Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo

7 reviews

sarah984's review against another edition

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

2.0

I feel like there's a sort of tone you expect from a novel titled "You Sexy Thing" in a series titled "Disco Space Opera" that has a GBBO comp on the cover, and this book does not have that tone. It is extremely dark and graphic, as well as staggeringly cruel to one of the characters for seemingly no reason. Most of the characters feel like cardboard cutouts (the Firefly references are a mile a minute) and traits seem to spring up as required by the narrative. Most of the characters have no initiative at all and are simply shunted here and there by the plot. It's only getting 2 stars because I thought the cooking stuff was fun and the ship at least had a personality.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture

Moderate: Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Violence, Death, Grief, and Slavery

Minor: Sexual content and War

cakemeister's review

adventurous funny 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? It's complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Torture, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Physical abuse

Minor: Genocide, War, Colonisation, Slavery, and Cursing

jack_iwashyna's review against another edition

adventurous funny fast-paced

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

4.0

Fun goofy space hijinks for most of it, yet

I found the gruesomeness of the torture and abuse of Petalia by the pirates so detailedly described as to jar me into almost stopping reading

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Torture, and Confinement

Moderate: Slavery

motaki's review

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

There were parts that I liked and others that I was 'so uhm, what now'
The plot and the pace were all over the place, sometimes quirky and light while turning extremely heavy and dark the next minute, let me tell you I had whiplash! 
For a character driven book we get too many POV switches in the same paragraph, sometimes you had to reread a sentence to get who uttered that. 
There is a lot just hinted at but we needed a more solid plot for this book, even if the author planned to have a sequel, they should have at least tidied up some questions left unanswered, this one felt more like a 300 pages of messy preview. 
Niko is a good captain and a nice character, she deserved a better story than this useless moping and pining after a toxic ex. 
Hope they'll do both her and her ragtag crew justice in the next instalment. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Slavery, Torture, War, and Physical abuse

uranaishi's review

adventurous emotional hopeful medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Cursing, Abandonment, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol, Classism, Domestic abuse, and War

ladythana's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Torture, and Confinement

Moderate: Gaslighting, Murder, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Physical abuse, and Slavery

Minor: War

jessie_h's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

This book was fun! It took me about 50 pages to get into the omniscient narration style but once I did I didn’t want to put this book down! The idea of an ex-military squadron owning and operating a restaurant was a space opera plot I didn’t know I needed in my life! There’s a reason I love the found family trope so much. The food aspect is compared to GBBO but really there wasn’t as much food content as I expected from the tagline. It more embodies the feeling you get watching GBBO.

This book reminded me a lot of Becky Chambers’ Wayfarers series. There are some pretty heavy parts in this story but they’re infused with hope and a good dose of sarcastic wit. I laughed a lot but there are some places where I cried. It still makes me sad to think of some of the events of this book.

The other reason this reminds me of Becky’s books is that the aliens are diverse and peculiar. They act alien and not like pseudo humans. I loved the whole crew so much! The Farscape comparison is a good one. 

The story is billed as a standalone and while it ended in a satisfactory way, it is open-ended enough that a whole series could be written from this book. I, for one, am hoping for some more books following this crew and their culinary and non-culinary adventures!

*ARC provided by the publisher via NetGalley

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Death, Violence, Physical abuse, Murder, Grief, and Confinement