Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The City of Stardust by Georgia Summers

16 reviews

gillothen's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious medium-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

4.5

Gripping fantasy, very dark. The central figures struggle with abandonment as well as physical threats and you are not at all sure how it will work out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Abandonment

callistag1's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death and Gaslighting

Minor: Genocide

alanahcw's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark hopeful mysterious sad tense

4.75

I wanted a little more from the climax/ending

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Cannibalism, and Murder

maresuju's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and Gaslighting

Minor: Vomit

wnderwuman's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? N/A

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Grief

eviethebookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Confinement and Torture

Minor: Emotional abuse and Fire/Fire injury

purplepenning's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.0

Undoubtedly beautiful prose and an interesting fantasy premise that blends a modern setting with an old world dark fairytale vibe (via portal doors). Overall, however, the story, pacing, and character development just didn't click for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Cannibalism

Moderate: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Alcohol

embee007's review against another edition

adventurous slow-paced

• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.5

“Do you really believe the curse isn’t real? That the divine never touches you? That the wheeling cosmos is but an abstract of chemicals? Do you not hear the stars sing, little dreamer?”

The proooooose 😍

"She is glory. She is devastation. And she is hungry."

If you loved the imagery of The Starless Sea or wished The Starless Sea had a plot? This is the book for you.

"What joy it will bring us to see you undone."

This was a cover buy, & I have zero regrets, but ½ a point off because I once again fell into the quicksand trap of a gothic book & took nearly a week to read it 🫠

"From nothing, to nothing.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, and Abandonment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Mental illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

mirificmoxie's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child death, Torture, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Abandonment

cassimiranda's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I received an eARC of this book for review from  Redhook Books  via NetGalley, all opinions are my own.

This isn't for me. Summers writes an interesting and complex world using beautiful prose. Unfortunately, that world ends up feeling like a sparsely populated open world video game - pretty at the surface level but no real depth or life. The real disappointment for me was the distanced writing style which offered no chance to connect with really understand the characters. There was also the repeated tendency to summarize large chunks of time in breezy paragraphs that give the reader no real sense of character development. I saw it compared to The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and Practical Magic, and I agree. If you like either those two books, give this one a chance. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, and Gaslighting