Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Bloodmarked by Tracy Deonn

19 reviews

imds's review

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Slavery, Death of parent, Gore, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Body horror, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Emotional abuse, Confinement, Colonisation, Abandonment, Blood, Death, Rape, Violence, and Forced institutionalization

awkwardimagination's review

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious 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

5.0

🫠🫠 I thought Legendborn burnt me out,,, at least I had the second book waiting for me. Now I have to wait for the third for some indeterminate amount of time.

The amount of pain and trauma every single character has gone through in this book is absurd. Just bc the first one had more deaths doesn't make this one any better. 

Because this is the second book all the characters are coming into their own more and becoming more loveable.

I'm still not onboard the Sel and Bree train, I wish they would be platonic like Will and Bree, but they are well written I'll give them that.

I'm looking forward to the next book, I need to know how this turns out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Blood, Rape, Violence, Sexism, Torture, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Medical trauma, Racism, and Grief

Minor: Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Car accident, Child abuse, and Death

smokeyphynix's review

adventurous challenging emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This series is a breath of fresh air and I’m glad tiktok recommended it to me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Emotional abuse, Racism, and Abandonment

vengsoul's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Racism, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Classism

Moderate: Cursing

abookwormspov's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Death, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Sexism, Physical abuse, Medical trauma, Forced institutionalization, Torture, Slavery, Rape, Emotional abuse, War, Violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Murder, Colonisation, Racism, Cursing, Grief, and Classism

booksthatburn's review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

5.0

---Contains spoilers for the first book---

BLOODMARKED is about grief and reconciliation, building some thing new out of the ashes of what was. It's a tale of power and legacy, how people choose whether to continue in the paths that are handed to them or to try and make something better and new. It’s also a story of intimacy and trust, particularly between Bree and her loved ones. 

One of my favorite worldbuilding aspects is the way Bree gets an opportunity to delve more into Rootcraft as a community practice, expressed in a particular way through her, but also continuing to emphasize that she's not alone. LEGENDBORN is in many ways about her entering an almost entirely white space and figuring out how to exist under their rules, while in BLOODMARKED she is gradually figuring out where she fits into a larger Black community of Rootcrafters. The Legendborn Council members seek to confine and control her, seeing her blackness as an impediment or something they have to deal with in pursuit of their own aims. For most of the book she’s on the run, constantly on the news with her friends and hours, never quite feeling safe and desperately needing somewhere to land. She's trying to stay ahead of the racist institution which wants to use her while pretending that they and their ancestors didn't do anything wrong.

Alice really gets to shine, or at least have much more of a role now that she knows what’s going on with Bree and can be part of the main action. I’m also very happy with how much William is around. I love books with a beleaguered medic who knows that almost none of his instructions will be followed by the heroes who keep getting injured and only barely making it out alive. I particularly love the arc of Bree’s dynamic with Sel. Their relationship has always been complicated, but by having Nick be elsewhere for most of the book there is room for the two of them to work out a lot of stuff even while his presence is still felt. 

As a sequel, BLOODMARKED directly addresses the revelation from LEGENDBORN that Bree is a scion of Arthur. There’s a mostly new storyline related to machinations by the council, trying to exploit Bree while simultaneously ignoring or at least downplaying the implications of her existence. I’m not sure whether anything is fully introduced and resolved, but the way that most of the book takes place away from campus means that this has an entirely different (though complementary) feeling from LEGENDBORN. There are frank discussions of the fact that many of Bree's ancestors were enslaved, that a particular one of them was raped by a descendent of Arthur, leading to his power in Bree's veins. As a series, The Legendborn Cycle is about how racism in the past has impacts on the present, how the path to get here matters for what we do in the present. When people and institutions continue to benefit from racism in the past, they have incentives in the present to perpetuate inequalities, as well as to be overtly racist when their power allows them to get away with it. Bree's very existence forces the Legendborn to deal with their racist past, and then some of them choose to deal with it by helping her, breaking that cycle, while others do everything in their power to bury her and pretend that nothing bad ever happened.

