Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

6 reviews

prinzessin_aj's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring slow-paced

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

5.0

I loved the classic fairytale feel of this, but it didn't feel at all like a re-telling. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Bullying, Body shaming, War, and Emotional abuse

maymoo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Very brutal but I could not put it down!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Blood, Cursing, Police brutality, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexism, and Grief

ghostlyprince's review

adventurous challenging reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Sexism, Dementia, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Child abuse

spinkysaurus's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The beginning of the book was hard because the main character was so bitter. Donnelly did a good job of showing what Isabelle had become. As the plot progressed the story and the all of the characters became understandable and far more interesting and likable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, War, and Sexism

Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, and Self harm

This is a darker retelling and the beginning describes a lot of the more graphic portions of the original Grimm telling of Cinderella. In addition it has a lot of perceived gender roles being forced upon people who do not want them.

yunnie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.25

Stepsister is a dark adaptation of Cinderella that begins with where the Brothers Grimm version left off. There are many things that I loved about the book. The world building is amazing, with the perfect mix of blending historical  with supernatural elements. Donnelly's writing is also amazing, which maintained the tone and pace of the book. I just wish that there were a few more pages to dig deeper into how the history between the characters affect their current mindset.

Special Note: 
Love that Queen Elizabeth I's Speech to the Troops at Tilbury is quoted accurately. 

<Also, the contributions of Yennega, Abbakka Chowta, and Abhaya Rani are included in this chapter to further inspire Isabelle>

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, and Misogyny

greymalkin's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Writing is a little bit clunky- the imagery and motifs felt a little overwrought sometimes and interrupted the flow in way that felt like they were added after the book was mostly written.  But the story itself was good and the way that the characters came together was nicely done. 

I particularly liked that Isabelle really was pretty awful.

There were reasons for it of course, but this isn't a story of bad press or some external force like a spell making her do it.  It was the much more believable story of an imperfect person slowly going down the wrong path.  I also liked how Ella's character was truly good but had her own issues.

The weakest part was the whole Fate/Chance bit.  Honestly most of their interactions could have been removed without harming the book.  It didn't seem like either of them really held to any real rules, or at least the ones that worked on them seemed a little arbitrary.  Fate agrees not to interfere and then immediately tries to rewrite Isabelle's fate map the first chance she gets.  Huh?  So Fate can edit them anytime?  And if Chance had the right inks he could do so himself?  So what are their powers exactly then?  And Fate never write in defiance or anything else proactive into the stories so we're to believe that all the famous villains and heroes are because of Chance?   It felt like the entire framing story needed another few passes to make it integrate better with the actual story. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood and Emotional abuse