Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

8 reviews

corallydeer's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense 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

5.0

This was a great read! I had heard that Rogerson was a phenomenal writer and I heavily agree after this first foray into her works. I loved her writing style and thought it was a great blend of fairly direct writing with prose-y styles. I loved the characters and the world so much; the banter between the revenant and Artemisia was always a great time and the world they existed in felt so unique and fresh. The beginning felt a bit slow to me, so I was sitting more at a four-star rating for a while, but the second half of the book really picked up and suddenly I felt like I couldn't put it down and now I even want to reread it! The second half quickly shot the book up to a full five-star rating for me and I can't wait to read more of Rogerson's works now!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Blood

Moderate: Violence, Child death, and Self harm

Minor: Animal death, Confinement, and Suicide

Death

(the book is about spirits and ghosts so death is a huge part of the overall world and plot)

| Blood

(blood is brought up on multiple occasions and used for things)

| Fire/Fire Injury

(Artemisia has extensive burn scars on her hands that come up frequently through the story)

| Child Death

(some of the spirits depicted in the book are dead children)

| Violence

(there are a number of battles throughout the book)

| Confinement

(Artemisia is confined on multiple occasions when arrested)

| Animal Death

(some animals die here and there as minor details)

| Self Harm

(Artemisia has to cut herself to acquire blood for runes and is depicted throughout the novel not being afraid to singe/burn herself for a purpose)

| Suicide

(Leander's brother committed suicide which is explained in passing)

kbairbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.75

I could not, and didn’t want to, put this book down. It swept me up with masterful storytelling, intriguing well fleshed out characters, adventure, fight scenes, intrigue, and so much more. This was such a fun read and I’m sad there isn’t more yet!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, War, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Medical trauma, Murder, Religious bigotry, and Violence

vaniavela's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-paced

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

4.0

Artemisia is a Grey Sister who works alongside the nuns of the convent, preparing the corpses for their final resting place. But when an army of possessed soldiers comes to destroy the one place that has made her feel at home, she is forced to use the relic of a saint to protect the monastery. 

The world building is simple but interesting, with well-developed themes of religion in that era. Although the pace is slow, we manage to immerse ourselves in this world and connect with the characters. 

We have a main character with trauma and a sad backstory, which is one of the most used tropes in fantasy. I liked seeing the consequences of her childhood abuse in the present. 
The writing was simple but kept me interested in her story from the beginning of the book. All the secondary characters were also good. I liked how versatile the revenant's personality was.

Overall, this was a good book.

tw: abandonment, child neglect, child abuse in past, possession, self-harm,  threats of suicide, grief, brief mention of animal abuse, mention of animal deaths, blood depictions, vomiting, drugging, anxiety depictions, talk of plagues, loss of a loved one in the past, mention of spiders, death.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment and Child abuse

Moderate: Grief, Vomit, Self harm, and Blood

Minor: Animal death, Animal cruelty, and Death

headinthepages's review

emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Medical content, Murder, Torture, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Confinement, Death, Medical trauma, Self harm, Mental illness, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Violence, and Vomit

clairew97's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Ableism, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Abandonment, Body horror, Animal death, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

lillythebluepaladin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense 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? No

5.0

THIS WAS A BEAUTIFUL READ! I never thought that I would ever say that the thought of getting possessed by a sassy and snarky yet protective spirit would be pleasant, but this book changed my mind.

I loooved the world setting, the plot and the CHARACTERS!
I was told that this was gonna be a Venom by Marvel for teenage girls, and yeah it kinda is, but it is so much more!
My traumatised ass cried to this a few times, because I could relate a lot to what our main character Artemisia and our reverent has experienced, and this book genuinely felt like a long overdue hug.

MARGARET ROGERSON, WITH MADELINE MILLER AND TAMORA PIERCE, ARE THE QUEENS OF FEMALE FANTASY

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, and Self harm

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Bullying, and War

Minor: Child death and Vomit

lizgriffinwords's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

Utterly perfect. I loved the worldbuilding and the types of spirits, Artemisia and the revenant were a delight, and I saw so much of myself in Artemesia, from her RBF to her social anxiety. The lack of any romance in this book was wonderfully refreshing.
CW: self-harm, fire-related trauma, child abuse (in character’s past)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Child abuse, Self harm, and Animal death

yvonne_cl's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Vomit, Abandonment, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Grief