Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan

11 reviews

leligavi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense 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

1.0

WHAT THE FREAKINF HECK. I THOUGHT THIS WAS GOING TO BE A WIN.

BUT WHY THE HECK MY MAN WENZHI HAS TO GO AND BETRAY OUR GIRL LIKE THAT? I was all for them from the very beginning. Liwei was done because he made his choice and hurt her. I thought that this would be Xingying's true, supportive match. A sweet love that conquered all. Where they would be all BA together. BUT THEN HE BETRAYED HER? At this point in my life, I am not in a state of mind where I find those kinds of plots enjoyable. The betrayal is not fun and games for me. It ends the game. Finito.

I literally skimmed the last 15% of this book but I'm counting it as a book read if it's going to make me go through all of that.

And I red spoilers that it was going to be about WENZHI and her in the next book but honestly I don't even think I can recover from that. I truly loved them. It feels unredeemable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Colonisation, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and War

sarahb919's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It’s in first person POV. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Toxic friendship, Kidnapping, Blood, Gaslighting, and Death

Minor: Self harm, Sexism, and Sexual content

kbowles24's review

adventurous emotional reflective 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore

Minor: Gaslighting, Death of parent, and Bullying

kelseyr713's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

Excellent, creative fantasy romance. I felt a little distanced from the main character (I feel like we never really get to know her beyond the surface level, despite being in her head for the whole book) but I still liked her. Very much looking forward to the sequel, and I appreciate that the first book still ended in a satisfying way and not on a cliffhanger!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gaslighting, War, Murder, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Confinement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Death of parent

The sexual assault is attempted, not completed, and alluded to vaguely.

ong's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Reading this feels like reading poetry. How Sue Lynn Tan describes everything is just 100/10 spectacular beautiful amazing stunning. As one of chinese descent, it’s nice to finally read a fantasy book with familiar lores. From the tales to the food, the dresses and action scenes which I can easily picture in my head from years of watching asian dramas, my heart was filled with warmth the entire time.
Now onto the characters. Xingyin. Our 小星。At first so untouched by the realities of the cruel world out there, now a warrior, survivor, savior and more. Very in theme too that she was never shown what healthy love & relationships looks like so when she was thrown in a ‘love triangle’ she couldn’t made up her mind ever and felt unworthy.
Liwei. What can I say. 10/10 best of all of us.
Fuck people in power by the way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Confinement, and Death

Moderate: Gaslighting, Bullying, and Violence

Minor: Classism, War, Murder, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Kidnapping, Body shaming, Panic attacks/disorders, and Torture

rnbhargava's review

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

This book is a very fun and emotional adventure. My biggest gripe with the book is that the protagonist has the most abundant plot armor around, even in situations that should be seriously harming toward her. Minor quibble I guess for essentially a chosen one type fantasy action adventure.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, War, and Vomit

There is violence throughout this story but the characters are immortals so that can undercut some of the tension a tiny bit. The author specifically has to write in that something is limiting their natural resilience but then there are healing magics to help characters recover. It leads to more emotional tension when paired with the action. I quite liked this novel and will read the follow up. That said the protagonist’s plot armor is abundant and strong. If that bothers you perhaps stay away. It’s a fun mythological adventure otherwise

kbairbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

This was a whirlwind. A wild ride. I listened to this as an audiobook at the same time that I read it in physical and I noted some… changes. I don’t know if the audiobook narrator was given an unfinished copy of this book to narrate or what but my copy did not have ableist language that hers did. I’m grateful mine didn’t but at the same time it was rather disconcerting to hear these ableist and noticeably different sentences than what I had in front of my eyes. Story wise I enjoyed it. It was really interesting seeing the growth and years pass for the main character and the traitor was not who I expected. There was a lot of romantic back and forth and a lot of angst. Nearing the end there was so much going on I was confused about the storyline. It felt like the author was throwing shit in there just for the sake of adding trials but when it all added up I totally understood. Also this author is very good at making villains and Liwei is such a cinnamon roll!! Excited for book two

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Alcohol, Blood, Classism, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Torture, Toxic friendship, Violence, Vomit, and War

Minor: Ableism

a_alves00's review

adventurous inspiring tense 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Grief, Abandonment, Blood, Confinement, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Violence, War, and Death

sunsetcity's review

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, War, Kidnapping, and Violence

anapthine's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious relaxing 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Emotional abuse, Bullying, Colonisation, Medical content, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, War, Violence, Torture, Physical abuse, Gore, Gaslighting, Confinement, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Deadnaming

Minor: Alcohol and Death of parent