Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Extasia by Claire Legrand

14 reviews

simplyammee's review

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

4.25


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bigkidbookworm's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

HANDMAID’S TALE meets THE CRUCIBLE in this dark and twisted story of witchy, feminist rage. I couldn’t put it down. 

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lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

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

3.25

Thank you Epic Reads for the gifted ARC.

Although the writing style is lyrical and poignant and visceral, the quantity of triggering material outweighed my enjoyment of the book. Perhaps the intent was to give women a revenge fantasy, and I understand the appeal… but framing it in a world that is so horrible to women just made reading it somewhat of a slog because horrific things continued happening to Amity/Rage and the other protagonists for so much of the book.

Specifically, content includes religious/patriarchal cult trauma, attempted rape, implied past rape, frequent physical abuse, gaslighting, explicit violence/gore/body horror, and death.

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leahrosereads's review

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dark mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

The basics
Enjoyment: ⭐⭐⭐
Start: ⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐⭐⭐
Atmosphere: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Plot: ⭐⭐⭐.5
Ending: ⭐⭐⭐.5
Style: ⭐⭐⭐

What I liked
First, thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC!

Thematically, this story is so smart.  I really liked the conversations it was bringing about and the themes it explored. Well done.  The horror was perfect for YA.  Creepy, a bit gory, but still tame enough that I think folks who don't love horror will still enjoy it.  Also I'm always down for a Sapphic story!  Unfortunately, outside of that, not much worked for me.  

I don't mind slower paced stories usually but the first 50% of this was a slog to get through. The second half got better for about 70 pages but then the end fell apart again for me.

I felt like a lot of this was disjointed, specifically the main character and how she changes.  It felt really slow and then incredibly sudden.

This is definitely going to be a favorite for a lot of folks, and I'm very interested in seeing what Legrand writes next.


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