Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Spear Cuts Through Water by Simon Jimenez

33 reviews

perpetualspooky's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark funny 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: Complicated

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This book is basically in the format of a play, utilizing first, second AND third person surprisingly well somehow. It was unexpectedly funny at times for how dark the plot gets (may turn some off as the comedic relief is almost jarring at times). I loved the two main characters, and the romance subplot- two flawed people just kinda naturally falling in love.  Honestly would be five stars for me if the pacing of the last 1/3 of the book didn’t drag so much

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Violence, Cannibalism, Murder

mahoyap's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Emotional abuse, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder

Minor: Rape, Slavery, Grief, War

magzanilla's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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It deleted our long review just as we finished it because of writing it on glitchy mobile... 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Gaslighting, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, Abandonment

Minor: Incest

There is a lot of descriptions of cruelty, especially from the corrupt royal family that have powers. They do things like torture and kill people (including children) as their normal baseline. Abuse and mind control/brain washing and war and locking family members up and dying are a Thing. For example, The second terror has the power to will others to do as he commands. So he attempts to get someone to commit violent incest, but this doesn't actually happen. He does, however, get to command all kinds of other messed up things for his amusement. A lot of ableist slurs because one of the major characters is an amputee in a society that heavily stigmatizes amputation as a form of punishment. And another character was heavily shunned, neglected, and mentally regressed / animalistic, so he is often compared to a child/childe. Tbh, should just assume that all the content warnings appear in some form or another.

amandaraemor's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This book is a complicated mix of oral tradition, dream sequence, and diaspora narrative that sometimes overwhelms in its amount of layers. Told through three overlapping voices over three different time periods, this historical fantasy blends violence & authoritarianism with the search for belonging in a world that seems intent on your destruction. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Trafficking, Murder, War

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail

readandfindout's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous medium-paced

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Style/writing: 5 stars
Themes: 4 stars
Characters: 4 stars
Plot: 4 stars
Worldbuilding: 4.5 stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Minor: Sexual assault, Suicide

msrobynsonreads's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Toxic friendship, Alcohol

mftraveller3500's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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INCREDIBLE writing (can feel everything down to the minutia), but a feels like we are seeing a refraction of the world - a more violent and hard and hopeless version where unimagined cruelty is the norm. Second person narration brought me in - it really elevated the stories on stories in stories that are woven into this, and the theatre provided a container that was incomparable. SUCH incredible characters, and the way it all comes together in the end???? PHEW

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail

chris_reads's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Sexual content, Violence, Cannibalism

Moderate: Animal death, Gore, Torture, Blood, Murder

Minor: Child death, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts

sarahmore_books's review against another edition

3.25

adventurous challenging dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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This is a very confusing book, so you need to be ready for that. If you're overwhelmed, check out my video on TikTok (https://www.tiktok.com/@sarahmore.books/video/7497192155472022806) or Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/p/DI3amNFoNLY/) for some basic, spoiler-free background to hopefully avoid some of the frustration and confusion before reading this book.

Themes: love, power, duty, guilt, pride, intergenerational, interconnected past and present, time, stories, divinity, meaning/purpose

 

Style (1): I could tell from the very first paragraph that it was beautifully written in a very literary style. Strangely, it was written in second-, third-, and even first-person, changing mid-sentence. It was confusing at first, but you get used to it once you figure out how to expect the changes (usually signaled by italics and new section headings). Overall, I enjoyed the style of writing very much (once I figured it out), although I remain unconvinced of what is gained (other than fun) by switching perspectives mid-sentence (e.g., "a boy... looked at his commander and I realized that I was standing beside the bravest pesron..." vs. "a boy... looked at his commander and he realized that he was standing beside the bravest person..."). 

 

Plot (0.5): It was mostly original though at least one theme was taken from popular mythology (

the minotaur

), which felt cheap as it was not cited as a retelling). It did not always feel coherent as new fantastical elements would continuously shock the reader in ways that felt jarring instead of immersive, at least to me

(e.g., Jun and Keema fall into a dream of the Sleeping Sea; suddenly the Third Terror transformed into a giant??)

. I simply wasn't always convinced by all the fantasy elements. I'm not sure how to describe it other than to say that it wasn't "realistic" or "authentic" enough for me. I'd love to know myself how a writer could "convince" a reader of the veracity of such fantasy elements. 

 

Atmosphere/Setting (0.5): The setting was so descriptive that it was easy to imagine the details of the scenes, but it was a serious struggle at times, especially in the first 130 pages, to understand which of the 3 main settings was being described and what the connection between them was. (I've posted a video on TikTok and Instagram describing the settings to help new readers, linked above). Moreover, it was not always immersive, such as when the setting would change very suddenly and not always to a setting we were already familiar with. While I like the writing style in general, this aspect could have used some work so that the reader would have felt a bit more guided, the change would have felt less drastic, and it wouldn't have kicked the reader out of the fantasy immersion. 

 

Characters (1): I love characters who are a little mad or who grapple with internal dissonances, so Jun was a favourite. The Daware man was also lovingly stubborn. Even the tortoise that they unfortunately called The Defect was adorable. The main characters were believeable and each had their own hidden motivations which were revealed as the story went on. There were also many other snippets of thoughts or happenings from random or tangential characters throughout which was fun (again, once you got used to the style). There were selfish, ambitious, loyal, and love-struck characters, a little bit of everything. Also, the main romance subplot was a frustratingly nice slow burn. 

 

Enjoyment (0.25): I must admit that I was extremely frustrated with this book for a long time, especially the first 130 pages. I seriously considered DNF-ing it, but I persevered because everyone seems to love it. I think I would have liked it more if not for the hype that raised my expectations and I think part of me enjoys the fact that I simply figured out wtf is going on in this book now that I've finally finished it. Putting that aside, I enjoyed the overall story and message, but there were parts that were very frustratingly confusing or uncomfortable to read about (such as cannibalism and some gore). 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Gore, Incest, Violence, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder

Minor: Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts

sadhbh2525's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional reflective 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

Minor: Sexual content, Excrement, Vomit