Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Raparigas Selvagens by Rory Power

87 reviews

apolloniablooms's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.0

It really choked at the end, which felt rushed.  Overall glad I read it, but it feels like a shadow of books like Annihilation and Inspection which do the same thing but feel more complete.  

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Self harm, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Chronic illness, Gore, Body horror, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Grief, Emotional abuse, Death, Confinement, Blood, Animal death, and Abandonment

wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Death, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Murder, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Vomit, and Violence

gyllenlock's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Vomit, Violence, Murder, and Gun violence

Minor: Medical content, Self harm, Child death, Grief, and Suicide

thenareads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

3.75

this book was so... just so good. i read it weeks ago & i still think of it sometimes now. it essentially was very dystopian and apocalyptic, without an actual apocalypse occurring. even though it meant to explore (at least i think?) human behaviours in post-apocalyptic situations, i feel like the book imparted me w more commentary on authoritative figures, government, and rebellion. it really made me think, especially towards the end.

hetty and reese’s breach of quarantine seemed like it was fuelled by justice for byatt, but it actually ended up leading to the downfall of them all. that part especially will never leave me because it worries me that acts of rebellion fuelled by a sense of justice may only worsen what we’re trying to help. it also worries me because, in part, it was fuelled by hetty’s hatred for her teacher, but she realised too late that she only meant to help and headmistress was the one who truly didn’t care. what if, in the chase of justice, we misplace our trust? how much will it cost us?

it was overall very thought-provoking and i could ramble on about everything in this book. my only two critics are that there is absolutely zero diversity. the school is literally all just a bunch of cis, white girls & one asian girl. i think it would’ve been much more interesting if girls of different backgrounds were included—not just race-wise, but class-wise, gender identity-wise, etc etc. this would’ve made for more complex and differing character dynamics & as well as plot progression, but even with all that aside, there’s no good reason why there couldn’t have been more diverse characters. my second critic is particular to the ending, but i think there was too much plot armour at the end, which really stunted the main character’s growth.

for example, when hetty and reese went to reese’s house, reese dying would’ve forced hetty to reflect and determined whether everything was worth it. it would’ve been nice to see if hetty’s fierce determination to get off the island and save byatt would’ve remained if reese died. but reese living was somewhat plausible. what i don’t think should’ve happened at ALL was byatt living at the end. that moment where tension grew between reese and hetty, as they had opposing views on what to do with byatt was such good potential for their character growth & dynamic with each other. but, instead, byatt “came back to life” and squashed all that. from that point onward, i just remember feeling like the ending was suddenly cut short, like the author had planned for this to be a duology, with the second book lingering on their escape, but was suddenly told that wouldn’t be possible. or maybe the author thought to drive the point home of reese and byatt being hetty’s girls, they all needed to see the end. i’m not sure what the reason was, but byatt logically should’ve died.

also! another piece of criticism i just remembered now. i feel like reese’s character was done dirty, especially in some bits. i’m not sure if the author was trying to antagonise reese for their dynamic or hetty is an unreliable narrator, but around the middle to end of the book i started to realise that reese’s earlier actions

(her choking hetty)

made no sense with the characterisation that was being revealed. even though hetty reflected on some of their past interactions, it just felt like the author forgot certain things reese said or did and wrote an almost completely different character for the second to third arc of the book. i obviously preferred her in those parts, but the inconsistency in characterisation really doesn’t make sense to me. i feel like it’s also part of the reason people don’t like reese because, out of the three, i personally believe she had the least fatal flaws and reasonable, realistic reactions to the plot. but that may just be my personal bias. overall, this was a very good book. i would definitely recommend it to a friend (i already have) and i can’t wait to reread it in the far future!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Child abuse, Suicide, Grief, Child death, Death, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Murder, Abandonment, Body horror, Violence, and Torture

Minor: Grief, Confinement, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

jazminnnnnnn's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Vomit

sarahsbookss's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Abandonment, Body horror, Blood, Confinement, Death, Grief, Self harm, and Vomit

cosmodeus_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark tense fast-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, Murder, Torture, and Violence

msradiosilence's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Tldr; Reese and Hetty and Byatt deserve better and I hope they all make it because PHEW.

Read my full review at: https://www.rainyreader.com/single-post/wilder-girls.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cursing, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicide, Animal death, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Murder, and Violence

booksbutmakeitgay's review against another edition

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Violence, Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Confinement, Grief, Medical content, Death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

rjstellar's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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? No

3.5

I really liked the way this book was written. the writing style was so clear and well paced, and it was really easy to visualize what was happening. the first half was great! it was incredibly gripping. 
...but.
the second half went off the rails in a few ways. 
(tl;dr in case you don't want spoilers: the plot went off the rails, the romance wasnt what I expected and a little iffy, and I think the ending could've been executed a lot better. I still really enjoyed it, of course, and I don't want to downplay that, but the book really seemed to lose itself when it mattered most.) 

okay, now for detail. for one, I really didn't like Reese and Hetty's relationship. from the start, I wasn't a fan of Reese. I accepted pretty easily that she was a part of their sort of trio, and she mattered to a character I'd immediately liked, so I was willing to acknowledge her presence and her weight in Hetty's life. I always have a hard time getting used to really cold characters. like, it makes perfect sense, obviously, that reese and the others are the way they are. it's just a personal preference with characters like her. especially since her introduction was a full brawl over an orange, plus attacking hetty over boat shift. she did grow on me, but from the very start I was gunning for hetty and byatt to be romantic while hetty and Reese stayed platonic. generally there wasn't a lot of time left for romance anyways, so there wasn't a lot of affection between hetty and Reese, which I would've appreciated even if the romance wasnt what I wanted from the start. but it didn't even do that, so I was just all around disappointed with that aspect of the book.
thing number two, I have no idea what happened to the plot. like, yeah, it's reasonable to think hetty was scattered and forgot to lock the gate and a whole ass bear got in, but I don't understand why that happened?? among other things. I'll get there in a second. I get being careless, but the bear fiasco didn't really serve the plot at all, especially since the jets were coming anyways and the headmistress would've gassed the girls all the same. I would say it was a cheap way to kill someone for the plot to move forward, but not even that, because Lindsay's death was quick and ultimately meaningless. that's not the only strange plot detour. my biggest gripe is the fact that Reese and Hetty's mission to find byatt was cut massively short and the majority of the book is spent on anything but them trying to find her. from the buildup to realizing she's gone and planning their search, to the endless distractions like a bear, or a deadly gas, or a somewhat plausible (but pretty forced) fight over Reese's father. they do find her, but it's in the last 10 or so pages. 10!! the blurb revealed that byatt would go missing, and yet it felt like so little time was dedicated to actually finding her. 
thing number three. yeah. the ending. that seems to pretty unanimously be the most disappointing part of this book. it was very, very abrupt. and I'm not closed off to that by any means, but it didn't feel purposefully abrupt. it felt abrupt because it was rushed, not because that was a deliberate choice. I feel like there could've been a good 50 more pages. not just at the end; whether that was in byatt's pov for longer (what happened to that crazy strength and almost uncontrollable urge to hurt dr. paretta?), or with hetty and Reese in the final stretch to find her and get the hell out (again. . .last 10 pages. .), or some other bad situation besides a bear randomly breaking onto school grounds. there could have been so, so much more to this book. there was, and is, so much potential in Rory power's story and writing, but I feel like she tried to do wayyy too much with this novel <spolier>

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Vomit, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Medical content, Blood, Violence, Body horror, Child death, Death, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death