate: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Rape, Gaslighting, and Death

Minor: Forced institutionalization

clovelatte's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? N/A

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Violence, Vomit, Murder, Confinement, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Colonisation, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, and Racism

Minor: Stalking

debussy's review

adventurous dark emotional 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

5.0

Sasha Peyton Smith's debut is an absorbing awakening of magic. It has magic schools, magic clubs, magic boxing fights, magic boys, and magic feuds that will leave readers breathless. 

 

We start with Frances Hallowell, a seventeen-year-old seamstress, who is fresh with grief over her murdered brother. When she's attacked late at night by her shop's owner, her scissors inexplicably fly across the room and into his neck, killing him. In the morning, the witches arrive, whisking her out of a police investigation and into Haxahaven--a tuberculosis sanitarium on the outside, but a magical school for girls on the inside. So begins Frances's instruction, but of course nothing is quite right. Instead of learning the magic the girls crave, Haxahaven is focused on small magic. Domestic magic. Frances yearns for more--magic that can help her make a better world. Magic that can help her solve her brother's murder. 

 

This magic is delivered via Finn, an errand boy for a magic gentlemen's club in New York City. Frances and her friends learn the more serious magic from him, hoping to become strong enough to resurrect the soul of Frances's brother so he can tell them who killed him. All the while more boys are found washed up in the river, leading Frances to suspect a serial killer is on the loose. As she dives deeper into the mystery, she runs into long-standing feuds, racing against the people who would control her future and take her power for themselves. 

 

The Witch Haven has a fresh look on magic, a delightfully eerie 1910s New York setting, and an absorbing mystery. The twists on how magic would be used by women and by men--and the conflict it would cause between them--was reminiscent of The Once and Future Witches, and the magical school was so fully realized as a place that is at once a saving grace and a prison in its own right, trapping girls in the concept of what keeps women safe in a world unconcerned with their safety. I was thoroughly obsessed with this book, and I can't wait to see what the sequel brings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Murder, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Mental illness, Racism, Sexism, and Sexual assault

Minor: Vomit