This isn’t the last book in the series, and there’s a development towards the end which specifically sets up a new paradigm in the next book. Except for a very short section towards the end, Bree is the narrator and her voice is consistent with her style in LEGENDBORN. The story is self contained enough that it would mostly make sense, even if someone hasn’t read the first book. It does a pretty good job of explaining backstory as it becomes relevant and generally avoid potentially confusing infodumps while getting the reader up to speed.

The ending is excellent! The final section upsets the status quo in a variety of ways, some of which are terrible for various characters and their plans, but all of which were narratively interesting and unexpected to me. I definitely didn’t expect some of the decisions made right at the end, and I look forward to how those will be handled in the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Blood, Violence, and Torture

Moderate: Vomit, Medical content, Slavery, Kidnapping, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Rape, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Gore, Death of parent, Confinement, Abandonment, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol, Self harm, Pregnancy, and Sexual content

jenny_librarian's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

I want to throw this book at the wall so bad! Not because it’s bad, but because of that ending that both seems absolutely hopeless and calls for a third book.

I was rooting for a triad the whole freaking book, and I gotta say this author had me worrying multiple time this would be yet another cliché love “triangle”. I really hope wherever she decides to go next with the characters breaks that boundary and allows us to get the beautiful triad we deserve (all romantic or romance and QPR, I don’t care. As long as we *get* it!)

If you think book one delved into Black trauma, I got some news for you… Tracy Deonn took what she included in Legendborn and dialed it to 11. It is BRUTAL, so make sure to check the triggers.

I’m excited for the next book, but I’m worried about all the feelings she’ll make us go through 😵‍💫

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, and Medical trauma

Moderate: War, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Classism, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Racism

Minor: Rape and Grief

tahsintries's review

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Slavery, Rape, and Racism

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Confinement, and Death of parent

Minor: Emotional abuse, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

kaybob_0708's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

Um that ending!!!!!!! I was so hoping an happy ending for the trio but damn I just got my heart ripped out of my chest an stomped on. I also just want to throw out a connection that I realized Bree is connected to Nick bc he’s the the descendent of Lancelot but idk how they are gonna do the rest of the story there bc the legend goes that Lancelot betrays Arthur by sleeping with Guinevere so I’m curious to see that play out an also that her an Sel definitely have a lot of chemistry due to the fact that he is a descendent of Merlin so of course he would feel a pull toward Bree even while being Oathed to Nick. I know it’s a stretch but I’m more team Sel than Nick just bc Sel an her have the best relationship an yes it started out being very toxic with him trying to literally unalive her in the first half of the first book but damn this book just solidified team Sel

she made a bargain with the shadow king to save Sel so tell me she doesn’t have stronger feelings for Sel then Nick.

Anyways aside from that this book is an absolute soild 1000⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ for me I loved that this book was deeply enriched in POC representation an history an that they didn’t stick to stereotypes, I felt rage, an heartache for what the characters went thru an faced an the nod to POC history an slavery at the hands of white Americans as a white women myself it was definitely an eye opening read an I am amazed at the strength an courage POC have to continue to educate an break down centuries worth of racism an inequality. I don’t want to drone on an sound like a broken record so I’m gonna end this review with saying this will probably be my top read of 2023 an I am highly anticipating the third an final book which I hope gives us Team Sel endgame an finally lets our broken love trio have there peace also just a quick throw out FUCK TOR I never liked her in the first book an I sure as hell hate her guts in this

for putting Bree in a situation where they were literally torturing an going to experiment on my girl

so yeah okay I’m done now

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Medical content, Blood, Grief, Colonisation, Violence, Torture, Slavery, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Forced institutionalization, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Death and Death of parent

Minor: Rape

keya_caivalur's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Blood, Classism, Torture, Colonisation, Murder, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, and Racism

Minor: Classism, Rape, Religious bigotry, War, Addiction, Mental illness, Slavery, Torture, Blood, and Abandonment