Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Mercies by Kiran Millwood Hargrave

16 reviews

lynneliu's review against another edition

challenging informative sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Violence, Bullying, Death of parent, Homophobia, Miscarriage, Racism, Racial slurs, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Animal death, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Ableism, Sexual content, and Torture

Minor: Classism, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Infidelity

emilybarbian's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Emotional abuse, Religious bigotry, Domestic abuse, Rape, and Grief

Moderate: Pregnancy, Death, and Lesbophobia

nicnevin's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This story is capitivating, almost as if by magic. 

That tasteless joke aside, its a beautiful piece showing how minor quibbles can lead to such devestating consequences. 

The relationships and social connections throughout are stitched together with a raw, real intensity. Its beautiful. 

A warning though, it can be intense so just a heads up! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Classism, Confinement, Death, Infertility, Misogyny, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Bullying, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Violence, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Torture

iridium's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? No

5.0

A lot of descriptions of nature, home and hearth. Personally this is everything I want out of a witch-hunt narrative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation

Moderate: Racism, Racial slurs, Pregnancy, and Emotional abuse

lozziereads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

WHAT THE FUCK!!!!!!! this was so good. ending made me loose my mind! in such a good way though. thank u sm

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, and Rape

banrions's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

3.0

iiiiiiii have a LOT of mixed feelings about this book and in a lot of ways i want to give it less stars but that doesn't feel fair because it is a very well written book and i was totally invested the entire time. however, the end left me furious. i'm not going to put a spoiler tag here, because i'd rather fellow queer women know what they're getting into, and this is not a happy ending. (it is not a bury your gays trope, but it's NOT happy) and that left me... so fucking frusturated because while, sure, there is a certain poetic feeling to the tragedy of the ending... and there IS a place for tragic stories about queer people, and in many ways, this DOES feel appropriate for one of them, it's goddamn witch trials!!! i'm still just... tired. just because something is historical doesn't mean it has to be tragic. if ursa and maren HAD been able to be together in the end, there would still be plenty of tragedy to go around. but there would have felt like something more bittersweet. and i'm just... i both really enjoyed and really hated this book and was just left, so mad and so tired. 

THAT SAID, i do think that this is a very well written and obviously very well researched book. i have always been drawn to stories about witch trails. i loved the way that ursa and maren both came to understand their feelings for each other. i loved that there wasn't really much internalized homophobia going around. i think that the author really captured the claustrophobic, atmospheric feeling of a small town/village of people and the ways that religon and hysteria can be used as a weapon. i will be looking for her other works (and i will be looking for other words read by the narrator of this book too, she did a wonderful job bringing the tale to life). 

i'm just... tired. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, Sexual content, and Violence