Reviews with content warning for Confinement - Assistant to the Villain

Reviews tagging 'Confinement'

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

34 reviews

dalek_caan's review

adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.25

This book has a really drab start, and the characters begin exceedingly bland which makes the book hard to get into. Getting past the first half, however, the book picks up a bit in the second half, though in my opinion the drawnout buildup to the conclusion was mildly unnecessary and could have been filled with more useful content. As the reader gets to know the characters a bit more, there is some clever banter that's rather enjoyable. It's definitely a fun albeit somewhat gorey MG/YA novel that pokes fun at a lot of fantasy genre tropes while simultaneously falling into them.

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merylas's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted mysterious tense 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? No

4.75

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readera's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

This ends on a cliffhanger but the ending is still satisfying. I can't wait for the next one!

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madalynn_owens's review

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adventurous funny slow-paced

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

4.0

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kinsportch's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

4.0

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wickedgrumpy's review

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adventurous dark mysterious sad slow-paced

2.5

It had promise but ended up lacking. The pacing felt awkward, the pining was uninspired, the world building was confusing.. I could go on, but it wasn't a bad book. Doubt I will continue the series.

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notsobinaryart's review

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Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes

3.0

A fun and easy read, but I had some major issues with the book.

It’s a fun concept, showing The Villain being not a bad guy and having a sweet bubbly girl working for him. The characters are overall charming, and you do root for them even when they do less than ideal things.

The book was long, having unnecessary scenes that serve as fun little moments without furthering any obvious plot, which can be fine but don’t seem super well edited. The book is very on the nose, which isn’t bad for an easy read, but don’t expect some earth shattering revelations, new concepts, or major twists on any tropes. The characters weren’t super complex either, and we mostly only get surface level insight into the characters until we get a few moments of insight to their trauma, often in an info dumpy way.

One of my biggest issues is with some ableist tropes is at the climax of the book.

In the end, you find out the sick disabled father was faking it all along. Not only is he faking, he’s faking to further his villainous intentions. This stereotype further perpetuates that many disabled people are actually faking it, which is incredibly harmful towards public perception of real disabled people. I am extremely tired of disabled people, even fake disabled people, being the villain, especially if it’s a direct tie to their villainy. Almost every disabled person has experienced ableists questioning their disability perpetuated by these harmful tropes.

If you’re looking for a fun read, it can be enjoyable, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend this book.

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