Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

301 reviews

linora's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny lighthearted 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? It's complicated

5.0

It gives off feminist lightly spooky princess bride-esqe vibes in the best way. 

My description of it is somewhat spoilery, but it's how I described it when recommending it to my sister. It is below. 

It is about a third born princess who finds out that prince charming has been abusing her sister. So she leaves the nunnery and teams up with a witch, a himbo, and a fairy godmother to go fucking kill him. 

I read the entire thing in less than 24 hours.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Child death, Pregnancy, Slavery, Death, Cannibalism, Physical abuse, Murder, Miscarriage, Misogyny, and Domestic abuse

katebella's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

3.5

Took a long time to get into the book (almost halfway!) but really enjoyed once I did

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse and Physical abuse

Moderate: Child death, Death, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pregnancy

Minor: Slavery and Cannibalism

flaminggecko's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Infidelity, Grief, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, War, Violence, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Classism, Physical abuse, Murder, Miscarriage, Abortion, Death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Colonisation, Child death, Xenophobia, Dementia, Child abuse, and Animal death

Moderate: Cannibalism, Alcohol, Bullying, and Blood

Minor: Excrement

cwbillings's review

adventurous funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

I am absolutely floored by this book! Easily one of my new favorites. She weaves together inspiration and iconography from fairytales, ancient and modern, to create something wholly unique and beautiful! This story follows classic fairy tale formulas while at the same time offering something new and just as enchanting! I found myself often highlighting and denoting passages and phrases that really struck me because the author is masterful at explaining seemingly complex feelings and thoughts. Her writing is simply stunning. I definitely shed a tear over this one and laughed out loud through it too. It’s genuinely funny and touching. Highly recommend!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death and Blood

Minor: Classism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Infertility, Grief, Child death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Death, Miscarriage, Sexism, and Confinement

evbyrd's review against another edition

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Body horror, and Child death

Moderate: Rape, Cannibalism, and Miscarriage

ettegoom's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This was a good one! Thoroughly fairy tale, with clear heroes and villains, a curse and a princess to be rescued. 
I love the concepts of the bone-wife and of the blistered land.  
Well worth reading. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Child death, and Confinement

chelbelle122's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Miscarriage, Child death, Domestic abuse, Blood, Toxic relationship, Torture, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Confinement, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Murder, Physical abuse, and Pregnancy

a_bow's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

This reads like a Grimm's fairy tale and feels more like a summary of an epic story. There is not a lot of world building or any real magic system. It's fast paced, fun, and allegorical. It had me thinking about how the patriarchy really hurts women from all facets of society. There is not a lot of character development and while I appreciated the main character being a 30 year old woman, I felt like she was very naive for a 30 year old. I felt like she did very little in her adventure and relied all on the other characters' skills. I would have loved if she took her feminine rage on a solo mission and just strike fear into people. Like she just snapped and you really see just how fed up she is with men who abuse power, with men who are bystanders to those abusing power and do nothing, and to women who internalize the mysingony and happily perpetuate it, and the women who don't like it but also dont do much to stand up to it until it personally affects them. I want to see her struggle with her faith to a religion that claims all are equal yet creates a caste system where powerful men are in charge and many times exaggerates/misinterprets the text to take even more power. I want to see a 30 year old woman who has seen it all/heard it all, who has had enough of the bullshit explode on everyone and everything. I want her to use her wits to steal, kill, seduce, threaten, barhain anyone to get her way. Overall I found it enjoyable I just would have loved more! It's like if Paris Paloma's.song Labour was turned to a book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Misogyny, and Sexism

Moderate: Death, Toxic relationship, Miscarriage, Child death, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Infertility, Domestic abuse, and Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual assault, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Miscarriage, Infertility, Abortion, Sexual violence, and Grief

itsnotalakeitsanocean's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.5

After the really average books that put me in a reading slump, this book took me right out of it. Even though I've been contending with a terrible bout of insomnia, I legitimately enjoyed this book enough to want to know where it was going to go next every time I put it down.

Things I liked:

• This book had a really good, consistent dark fairy tale atmosphere without being overly despairing or angsty. My heart did drop a little at
  the thief wheel scene in the tombs
  but in a good way kept me reading to find out if
  this was the end for our protagonists
  .
• Marra was a very believable character and protagonist. It could be argued she didn't really contribute much compared to her companions but considering she was largely sheltered for most of her life, I think it's more forgiveable for her to make stupid decisions or seem immature.
• If you like fairy tale magic systems, this is the book for you. The book never bogs you down with infodumping or exposition on said system, but takes the time to explain things concisely.

Things I didn't like:

• I feel like the demon chicken was very underutilised compared to the rest of Marra's companions, and it was never explained why the dust-wife had a demon possess the chicken to begin with.
• The romance between Marra and Fenris felt a little forced in my opinion. It was sweet enough but I feel like it was there purely to make the booktok/booktube girlies squee. We could have shown Fenris was a decent guy without having to force him and Marra into a romance.
• I feel like there could have been some more minor conflict between the main party, especially when
  Agnes</spoilers> joined them or between them in the boarding house trying not to be suspicious in front of the landlady.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Domestic abuse, and Blood

Moderate: Miscarriage, Child death, and Physical abuse

Minor: Cannibalism and War

ianreadsbookssometimes's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional fast-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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Miscarriage

Moderate: Domestic abuse and Child death

Minor: Rape