Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow

138 reviews

kkopacetic's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-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

5.0

This book was so well done. I couldn't put it down. It's been a long time since I've had something so truly engrossing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Abortion, Alcoholism, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Pregnancy

qteabeans's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

What an amazing read. I can feel how Harrow has honed her craft in this book. So punchy and I did not feel that I could predict the story in such a fun and surprising way. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Death of parent, Kidnapping, Child abuse, and Physical abuse

Minor: Violence and Racism

jbird_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

Finally read this! It's been on my tbr for years. I like the characters and the writing, as well as the weaving in of historical accuracies. <Spoiler> the "square shirtwaist factory" instead of the triangle shirtwaist factory was really funny to me. I think the main thing I didn't like was how long this was. The pacing could have been improved, and at points it seemed like the author wanted to tackle a lot of subjects but ran out of time in the story to weave it all together. Overall, though, it was good, and I'm glad I read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Death, Child abuse, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Abortion, Racism, and Blood

Minor: Transphobia

lizzymorang's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious 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

This was an utterly enchanting read. I know I will revisit this story again and again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Child abuse and Violence

guessgreenleaf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Child abuse, Grief, Death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Violence, War, Animal death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Racism, Sexual harassment, Torture, and Xenophobia

Minor: Kidnapping, Abortion, Alcoholism, Mental illness, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Terminal illness

spineofthesaurus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Suicide, Torture, Sexual violence, Gaslighting, Body horror, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Self harm, Stalking, Violence, Medical trauma, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Outing

Moderate: Ableism, Abortion, Alcoholism, Genocide, Murder, Excrement, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual assault, Racism, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death of parent, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Animal death, and Hate crime

Minor: Xenophobia, Alcohol, Slavery, Deadnaming, Classism, and Colonisation

third_bookworm's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful 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

This was a delight! From the description I expected a particular brand of white feminism, but I was pleasantly surprised by the politics. This book manages an interesting and delicate balance of personal and political. The characters are wonderfully complex while still being sympathetic. The focus on the relationship between the sisters was sweet and enjoyable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Pregnancy, Kidnapping, Torture, Physical abuse, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Violence, Child abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Alcoholism

Minor: Classism, Outing, and Slavery

lolajh's review against another edition

The beginning was really phenomenal and was really beginning to get me out of my reading slump. I was just in LOVE with the writing style and the worldbuilding of it. It made it so impeccably easy to read and slowly become immersed in the world. But then it slowed down quite a lot, and the plot isn’t quite interesting enough for me to continue.

I don’t like the whole outing thing Agnes did to Beatrice, and the whole fighting between them.

June was kind of the only sister who really intrigued me (my aroace queen!) and yeah, I can’t see this plot developing into anything more interesting. Very unfortunate after that strong opening 😫 Also, I don’t care if it’s accurate to the time period, but Beatrice referring to Cleo

(who’s meant to be her love interest btw)

as coloured feels wrong

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexism, Child abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Abortion, Domestic abuse, and Pregnancy

Minor: Outing

jennay's review against another edition

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

4.5

Very well written/ read.

Would love to see this become a movie - if the producers can capture the emotions of the book accurately. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Abortion, Child abuse, Hate crime, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Self harm, Religious bigotry, Racism, Animal death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Slavery, Sexual violence, and Racial slurs

lady_valhella's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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

5.0

This story was great but it was not easy read, emotionally.  Yes witches are burned and what is heart breaking is that it’s always only women. This universe has witching, it is common, it is known. Men have witching. But it is the same BS. Women want to be treated as humans, with equity. When they are beaten and molested and constantly under attack the moment they use anything to protect themselves and their abusers are no longer successful out come the pyres and torches. It’s this reality that makes it hard to read this book but the story is great. The bond of the women in this book is great. The men who believe them, they are present but they aren’t in the spotlight. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Police brutality, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Genocide, Hate crime, Misogyny, Kidnapping, and Sexism

Minor: Abortion, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Racism, Child abuse, and Death of parent