Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

O canto mais escuro da floresta by Holly Black

5 reviews

paladinpals's review against another edition

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

4.0

the prince trapped in a glass coffin thing has become a permanent part of my psyche. like you know you read something and it goes SO hard? that it is unforgettable? yeah.

also the straight baiting is incredible like YOU THOUGHT

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Child abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and Alcohol

noellegrace8's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful 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

4.0

I really loved this plotline. I started with Folk of the Air, not knowing this was the first Elfhame novel. I'm glad I read it in the order I did, because I think I would have put down this installment if I weren't already so invested in the world of Elfhame. I loved that this had a small-town folktale vibe. The legends surrounding the boy in the glass coffin and the folk in the forest were perfect. I also loved Sorrow's story and description. Again, a truly clever tale.

I was disappointed at how quickly the action was resolved and how we got such a bird's-eye-view of Severin and Ben's relationship with him. In my opinion, Ben would have been a far better main character choice than Hazel. Hazel was basically the Wish.com version of Jude Duarte. And Jack was, unfortunately, not very well developed. Altogether, the characters in this book either fell flat or weren't explored enough. I also really dislike the high school approach, mostly because it always focuses on partying and stupid decisions, which I couldn't even relate to while I was actually in high school.

I give Lauren Fortgang 4/5⭐. Sometimes she had it down so well - the vocal choices, the gender switching, all of it. Other times, like with Severin, her voice did not really match the character and description well.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Self harm, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Medical content, Cannibalism, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Classism

ifoundcallie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia

annorabrady's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Bullying

Minor: Domestic abuse and Homophobia

whenjessreads's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-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

3.0

This was a cute, modern fairytale, definitely for a younger audience than the Folk of the Air series. Themes were coming of age/growing up/all that fun teenagery stuff. I had a bit of trouble trying to relate this to FOTA. Is it a prequel, is it set in the future, is it not related at all? There were some overlapping characters, but it didn’t seem to mesh in any meaningful way.

Holly Black’s writing was lovely, as always. This read like a fairytale. The setting was also great - the existence of faerie within an urban environment should have felt more jarring, but was managed well.

There were a couple of good twists on traditional roles in here. The damsel in distress saving herself; the fairytale princess being a fairytale prince; the modern representation of knights and bards etc etc… but I just wasn’t a fan of the characters. They were all either annoying or undeveloped, and the relationships just lacked substance.

The plot twists were fun, but honestly the whole thing felt a little chaotic, especially toward the end. Combine that with the slow start and… it felt disorganised and kinda boring. I enjoyed it but I’m already forgetting it.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Self harm, Suicide, Violence, and Alcohol