Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Once Upon a Broken Heart by Stephanie Garber

58 reviews

esme_may's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

The perfect flight companion :) it’s a quick read and I read it over a day with lots of downtime on a flight. Can’t wait for the next one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Confinement

Moderate: Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Grief, and Infidelity

Minor: Classism, Sexual content, Child abuse, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Sexual assault

amre23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Bullying, Death, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Classism, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Abandonment, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Self harm, and Torture

tak_everlasting's review against another edition

lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

This feels like someone read The Cruel Prince and said "I could write that!"

Spoiler alert, Garber could not.

Every interesting aspect of this book has been done better elsewhere, and the whole thing felt like a collection of interesting premises that are never explored. There was no depth to the characters or their relationships, there is absolutely no set up and pay off, and the emotionally abused girl is villified. 

Defending the clunky writing style by saying that it's "YA" is an insult to young adult books everywhere. The writing style doesn't convey emotions well and holds back the story from reaching it's full potential, stripping the tension from many places by infodumping in the middle of action scenes, and skipping over any bonding time these characters may have had with one another. It's bad writing, and you can call it that. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship

Moderate: Violence, Emotional abuse, and Confinement

meeklovestoread's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny 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? No

4.0

The first half of this book (about like the 1st 200 pages) I didn't really have too many high hopes for. It wasn't bad, but for the first half I could feel how YA this book is if you get what I mean. I just felt like the storyline wasn't really that interesting and that I just grew out of fantasy (this is my first fantasy book after I got back into reading last year). I didn't really see why it was so beloved. I was finding trouble imagining the characters. The descriptions. The world. I thought maybe fantasy just isn't for me anymore, but I'm so glad I continued it cuz it just went up from there. I was so invested and entertained. I'm so glad Stephanie didn't take the traditional route in terms of the relationships between Evangeline and Jacks. I was pretty entertained after the second half of the book and I can feel my love for fantasy start to sprout again. I'll definitely be reading the 2nd book and the 3rd that comes out later. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Confinement

Moderate: Grief, Murder, and Death

Minor: Death of parent, Torture, Emotional abuse, and Violence

eetishmeh's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

[This review was written without reading the perquisite Caraval books.]
Not my cup of tea, but from an objective standpoint I can tell how well-written it is. I adored the worldbuilding and the Magnificent North, but Evangeline tends to think in repetitive sentences whicu got tiring quick 🥲
The starting was meh for me (rofan veteran readers may think differently; I don't usually read this genre), but it picked up later with the mystery. Would've brought this up to 4 stars if not for some situations I thought were overly possessive in terms of interactions (

Jacks nipping Evangeline's ear and gripping her by the waist even though she was uncomfortable 😭 He didn't have to go that far

) which I believe were unnecessary. 

I don't know how I feel about Jacks potentially being Evangeline's love interest. He's done a lot of terrible things to her so far, and lemme just say that it'll take an out-of-this-world redemption arc to get me to be on-board with that. Whenever I think I'm starting to like Jacks, he turns around and pulls a new stunt :') I have faith in Stephanie Garber, though, because I can tell she's a good writer + my friend who's read the Caraval series vouches for her ability to do that haha

Also, this book is just a walking amatonormative theme, which was off-putting especially because I'm demiromantic 🥲
Conclusion: I think I'd be better off with Caraval tbh

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Blood, Emotional abuse, and Murder

Minor: Death of parent and Toxic relationship

avie_j's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Emotional abuse and Death of parent

karissahodge's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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: Death of parent, Blood, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Violence

maddiementions's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Grief, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Sexual content

saurahsaurus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

I liked it, and the the main character is overall fine, but I find the her naïveté and idealization of romance/“happily ever after“ to be really irksome. I can deal with an unreliable narrator, but she can be pretty silly…and it’s not endearing. Otherwise, I like her and Jacks’ dynamic and plan to read the next book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Grief, Murder, Toxic relationship, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Infidelity

Minor: Confinement, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Alcohol, and Body shaming

anni_swanilda's review against another edition

adventurous lighthearted mysterious relaxing tense fast-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? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Death of parent and Infidelity