Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson

24 reviews

fraeyalise's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-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

4.75

I really really liked this book. It hit a little too close to home sometimes but I love how it ended. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Abandonment, and Child abuse

sonygaystation's review

adventurous dark funny 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

4.5

The character growth in this book was so *chef’s kiss*!!! Also the revenant has my whole heart

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Abandonment, Child abuse, Religious bigotry, Confinement, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Blood and Death

Minor: Child death, Grief, Gore, Suicide, and Body horror

charloforce's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Mental illness, Body horror, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Domestic abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Abandonment, Death, Violence, Bullying, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Murder and Torture

Minor: War

asiamd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

5.0

This book was sooooo good. I loved the main character and her revenant!! The way the author added depth and feelings to every character that came on the page was amazing. I really adore books that allow for villians to also be victims of pain and fear and I felt like this book did a great job of incorporating that wit a kind of anti-hero in the revenant as well as all the other spirits throughout the book. I really liked the different take on religion as well, while it was really similar to Christianity(?) with the blind belief of the people, the praying, and the saints, Rogerson also made it unique in the book by adding a more ghostlike twists that in my opinion added way more humanity to what the spirits were. Overall I really enjoyed this book and read it in one day 🤭 so 10/10

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Confinement, Death, and Forced institutionalization

Moderate: Abandonment, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Violence

Minor: War, Suicide, and Vomit

aas's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Confinement, Abandonment, Body horror, Violence, War, Grief, and Murder

marsh_mall0w's review

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, and Self harm

Moderate: War, Panic attacks/disorders, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Gaslighting, and Vomit

Minor: Gore

queenofsteak's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Abandonment

baroo92's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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? No

4.5

Super interesting worldbuilding! I was fascinated with the hierarchy of ghosts and their abilities. It definitely was a bit more tense and dark than I was expecting, coming straight from SoT- but a very cool narrative overall. 
I really liked the explanation of the MC’s traumas and how they effected her- I personally read her as autistic coded, but that may be just me. The relationship with the revenant had similar tones to the relationship with Silas in SoT- a creature both terrifyingly deadly, and begrudgingly affectionate. It’s always a nice dynamic to see a traumatized kid befriend a centuries-old eldritch being!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse

Moderate: Religious bigotry, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Grief, and Panic attacks/disorders

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