Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Assistant to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer

29 reviews

automatic_rae's review

adventurous funny lighthearted 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? Yes

4.5

A really fun read! A few laugh-out-loud moments, fantasy elements that remind me of a D&D campaign, and a cliffhanger ending that left me pining for the sequel.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Kidnapping, Violence, Murder, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual harassment, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, and Gaslighting

Generalised mentions and vague descriptions of all tags. Frequent mentions of violence but nothing graphic.

jj_xx's review

adventurous emotional funny 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Murder, Blood, Child death, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Abandonment

dinahquinn's review

funny lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

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

4.25

I actually didn’t guess the twist until close to it happening which a nice change up. There’s definitely hints before, but not the “hints” that are really a brightly lit billboard.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Blood, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexism, Kidnapping, Death, Child death, and Torture

emilymazzara's review

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted 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

I adored this book! It was such a fun time and having been a fan of the TikTok series this book is based on from pretty early on, it was awesome to see it come to life in a full novel. 

I’m going to give a full breakdown of my thoughts in a blog post this week but here’s the highlights: 
-Super cute cast of characters all of which have well fleshed out personalities. 
-Although the plot is at some points predictable, the road to arriving to conclusions is oftentimes winding in a unique way. 
-For a debut novel, a first of a series to boot, it’s really strong! 

I’m very excited for the next book to come out!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood and Violence

Minor: Sexual harassment and Emotional abuse

abicaro17's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

This is a hard book to rate. I really enjoy the concept and a lot of the plot points. An grumpy evil villain with a sunshine down on her luck assistant? Amazing! I think the issue is execution. The book is incredibly slow and any story advancement is basically in the last 50ish pages. The characters are also relatively flat and boring. Like Evie got a blip of development past the box she was shoved in during the last 5 pages. Becky and Blake are the worst examples of this because they're exclusively office suck up and the goofy guy. I tried to give this book grace because its part of a series but a lot of content could have been added to create context for a lot of things we're just like asked to believe. Like the Villian being a village terror (

he basically only beheads people who work for him, people trying to kill him, or anyone who disrespects people he cares about

), King Benedict being a "hero" in literally anyones eye??, or the lack of world building (where are they, how far away is the palace, is it like a fairytale kingdom or am I supposed to be imagined King's Landing from GOT?) This just needed more world building content, more contextual characterization, and a story restructuring for me.

Also when the Villian is like I love Evie! I literally closed my book and rolled my eyes. WDYM? This is a slow burn bro you aren't supposed to know that yet.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Classism, Kidnapping, Body horror, Gaslighting, Medical content, Murder, Violence, Cursing, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Child death, Chronic illness, Drug use, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Blood, Confinement, and Grief

busyknitting's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

Minor: Child death, Kidnapping, Abandonment, and Trafficking

meah_cookie's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

4.5

Enjoyed this much more than I thought when I started! The narration was… definitely my least favorite part. Had to put it on 1.75x speed to get through it and it was still just off. Very stilted, almost monotoned reading experience… 

Besides that, I enjoyed the overall plot and characters. Id say this is a more plot focused book than character based, at least compared to my other recent reads. Pretty good mystery element and I did appreciate the alternating pov’s though Im not sure it was 100% needed…

Definitely going to read the next book, and am excited for it to come out soon!! 2 things I hope for the next book is: 1. Better narration for the audio 🤷‍♀️ 2. More character external dialogue and development!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Emotional abuse, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

Minor: Kidnapping and Abandonment

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted mysterious 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? No

3.0

Cute book, but not enough for me to want to continue with the series. I did like the way Evie’s character developed, especially as it got closer to the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Gore, Sexual harassment, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

brewingespresso's review

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

Solid 4-star read for me! This is such an easy, “I don’t need my brain fully on” book and I LOVED it! It’s so cute, there are so many great Grumpy x Sunshine moments, the burn is slower but the story is adorable. I loved Evie and all her little side notes to herself and I loved the Villain and all his anger issues.

Also I have to be so so fr, you just know he’s hung

Kingsley was a phenomenal character I just wish we’d gotten more of him.

FUCK GRIFFIN SAGE ALL MY HOMIES HATE GRIFFIN SAGE

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Child death, Chronic illness, Torture, Sexual harassment, Police brutality, Grief, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

notsobinaryart's review

• 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Domestic abuse, Murder, Emotional abuse, Violence, Misogyny, Confinement, Abandonment, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Alcohol and Gore

Minor: Drug abuse and Animal cruelty