Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Merciless Waters by Rae Knowles

3 reviews

semisinful's review

adventurous dark fast-paced

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

1.5

I felt no connection to any of the characters other than Yinka and we were stuck with Jaq’s inconsistent ass perspective. I personally found all the character’s to have extremely similar voices and I just couldn’t stand much of the prose. I was interested in the middle for a while but the beginning and the ending SUCKED. Every “love” scene felt like SA. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Homophobia, Outing, Gore, Gaslighting, Body horror, Colonisation, Violence, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Biphobia, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Lesbophobia

vixenreader's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

2.75

The ending is a bit anti-climatic and it is hard to read about such a toxic relationship. Written more as a first draft than a complete piece, it definitely needed some rewrites, even if there was potential. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Abandonment, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual content, Death, and Violence

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Sexism, Torture, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Alcohol, Stalking, and Suicide attempt

Be aware that there are scenes of drowning, death of a sibling, romantic manipulation, strangulation, and explicit sapphic sex.

themelleh's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Thank you to NetGalley, the Author and editors for the ARC. My review is completely my own.

I’m going to leave this as my completely incoherent mess of a review but what an absolutely wild ride. It’s so dark and messy and absolutely different from what I usually read. It was also so beautiful and painful despite it’s darkness and the infuriatingness of Jaq’s devotion to Lily was so frustrating. The absolutely beauty of the sister-ship of our crew was magnificent. It’s quite the read. I would love a fully fleshed out tale of all our girls, their origins and their adventures on the seas. It’s such a gorgeous take on mythology and how women are treated. 

I couldn’t stop reading. I devoured it in one sitting.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Murder, Death, Animal death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, and Violence