Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

A Court of Thorns and Roses by Sarah J. Maas

58 reviews

hardcover_hazel's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This series has been sitting on my shelf for a while and I’ve been too intimidated to start it (until a read along came by 😂). There are so many fans out there and I don’t always like the popular book but this was a pretty good start ✨

For:
-enemies to lovers
-beauty and the beast fantasy retelling
-magic and easy world building
-with a bunch of action (and some gore)
-has its main focus on the romance of the story
read it. ✨

It’s a great introduction into fantasy without having to focus on the world building or characters to understand it. You feel almost compelled to continue reading even though there isn’t much happening. The last few chapters were the best - with challenges and trials and hope.

I have to say Feyre irritated me a bit 😂 I felt exhausted at her trying to fight literally everything, even though I understood why. I do love that she becomes a bit more relaxed and human and we get to see how she views the world and lets out her emotion - through painting.

Though there’s some dubious actions from the males in this series 👀 so check any warnings before reading.

Overall, I loved it and I might just become an ACOTAR fan as I continue this journey 💕

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Alcohol

coffinqueen's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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Solid, expertly written book. Some issues with depictions of trauma.

New Adult Dark High Fantasy about a young woman who accidentally kills the friend of a fae lord while hunting. He forces her to come live in the fae world for the rest of her life. They become romantically involved and other faeries find out he's with a human. This enrages the jealous queen, who then tries to kill her and destroy his house by making him her slave. She even has another man she keeps for her own enjoyment already while terrorizing the entire kingdom and just slaughtering everyone who gets in her way. It's clear she enjoys toying with people and lashing out when she doesn't get what she wants. Things go from 0 to 300 quick.

ACOTAR has an initially slow start that really picks up in the middle. Full of action and a badass female protagonist who is also fragile emotionally and physically in comparison to the immortals around her. It's a little spooky and gritty. Lots of monsters and mystery. It's violent and dark and has a lot of great twists. Even the ending of this book is a twist in itself for the rest of the series. Book 1 is sort of: "What had happened was..." in a way that genuinely feels like immersing in a fairytale and then later seeing it has gone very very wrong. You get more and more of some great character building as it becomes less Disney and more reality, making it a really fun read.

Great intro to the series. Though a little flawed for the more serious themes it explores and how they are represented in book 1, (I feel they aren't remedied until

the start of

book 2) but they are mostly remedied by a large percentage when they are. That's a dangerous game when depicting a high fantasy that is realistically depicting so much trauma. There are a lot of themes which may offend or trigger but the characters just sort of live in it... So, read on! But just be aware this book may insinuate it is actually ignoring the important subjects it means to talk about... attention to them just comes in late.

You can tell that Maas is a smart writer who has seen many fairytales she was really fed up with. She takes every opportunity to bring in the rage she wishes those characters showed. And she is an expert writer who hides some really sweet details throughout her books. You may come out with an even better perspective and deeper appreciation on a second read because it does such a good job of upsetting the reader on the first read.

Definitely recommended. I just feel that an important part of the readership might fall off before the series really gets into what it's largely about, which was frustrating as a reader and as someone who can closely relate to some of those issues.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Kidnapping

Moderate: Bullying, Confinement, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Rape, Slavery

Discussions about abuse, neglect, etc are less prevalent in book 1 and more prevalent in book 2. For the worse in my opinion. Because it doesn't allow for discussion ABOUT the abuse and that it is abuse until this book has ended. The characters just live in the abuse in book 1 and not much is done about it or contextualized. It's very realistic and well-researched but the handling isn't very delicate to start. However, the abusive bits also aren't graphic and book 2 has more delicate handling and continued light mentioning coupled with a more serious discussion. Disappointing weakening of book 1 a bit. But hey... surviving trauma also teaches you that we can't expect perfection. The year was 2015. I'm glad it was talked about at all.

spiderdrac's review against another edition

4.75

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I honestly did love this book, very little descriptive sex scenes which I enjoyed. The ending was super well written and mostly just felt a little rushed at times. I wish we got to know more about the villain but I also understand it's the first book in a long series. 

My biggest complaints come from when Feyre and Tamlin first start the whole romance things. It felt, underdeveloped. Like he does a few nice things for her and then she's suddenly head over heals for him almost for no reason. She forgives him way to quickly and for someone who was kidnapped, kinda just looks over it and forgives him for VERYRHINF. Lucine is my fav though, and Feyre also forgives him too quickly. 

I enjoyed the ending but the middle and begining where a slight drag. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Blood, Classism

Moderate: Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder

ducklin's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious sad tense slow-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: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail

krystalw's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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It’s worth the read to have context for the remainder of the books, but can be difficult to get through 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment

Minor: Body shaming, Grief, Abandonment

catastrophiclyss's review against another edition

4.5

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism

xavlak33's review against another edition

2.75

lighthearted mysterious 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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Not very well written.

“I love you” I said, and stabbed him.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment

cararowen's review against another edition

tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

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Colonizer trash meets beauty and the beast, plot requires main character to have no sense, does not have any actual character development, dubious consent for so so many scenes. Very my first romance novel vibes.

Feyra is not like the other girls, she's special, she's not hot but ever fairy man desires her, she's unable to listen to the most basic instructions, beauty and the beast is about compromise, this is about ignoring your boyfriend is rich because his daddy owned people and having your main character intoxicated and/or enchanted and/or manipulated into every sexual situation then claiming it's love. It's about having zero feelings of guilt when you get other people in trouble or dead and being consistently rewarded.

I have never disliked a text more than this one.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Xenophobia, Blood, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Stalking, Death of parent, Gaslighting, War

mollysue13's review against another edition

3.75

adventurous emotional 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: Complicated

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Definitely a good start to the series. Can’t wait to keep reading!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content

bee_precious's review against another edition

5.0

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad 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: Complicated

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I don't want to give anything away but this book is everything I've been looking for since I was a teenager getting lost in lands in books which all seemed to die down when I went to university. I've read this book in record time and already have the second one lined up to read on my table in the living room - I just can't get enough of Prythian! 

The characters are loveable, even the ones you love to hate,l - there are so many different and complex characters, creatures, beings even... Some with redemption arcs, others who you love from the start and others you grow to love alongside Fayre. I simply cannot wait to discuss this book further with my friends and family.

It's a real page tuner. I've been brought to tears, heartbroken and seen hugging the book saying 'No' as well as kicking my feet like a schoolgirl reading something naughty - you really go through the motions with this book. So what I'm trying to say is: if you haven't read this book, Why ? 
Why haven't you?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Torture, Blood

Minor: Body horror, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Blood, Death of parent, War, Classism